Category: Opinion

Fri 13 March 2020: In the interests of full disclosure, I supported Bernie Sanders’ campaign in 2016 and I remain equally enthusiastic for his candidacy four years later. Though his campaign suffered setbacks in the last two Democratic primaries, it’s seems clearer than ever that in this age of growing economic, racial, and climate injustice, […]

Sat 07 March 2020: Framing Muslims as the “other” has been a prevalent theme in western discourse for centuries. From the crusades to colonialism, the western lens has depicted and constructed Muslims as everything the “West” is not, and in the process has cast them as violent, uncivilized, and foreign.   The rhetoric from the White House following […]

Fri 06 March 2020: Social media continues to influence our perception of conflicts around the world, though rapid updates around the clock on developments on the battlefield often hours before mainstream news picks it up, disseminating propaganda or spreading misinformation and fake news to the sharing of graphic content and the ugly brutality of the […]

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 […]