Arab Images

18/03/2026

Renowned photographer and visual artist Samer Mohdad announces the English edition of his acclaimed memoir, *"Journey in Druze Land"*, a faithful translation of the 2018 French publication *"Voyage en Pays Druze"*. This book invites global readers into the secretive world of Druze Unitarianism, blending personal childhood revelations with a dystopian prelude warning of radicalism's chaos.

In the spirit of Mohdad's lifelong commitment to transmitting memory—through images from Beirut's mutations to Gaza's returns—this translation revives the story that began with a child's innocent question: "What am I, Mom?" It explores the 11th-century reform of monotheism in Cairo, inspired by diverse philosophies, and the Ottoman-imposed name "Druze" that belies the community's call to unity: reject prophets, seek truth for humanity's service, and aid one's neighbor.

As Mohdad reflects in the introduction: "Today, it is my turn to transmit. With my words, my images, my doubts and my convictions. With my body and my senses, my memory and my revolt." The prelude thrusts readers into a nightmarish 2025 vision, where an Islamic State engulfs Europe and the Middle East, echoing contemporary fears and the oppression that silenced Unitarian reform.

First published in French to critical acclaim for its intimate portrayal of identity and secularism in Islam, *"Journey in Druze Land"* now reaches English-speaking audiences, from Lebanon to Palestine, Syria to the diaspora. It honors the legacy of Hakem Bi Amr Allah and Prince Fakhr Eddine Al Tanoukhi, urging a return to original Islam's foreseen secular evolution.

But the story doesn't end here. Mohdad teases the upcoming edition of *"Dans le sillage des Unitariens"* (In the Wake of the Unitarians), a profound sequel that delves deeper into parallel lives and contemporary battles. In its preface, Mohdad meditates on silence heavier than suspended shells, the nomadic life of his negatives (fifty thousand proofs of a bleeding world), and a five-year fight against Lebanon's financial corruption—a "new form of war" by bankers-turned-militiamen. This next book shifts from historical reform to personal enigmas, like the childhood riddle: "If God is One, why is the world so multiple?" It introduces voices of possible selves, from a 1964 start in Beyrouth to encounters with adopted seekers like Jean, all woven with Druze wisdom's veiled truths.

Expected later in 2026, *"Dans le sillage des Unitariens"* promises to follow the story, extending Mohdad's revolt against forgetting into themes of inheritance, justice, and the One hidden in multiplicity. As he writes: "The light never stops. It traverses the emulsion, reveals the invisible... showing that the One is in the act of continuing to look, to carry, to breathe."

Available on Amazon KDP and select platforms, *"Journey in Druze Land"* is priced at $5 (eBook) and coming soon (paperback) $14.

"Journey in Druze Land" is the long-awaited English translation of Samer Mohdad's acclaimed 2018 French memoir, "Voyage en Pays Druze." In this intimate narrative, Mohdad recounts his childhood revelation upon learning from his mother that he is Druze—a religious minority rooted in Islam across L....

09/06/2023

Last call to submit entries to Silk Cities International
Competition, closing on June 30th.

Cities and urban spaces are transformed from time to time when communities practice their cultural traditions and express their cultural identities. From yearly preparations and celebrations of the New Year, festivals, and rituals to more frequent cultural activities in public spaces a community’s...

03/05/2022

Pour ceux qui ont vécu la même histoire !
For those who lived the same story! (English subtitles)

Samer Mohdad, originaire du Liban, a passé trente ans à témoigner de l'histoire de son Pays, des changements du monde arabe, de la dure réalité des enfants p...

23/01/2022

That’s Lebanon! A bankrupted state, conducted by criminal organizations, that operate the most efficient money laundry system, which is based on currency exchange rate from Lebanese pound to US dollar and vis versa.
The only solution is to shutdown all banks including central bank, same way it happened to Lebanese Canadian bank and Jamal Trust bank.
It is essential to block and to confiscate the assets of all Lebanese banks’ owners and board members, also all of those who occupied for the last 30 years high governmental positions as well as their family members and their proche entrepreneurs and fellow businessmen.
Once it is done, to redistribute the collected amounts of money to honest people holders of accounts in Lebanese banks and to reinject the rest in a sustainable economy leaded by clean Lebanese citizens despite their religious appartenance.
That’s the only solution to rebuild a new Lebanese state. Any other attempts are ways to revival the leadership of the current criminal organizations who killed and robbed their people.
U.S. Department of State U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor U.S. Department of State: Engaging the Community on Foreign Affairs
U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)
U.S. State Department - OES U.S. Department of State: Consular Affairs
United Nations United Nations Human Rights

19/11/2021

Lebanon: corruption, money laundry and organized crime.

Have you ever heard about "The Butterfly Effect"?
It is the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a typhoon... Simple systems, with few variables, can nonetheless show unpredictable and sometimes chaotic behavior.

Owners and all employees of the banking system in Lebanon, will be proved guilty of money laundry and criminal associates of BDL governor.
The case have started a couple of months ago, when a lawsuit was brought before court of law in Paris, against X for money laundry and criminal association in Lebanon. Since then Riad Salameh, have proved his guiltiness, when this summer he lied to customs in Paris, while arriving on his private jet, about the cash amount of money he was transporting. Shortly he will be pronounced guilty of all crimes he have been committing in complicity with greedy bankers, dirty real-estate developers and corrupted politicians.
The following will take time to realize, because justice advance at the speed of a snail, but one day the final verdict will be reached and pronounced against all persons working for banks in Lebanon, turning them all convicted outlaws.
It has been proved by facts that banks have been forcing clients to withdraw their US dollars at the rate of 3900 LBP. Then clients exchange it at black market, which is held by criminal organizations and cartels, at the rate of 20 thousands LBP for one USD. Follow this illegal act, clients are once more forced by bank employees to reintroduce those fresh dollars in the banking system, in goal to transfer it abroad... It has been proved by the law that this behavior is technically considered money laundering, which is made in association with criminal organizations.
Therefore, don't be surprised that one day in the future when any Lebanese bankers arrive in any airport in Europe Or America, they will be arrested and sentenced prison time for crimes they have committed against humanity.
There still time to avoid this drama to happen. For that, bankers need to stop immediately holding clients money illegally and they should absolutely release all the amounts in the original currency of the deposit.
I hope that Lebanese bankers will be acting rapidly to remediate to this ugly situation.
In all cases, if it does not happen by the law, people will end up doing justice by their self, what will conduct the situation toward total chaos.
It is the bankers' call; should they wake up and start act fairly or should they continue walking the criminal path, what will kill any trust people have in the banking system worldwide?

The Arab Images Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to modern and contemporary visual arts, that has been rendering services in the field of civil society development, by pointing the lights on the daily life of local populations in the Arab World. By using photography as a medium of c...

07/08/2021

Follow the link to see the spotlight... https://arteeast.org/programs/samer-mohdad/

23/07/2021

A la suite d'un appel lancé par la société civile, il y a plus de 9 mois, deux juges d’instruction ont été nommés en France le 2 juillet 2021 pour mener l’enquête dans le cadre de la plainte déposée contre les responsables du désastre au Liban, incluant leur gestionnaire financier, le gouverneur de la BDL, pour "blanchiment en bande organisée" et "association de malfaiteurs".

Le Parquet national financier, qui menait depuis fin mai une enquête préliminaire, a ouvert le 2 juillet une information judiciaire contre X pour « blanchiment en bande organisée » et « association de malfaiteurs ».