Fri 08 January 2021: The Middle East is going through a dangerous transitional phase, in which more than one arena may explode at any moment, from Syria to Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen. They are all open spaces that Iran controls either directly or through its proxies, in their political, economic and demographic composition, […]
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Sun 03 January 2021: Beneath the warm applause welcoming the release of Mosul, the first Iraqi-accented Netflix production, there is a simmering cynicism. Among some Iraqi spectators the film roused disappointment and apathy, a disagreement that is about more than just taste. The story, riveting as it is, rehashes an article published in 2017 by The New Yorker, […]
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Sat 26 December 2020: I’ve often wondered why the Muslim Brotherhood strikes fear into the hearts of Arab regimes. Prisons across Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are filled with thousands of political prisoners drawn from the leadership and membership of the movement, which is also banned as a “terrorist organisation” by this […]
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Wed 23 December 2020: On 27 November, Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated; the killing has been assumed widely to have been the work of Israel. While some people expected an immediate response from Iran against Israel, others applauded the murder, believing that it will hinder Iran’s nuclear programme. What happened goes beyond Iran, though, and affects every country trying […]
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Mon 21 December 2020: Over the past few years, the number of women from the Middle East participating in international sporting events has risen steadily. The glass ceiling appears to have been broken. One of these athletes is international figure skater Zahra Lari, who believes it is important to inspire Arab women to break any […]
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Thu 17 December 2020: In a blatant violation of Islamic religious rites, Muslims are being cremated, and to add insult to injury, their loved ones are being asked to pay for it. For most people, the effects of Covid-19 are already painful enough – the fear of contracting the virus, the fear of spreading it […]
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Fri 11 December 2020: The day the British entered Jerusalem in 1917, Palestine’s fate was sealed. “…The Ottoman Government, in order to safeguard the religious places from ruin and destruction, has withdrawn its forces from the city and has commissioned officials to take care of the religious places like the Holy Sepulcher and the […]
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Mon 07 December 2020: Noam Chomsky is right when he says that, in the US, sports creates the necessary “fantasy world” required to shield people from understanding, organizing, and attempting to “influence the real world”. Referring to sports commentary and phone-in shows, Chomsky, in an interview with AlterNet, marveled at the intellectual and analytical skills of people […]
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Sun 29 November 2020: In November 2011, the Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP) — the international wing of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party — organized training camps in the US to teach its American supporters how to campaign for the party’s election in India. Conducted by the political advisor to the man […]
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Sat 28 November 2020: Data is today’s currency. It is the twenty-first century’s oil. Data drives everything as almost every part of our lives has become incorporated into the digital economy. We now have access to practically everything at our fingertips. On our phones, we all have dozens of apps from widely popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, […]
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