Arab World

Muslims are understandably Protesting Qur’an Burning in Sweden, but the Qur’an itself urges them to do so Peacefully

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Swedish police permitted the burning of the Muslim scripture, the Qur’an (Koran) in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, on the grounds that previous attempts to stop such acts have been overruled by the courts on freedom of speech grounds. Hate acts targeting minorities are not actually free […]

Colonialism

Fascist Italy’s forgotten Concentration Camps in Libya

Middle East Monitor

Mustafa Fetouri MFetouri ( Middle East Monitor ) – On 30 August 2008, Italy and Libya signed their Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, ending their awkward past of feuding and diplomatic tensions over Italy’s colonisation of Libya from 1911 to 1943. Libya was seeking compensation, recognition of suffering of its people and, above […]

Displaced and Refugees

Put People’s Rights first in Syria Sanctions

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union should urgently renew the earthquake-related humanitarian exemptions they introduced to their Syria sanctions’ regimes in February 2023 to more effectively facilitate aid to the Syrian people, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued a question-and-answer document examining […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change: Severe flooding in Yemen has Affected over 165 000 people, Worsening the displacement Crisis

The Watchers

( The Watchers ) – More than 165 000 people across more than 70 districts of Yemen were impacted by widespread flooding over the past couple of months, leading to loss of life and significant damage to shelters, crops, and infrastructure. The already vulnerable internally displaced persons (IDP) find themselves further distressed as their shelters […]

Featured

Saudi Foreign Minister in Iran seeking $1 bn in Bilateral Trade, Security for Gulf Shipping, Justice for Palestine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The London-based pan-Arab newspaper al-`Arab reports on the visit of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to Tehran, where he met with his counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, as well as with President Ebrahim Raisi. It was the first such visit by a high Saudi official since Iran and […]

Israel/ Palestine

I saw Israel’s ‘final solution to the Palestinian problem’ in Lebanon 41 years ago, and I see it again today

Mondoweiss

By Rev. Dr. Don Wagner ( Mondoweisss ) – Forty-one years ago, I was in Lebanon leading a group of ten U.S. relief and development directors hoping to introduce them to the extensive needs of impoverished Lebanese and Palestinian refugees. On June 4, 1982, around 3:00 p.m., we were on our way to the crowded […]

Democracy

Can Lebanon Finally elect a President who will Lead it out of its Economic and Political Morass?

Habib Badawi

By Habib Badawi Beirut (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Lebanon may be a small country of some four million citizens with a land area a little less than that of Connecticut, but it plays an outsized role in the geopolitics of the Middle East. Its upcoming presidential election on June 14th therefore has wide […]

Egypt

Jada Pinkett Smith’s Black Cleopatra Stirred Controversy, but What about the Forgotten Queens of Ancient Nubia?

The Conversation

By Yasmin Moll, University of Michigan | – Jada Pinkett Smith’s new Netflix documentary series on Cleopatra aims to spotlight powerful African queens. “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be […]

Corruption

How Saudi Arabia came to be at the Centre of a global Golf Merger

The Conversation

By David Rowe, Western Sydney University | – Professional golf – and increasingly world sport – is caught in a sand trap. Not the familiar hazard between fairway and green, but the Middle Eastern desert producing enormous quantities of fossil fuels. The resulting riches are being diverted into sport, disrupting its traditional Western dominance. The […]