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The national conversation on the Park 51 Islamic Community Center has taken a turn for the worst. Fear, ignorance, prejudice, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and racism have reared their ugly heads and meaningful conversation is no where to be found. Where do people turn to put the Park 51 controversy into context?

Jack Shaheen is the author of the groundbreaking work “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People,” and the author of “Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11,” the winner of the 2009 Forward Magazine social sciences book of the year. He is a professor emeritus of Mass Communication at Southern Illinois University and a winner of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Shaheen has been following the recent developments on Park 51 and I caught up with him to see what he had to say.

Dr. Gail Dines is a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College and an expert on pornography. Her new book, “Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, has just been released by Beacon Press and is considered a groundbreaking study of how today’s pornography shapes men and women’s ideas, attitudes, and perceptions of sex. Here is what Dines has to say about her new book and the effects of pornography.

How progressive is Barack Obama? It’s a question pundits, bloggers, and journalists have trouble grappling with. But one individual goes beyond the Obama phenomenon and investigates who Obama is and what he’s all about. In Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, author Paul Street cuts to the chase and takes a closer look at the man who became the 44th president of the United States. What Street uncovers is a man crafted by campaign consultants with political beliefs consistent with elite party interests.

The current campaign in Afghanistan is not getting better, but getting worse. PBS documentarians Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald uncover the myths and realities of what is Afghanistan in their latest book “Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story” and suggest what he Obama administration must do to gain the trust of the Afghani people.

Helen Benedict uncovers the truth of women serving in the military in Iraq.

A Q & A interview with Cordova, AK activist Riki Ott on the 20th memorial of the Exxon Valdez oil spill

The traditional media fails to put the Rihanna & Chris Brown story in a meaningful perspective.