Beneath the wave of dissent focused primarily on economic woes and democratic deficits, there lay an extreme food and water crisis, and an inability – or unwillingness – of governments to do something about it…
Moyen Orient 14
Saudia Arabia leads Arab regimes in internet censorship
Saudi Arabia leads the field among Arab regimes that practise internet censorship, blocking website content ranging from pornography to politics, […]
Arab censors swim against the information tides
It was supposed to be a reform of a bad piece of legislation that not only muzzled the press but […]
US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites
1- We think time and elections will cleanse our fallen world but they will not. Since November, George W. Bush […]
Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignored
We’ve got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don’t care any more – providing we […]
Net activism rattles Arabs
Facebook, the popular social networking site, is becoming more than just a cyber meeting place as it turns into a […]
Tunisia – A Model Of Middle East Stability Or An Incubator Of Extremism ?
Voici les vidéos de la rencontre du 13 novembre 2007 à l’université de Georgetown. Plus de 7 heures d’enregistrement avec de nombreux intervenants : notamment, M. Marzouki, R. Nasroui, M. Trifi, K. Cherif, N. Rjiba, Henry Clément… Beaucoup de moments forts au sein de ces interventions pour décrire la situation des libertés en Tunisie. A cet égard, l’in […].
Islamizing Democracy Or Democratizing Islam ?
As the summer heat rises, it seems, to cause the human folly to follow suit. The guns of August are again at work in many spots in the heart of the so-called Arab world. And the war planners are busy in tweaking its goings and toolings. As it moves from “shock and awe” to more insidious but hopefully -for its planners-moreeffective approach, the so-called […].
Aoun’s MOU with Hezbollah dangerous for Israel and the USA
Aoun’s MOU with Hezbollah is dangerous for Israel and the United States. Last November, Aoun was feted in Washington by neo-con members of the Bush administration and pro-Israel members of Congress for his leadership of the so-called “Cedar Revolution,” the movement to chase Syria out of Lebanon after it was falsely accused of being behind the assassinatio […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -3-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -2-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -1-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
“Islam and State Power in the Middle East and Central Asia”
Conversation with Vitaly Naumkin (1). Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. 2/19/03 1-Background Welcome, Professor Naumkin. Thank you. Where were you born and raised? I was born and raised in a very interesting place, which is the city of Yekaterinburg. This was a city where the first president of Russia, Mr. Yeltsin, was also born. It w […].
A window on the world.
Western scholars helped justify the war in Iraq, says Edward Said, with their orientalist ideas about the ’Arab mind’. Twenty-five years after the publication of his post-colonial classic, the author of Orientalism argues that humanist understanding is now more urgently required than ever before. Nine years ago I wrote an afterword for Orientalism which, […].
