General topics 

2016

Youssef Rakha: genius in a land of madness 
Egypt's ground-breaking novelist (26 February 2016)  

The Facebook jihadists 
They may not be violent but they are still dangerous (24 February 2016)

Facebook restores Arab atheist groups 
... but cyber-jihadists resume their attacks (23 February 2016)

The cyber-jihad against atheists 
Facebook shuts down discussion groups (22 February 2016) 

Hard times for GNRD 
Is rights group's Emirati funding drying up? (13 February 2016)  

Transgender in the Middle East (4) 
Struggles for recognition (11 February 2016)  

Transgender in the Middle East (3) 
Making the change (10 February 2016)

Transgender in the Middle East (2) 
The Prophet and the effeminate men of Medina (9 February 2016)

Transgender in the Middle East (1) 
Dress codes and gender non-conformity (8 February 2016) 

2015

Apostates can be killed for food or organ transplants, IS says (28 December 2015)

Orientalist required (22 December 2015)

Persecuting the non-believers (10 December 2015)

Magna Carta, Philip Hammond and the Saudi businessman (1 December 2015)

Carole Samaha returns to GNRD (29 November 2015)

'Sooni' versus Sunni (21 November 2015)

Spinning against imperialism (27 October 2015) 

Sharia in Britain (2) (24 October 2015) 

Sharia in Britain (22 October 2015) 

GNRD and the Indian guru (19 October 2015) 

Death of GNRD 'high commissioner' (18 October 2015) 

Police raid UAE-linked rights group – again (7 October 2015) 

Warning to GNRD donors (4 October 2015) 

Sentence on GNRD 'commissioner' confirmed (2 October 2015) 

London police block anti-ISIS artworks (27 September 2015)

Why Warwick university was wrong to ban ex-Muslim speaker Maryam Namazie (26 September 2015)

Rights activist defends Azerbaijan (23 September 2015)

Corbyn and the Middle East (22 September 2015)

Bribery claim in GNRD 'money-laundering' case (4 September 2015)

'Arabs Without God' translated (1 September 2015)

Legal moves in money-laundering case (25 August 2015)

UAE's cut-and-paste consulting firm (21 August 2015)

UAE payment to suspect rights group confirmed (20 August 2015)

Move to expel Norwegian TV from Egypt (19 August 2015)

Source of GNRD's funding revealed (18 August 2015)

Arianna Huffington and the Khanfar connection (17 August 2015)

Privacy policy at al-bab (2 August 2015)

Clickbait for Arabs (30 July 2015) 

Crossing boundaries (26 July 2015) 

'Just Solutions' in an unjust world (7 July 2015) 

Cameron, the takfiri (1 July 2015) 

Religion, politics and jihad (29 June 2015) 

'Arabs Without God' -- Arabic edition (25 June 2015) 

Living without God in the Middle East (22 June 2015) 

You will fast ... or else (17 June 2015) 

Limits of US power in the Middle East (7 June 2015) 

Obama and the Gulf states (13 May 2015) 

Human rights league table goes missing (30 April 2015)

A bleak outlook for Arab media (29 April 2015) 

Islamophobia and the British election (26 April 2015) 

Miliband's foreign policy (24 April 2015) 

Helping or hindering? (5 March 2015) 

Call for fresh thinking on Gulf-west relations (3 March 2015) 

The HSBC scandal and the Middle East (13 February 2015)

What's really wrong with the Middle East (30 January 2014) 

Trading with tyranny (20 January 2014)

Britain's counter-terrorism muddle (15 January 2014)

Britain and its poisonous friends (12 January 2014)

'Muslims don't believe in free expression' (8 January 2014)

The right to offend (7 January 2014)

2014

Saudis combat atheism with 'certainty' (17 December 2014)

Hope amid the despair (13 December 2014)

'East of Suez' revisited (7 December 2014)

'Arabs Without God' book translation project  (3 December 2014)

The Middle East's disappearing religions  (30 November 2014)

The myth of religious authenticity (28 November 2014)

'British values' or universal rights? (27 November 2014)

Translating 'Arabs Without God' (20 November 2014)

Crowd-funding 'Arabs Without God' (19 November 2014)

'Arabs Without God' – Arabic edition (18 November 2014)

Islamophobia and the extreme right (5 November 2014)

Lifelines for the Islamic State (1 November 2014)

'The Arab ancien regime is living on borrowed time' (29 October 2014)

Global gender gap (29 October 2014)

Tony Blair's 'war of ideas' (15 October 2014)

Secularists' dilemma (13 October 2014)

Crony capitalism (10 October 2014)

ISIS and the war of ideas (6 October 2014)

Investing in dictatorship (5 October 2014)

Islamic Kingdom versus Islamic State (3 October 2014)

Clarity over ISIS? You must be joking! (2 October 2014)

Scotland and the Middle East (18 September 2014) 

A seriously flawed document (17 September 2014)

Bombs can't defeat ideas (16 September 2014) 

'Not available in Middle East' (13 September 2014) 

Denying God, subverting society (11 September 2014) 

New e-book: Arabs Without God (20 August 2014)

Gaming the Middle East (14 August 2014)

Segregation for the sake of peace? (6 August 2014)

When eating is a crime (2) (30 June 2014)

When eating becomes a crime (28 June 2014)

The Gulf's employment crisis (6) (24 February 2014)

The Gulf's employment crisis (5) (23 February 2014)

