Arab World

(Via AFP) Egypt presidential hopeful fears return to autocracy (via AFP) Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi said he fears a return to autocratic rule in Egypt, telling AFP that the army chief, a likely election frontrunner, has failed to dispel these concerns. Sabbahi, 59, who came third in the 2012 presidential election… —— Related video: […]

Dissent

Israel’s Curb on Freedom of Speech in Anti-Boycott Law Challenged in Court

contributors

(By Bill Van Esveld) On [last] Sunday, nine Israeli Supreme Court justices heard a petition to revoke the country’s “anti-boycott law” – a law that penalizes people or groups that advocate boycotting Israeli products, institutions or individuals – because it restricts the right to freedom of expression. The anti-boycott law’s critics are as diverse as […]

Lebanon

A-Pop & Hip-Hop: “Wild Ones” – Myriam Fares and Flo Rida

Juan Cole

“Wild Ones” by Myriam Fares & Flo Rida Last summer American rapper Tramar Lacel Dillard a.k.a. Flo Rida reprised his 2011 hit with Sia, “Wild Ones” with Lebanese pop star Myriam Fares singing Arabic lyrics as a counterpoint to his English-language rapping. Since Fares is singing an Arabic melody, which has different harmonics than the […]

Arab Spring

As Ukraine’s President Flees in Overthrow, Lessons for Kyiv from the Arab Upheavals

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The dramatic overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday, as he fled the presidential palace and it was occupied by extreme nationalists, recalls events in the Middle East in 2011. The crisis in the Ukraine was provoked last fall when Yanukovych reconsidered earlier moves toward integration with Europe. He is from […]

Human Rights

Falk: Edward Said was the Palestinians’ Nelson Mandela

contributors

(By Andrew Sondern) Princeton professor emeritus talks Palestinian nationalism in speech at university (via NJ.com) By Andrew Sondern Richard Falk, a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, is no stranger to controversy. On the same… ———– […]

Iraq

Iraq: Firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr Lambastes PM as Dictator, Looter & Resigns from Politics (Again)

Juan Cole

(By Mustafa Habib, Baghdad) He ended his ten year-long political campaign in a televised speech lasting around 11 minutes. In that speech Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said a number of disturbing things: that current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a dictator, that Iraq’s Parliament is paralyzed and that the country’s judiciary is too politicized. […]

Arab Spring

Racializing Politics: We don’t say “Slav” Democracy troubled in Ukraine, why Talk about “Arab” Failures?

Juan Cole

The troubles that Ukraine is having (and that Russia and the former Yugoslavia also had) in its post-Soviet politics, with a struggle between authoritarianism and democracy and between a Moscow orientation versus a Brussels one, are very similar to the difficulties that have beset many countries of the Arab world in the past few years. […]

Egypt

Egypt Gov’t, Clueless on Journalism, Charges 20 Aljazeera Reporters with “Terrorism” for … Conducting Interviews

contributors

(By Joe Stork) (Beirut) – Egyptian authorities in recent months have demonstrated almost zero tolerance for any form of dissent, arresting and prosecuting journalists, demonstrators, and academics for peacefully expressing their views. Prosecutors on January 29, 2014, referred three Al Jazeera English journalists to trial on politicized charges such as disseminating “false information” and belonging […]

Human Rights

Three Years Later: Can the Libyan Revolution Succeed?

Juan Cole

Libyans on Monday celebrated the third anniversary of the beginning of their popular revolution against the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi. The commemoration was bittersweet, since although personal freedoms have much expanded, 3,000 non-governmental organizations have been founded, and political activity is relatively unconstrained on paper, the persistence of militias and low-intensity violence have cast a […]