Egyptian reformer Saad Eddin Ibrahim observed in the late 1990s and 2000 that the Arab world was beginning to be characterized by a bizarre gryphon-like form of government, the republican monarchy. In a republic, power is supposed to be vested in the people, who are sovereign, and who can change out their leaders through elections. […]
Christians in a Changing Arab World are Making their own Destinies
The press is full of stories this Christmas season about the negative effects on Middle Eastern Christians of the Arab upheavals of 2011. This “vale of tears” approach does profound injustice to the actual reality of the Arab Christians. The discourse of the persecution of a helpless Christian minority serves Orientalist purposes, intimating that the […]
Syria Teeters: 25 Dead in Protests, 40 Killed in Bombings
On Friday afternoon and evening, Friday protests continued in Syria, according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic. The opposition maintains that the Syrian army killed some 25 of the protesters on Friday around the country, who were demanding that the ruling Baath Party relinquish power. The hot spots are by now familiar– Homs, Hama, Deraa, and […]
Bombings Roil Iraq as Sunni Arabs Re-arm
The death toll in Thursday’s bombings and attacks in Baghdad and environs rose to about 67 dead, with hundreds wounded. Most of the attacks honed in on soft targets (schools and markets) in Shiite neighborhoods, though some Sunni areas, considered collaborationist by the guerrillas, were also hit. The Sunni Arab guerrilla groups believe that the […]
Suleimani: The US Decline in the Middle East
The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Persian press about Qasim Suleimani, the head of the Jerusalem (Qods) Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. In it, Suleimani says that the fruitless Iraq War and the War on Terror were costly failures for the United States. In their wake, he says, the […]
Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, Occupy Your Heart
Usually at year’s end, we’re supposed to look back at events just passed — and forward, in prediction mode, to the year to come. But just look around you!
60 Dead in Baghdad Bombings; Iran and Al-Maliki
Update: 60 are dead in massive Baghdad bombings, probably by Sunni Arab guerrillas, as PM Nouri al-Maliki attempts to marginalize Sunnis politically Is Iran a consideration in Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq’s attempt to purge high Sunni Arab officals from his government? Al-Maliki has his own reasons for what he is doing. But […]
Massacre alleged in Syria
Syrian opposition groups alleged that the Syrian government committed a massacre in Idlib on Wednesday, leaving over 100 dead, most of them said to be civilians. The escalation of regime violence came just before a monitoring team from the Arab League was set to arrive in the country. Aljazeera English has a video report.
Egyptian Women Rally against Police Brutality
Thousands of women rallied near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo on Tuesday, protesting the mistreatment meted out to women protesters by security forces. In some instances, the police had pulled up the woman’s dress and stomped on her. Indeed, women rallied all over Egypt, according to the Arabic press. A march was held in Alexandria […]
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