Traveling in the Muslim World

OK, so it's not travel here in the good old US of A, but I came across and interesting review of Richard Poplak's book "The Sheikh's Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop Culture in the Muslim World" by June Sawyers.

Poplak drove through many Muslim countries looking to see what aspects of American culture existed, beginning with Kazakhstan, the "home" of the fictional Borat where the movie is regarded as a public relations disaster.

He heard Lionel Richie perform in the Libyan capital of Tripoli; found that 1970s and 1980s English and Australian pop stars are very popular in Dubai and discovered that the TV show "Ugly Betty" is still big in Egypt.

Here is a big surprise, hip-hop is "ubiquitous throughout the Muslim world. An eye-opening book on many levels."

And, I didn't think they much liked us.

A Horse of a Different Color, Indeed. --RoadDog