Sat 05 June 2021: Elections are generally meant to be competitive affairs, with candidates and political parties vying for the public’s attention over the weeks and months prior to voting. Whilst not all elections are close run affairs, there should be a sense of competition, uncertainty even. When an election is, however, like a football […]
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Wed 26 May 2021: Turkish solidarity with the Palestinian people, especially during Israeli military offensives, is common. The offensives launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip in 2008, 2012 and 2014 saw remarkable Turkish political, popular and media solidarity. The most recent assault led to people taking to the streets in several Turkish cities, especially […]
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Tue 25 May 2020: The Pan-Arab colors are black, white, green and red. Individually, each of the four Pan-Arab colors were intended to represent a certain Arab dynasty, or era. The black was the color of the banner of Muhammad; white was used by the Umayyad Caliphate; green was used by the Fatimid Caliphate; and […]
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Tue 25 May 2021: On 2 October 1187, Ayyubid Sultan Salah Al-Din (known in the West as Saladin) liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders nearly a century after they captured the holy city from the Fatimid Caliphate What: Saladin’s liberation of Jerusalem Where: Palestine When: 2 October 1187 The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem With a cry of ‘Deus vult!’ […]
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Fri 21 May 2021: I’m old enough to remember a time when it appeared the Internet would be a great multiplying force for democracy and the advancement of human rights, allowing global activists and citizen journalists to shine a light where there was previously none. But then came social media and the rise of the […]
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Fri 07 May 2021: Sending more soldiers and weapons to northern Mozambique would only serve to exacerbate the problem. The recent raid by supposedly ISIL-linked insurgents on the northern Mozambican city of Palma, which left dozens of civilians dead and displaced 30,000 others, has given rise to a narrative that Africa is now a hotbed […]
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Sun 25 April 2021: The US is using the tragic events of 1915 as a political tool to bludgeon an ally who is not willing to blindly fall in line with its diktats. The United States of America, as a polity and a nation, always has this self-perception that it is a proud bastion of […]
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Thu 22 April 2021: The war in Afghanistan has been called the most pointless conflict of all time. It is probably the most disastrous military venture launched by the US, Britain and their allies in the past 100 years. The Taliban, though, will be celebrating what they see as a historic victory when NATO forces […]
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Sun 18 April 2021: On March 13, Sarath Weerasekara, Sri Lanka’s minister of public security, announced that the government will ban wearing of the burqa and close more than 1,000 Islamic schools in the country. The minister was quoted as saying that “the burqa” was a “sign of religious extremism” and has a “direct impact […]
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Tue 13 April 2021: It is a fact that rape and sexual abuse have been used as weapons of war throughout history. The lack of security leaves women and girls, in particular, more vulnerable than usual to violence. For a long time, this was just accepted as inevitable in conflicts, and few efforts were made […]
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