Category: Opinion

Tue 03 March 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 […]

Sat 29 February 2020: In January in Vatican City, Pope Francis met with the Iraqi president, Barham Salih. The private meeting was held following the American strike on Qassem Soleimani and the Iranians’ strike on the American Ayn Al-Asad airbase in Iraq.  The talks lasted just 30 minutes, after which a Vatican statement stressed that to achieve […]

Fri 28 February 2020: The ongoing brutality in New Delhi dubbed ‘communal violence’ is the live unfolding of a pogrom against Muslims. The international media fixated on the pomp and ceremony, or rather glitz and glam of what was a two-day extravaganza of right-wing populist and ultranationalist odes and slogans. US President Donald Trump and […]

Wed 26 February 2020: Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak has died at the age of 91, nine years after he was removed from power during the Arab Spring. Mubarak, the autocratic face of stability in the Middle East for nearly 30 years, died at a hospital in Cairo this morning after undergoing treatment in intensive […]

Mon 24 February 2020: Since the first stages of European colonisation of the Middle East, as with other imperial powers elsewhere, there has been resistance in one form or another. This has been the case right up to and including the stifling US military presence in the region, particularly since 9/11 and the subsequent toppling […]

Sat 22 February 2020: The UAE has pursued a region-wide and domestic crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islamic movements. But why does Abu Dhabi feel threatened by such movements? Repressed and marginalized for decades, the Arab Spring gave Muslim Brotherhood-linked political parties a new lease on life, as they sought to use the […]

Fri 21 February 2020: Driven by geopolitics and economics, both Gulf states are courting a close relationship with Modi’s India. India over the last month has faced protests against the Modi government’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the eventuality of a National Population Register (NPR), which critics have said is discriminatory against Muslims and is […]

Fri 21 February 2020: Archaeological projects in Palestine led by US evangelical Christians contribute to Palestinian dispossession. About 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, just west of the Israeli settlement Shiloh, lies Tel Shiloh, an archaeological site that attracts tens of thousands of evangelical Christians every year. There, Scott Stripling, […]

Wed 19 February 2020: In 2012 when the Syrian regime appeared to be in its death throes, Iran’s leaders made a decision that would alter the outcome of the war and have far-reaching effects on the entire region as well as Iran’s own image. Despite the ideological differences, Iran and Syria have for decades aligned on key Middle […]

Tue 18 February 2020: “Syria, it’s not what you think,” a young Syrian woman helpfully informs us, “We have bars, entertainment stuff, everything as the western country,” echoes her friend, talking into the camera.  This tidbit comes to us via American travel YouTuber Drew Binsky’s two week Syrian adventure, which he managed to arrange after he “pulled […]