The Gulf's employment crisis (4) (20 February 2014)

The Gulf's employment crisis (3) (19 February 2014)

The Gulf's employment crisis (2) (17 February 2014)

The Gulf's employment crisis (1) (16 February 2014)

Dynamics of Contention (11 February 2014)

Revolutions are messy (20 January 2014) 

The rise of Arab sectarianism (2 January 2014)

2013

Narwani and the 'Amnesty plot' (8 December 2013)

Bribes galore (3 December 2013)

People versus projects (27 November 2013)

Language barriers (21 November 2013)

Robert Fisk's comedy of errors (26 October 2013)

Resisting revolution -- with sectarianism (23 October 2013)

Star Trekking through the Middle East (3 October 2013)

Email from an Arab atheist (3) (20 August 2013)  

Confessions of an Egyptian infidel (16 August 2013)  

Email from an Arab atheist (2) (11 August 2013)  

Email from an Arab atheist (11 August 2013)  

Arabs and atheism (9 August 2013)  

Can the private sector save Gulf monarchies? (6 August 2013) 

LGBT milestone in Lebanon (12 July 2013) 

Middle East moving backwards on gay rights? (14 June 2013) 

Book extract: The urge to control (1 June 2013) 

Learn Arabic ... or else (12 May 2013) 

Cutting human rights down to size (15 March 2013)

Sex and the Arab Spring (13 March 2013)

Islamists: a view from British Conservatives (7 March 2013)

The double standards of Hugo Chavez (6 March 2013)

Readers' favourites (1 March 2013)

The Gulf's golden handcuffs (27 February 2013)

Arab media: a question of freedom (20 February 2013)

Threat to Muslim MP over gay marriage vote (18 February 2013)

The art of the diplomatic dispatch .12 ( February 2013)

Muslim MPs back gay marriage (8 February 2013)

Readers' favourites (1 February 2013)

Resisting colonialism at Oxford (10 January 2013)

Readers' favourites (1 January 2013)

2012

Arab media dinosaurs meet in Bahrain (27 December 2012)

Internet survives as Dubai conference collapses (15 December 2012)

Arab uprisings: a book list (15 December 2012)

Arab regimes' new threat to internet (8 December 2012)

Condoleezza's chaos theories (25 November 2012)

Popular Arab cinema on show (2 October 2012)

Arab Spring or Arab Plague? (9 May 2012)

Stratfor's "intelligence" (28 February 2012)

Gay rights and the Arab Spring (25 February 2012)

Orientalism revisited (23 February 2012)

Documents added to the website (19 February 2012)

Busy Lizzie (9 February 2012)

2011 (July-December)

Gay rights and human rights (18 December 2010)

The power of mice (16 December 2010)

Arabs and the gender gap (5 December 2010)

Has the Arab League woken up? (15 November 2011)

The future of tyranny (2) (11 November 2011)

The future of tyranny (10 November 2011)

Goodbye, Liliane Khalil (11 August 2011)

Who is Suzan Hadad? (10 August 2011)

An update on Liliane Khalil (6 August 2011)

7% of Middle East bloggers arrested (5 August 2011) 

Libya, Bahrain and a mystery journalist (3 August 2011)

The unstoppable revolution (19 July 2011)

Murdoch's Ben Ali moment? (19 July 2011)

Readers' favourites (1 July 2011)

2011 (January-June)

Readers' favourites (1 June 2011)

Reflections on the Arab protests (17 May 2011)

Readers' favourites (1 May 2011)

Arab regimes and the Black Swan (28 April 2011)

When Islamists fight to lose (4 April 2011)

Readers' favourites (1 April 2011)

Readers' favourites (2 March 2011)

Blogging resumes (27 February 2011)

A short interlude (16 February 2011)

Protests give Arab media a headache (2 February 2011)

Readers' favourites (1 February 2011)

The new face of Arabic (25 January 2011)

Arab dictators are good for Israel (23 January 2011)

Welcome to post-Islamism (19 January 2011)

Readers' favourites (1 January 2011)

December 2010

Clinging to Uncle Sam's coat tails (16 December 2010)

MEMRI: the crisis continues (16 December 2010)

Wikileaks: Lebanese newspaper hacked (10 December 2010)

Wikileaks: Where are the Israel documents? (8 December 2010)

Free expression: a strategy in tatters (7 December 2010)

Temporary marriages (3 December 2010)

MEMRI asks for money – again (2 December 2010)

Readers' favourites (1 December 2010)

November 2010

Wikileaks: Oman, US missiles and Iran (30 November 2010)

Wikileaks: Egypt, an obstacle to peace (30 November 2010)

Wikileaks: The Arab media dilemma (29 November 2010)

Wikileaks: Salih-Petraeus meeting in Yemen (29 November 2010)

Hard times for MEMRI (25 November 2010)

Royal families: British and Arab (17 November 2010)

Child marriage: a cure for gayness (9 November 2010)

Setbacks for civil society (7 November 2010)

Human development and the Arab states (5 November 2010)

Readers' favourites (3 November 2010)

October 2010

Qatar 'less corrupt' than UK and US (29 October 2010)

Another bad year for Arab press freedom (22 October 2010)

The Middle East gender gap (17 October 2010)

The Chilean way, and the Arab way (16 October 2010)

The Middle East gender gap (17 October 2010)

The Chilean way, and the Arab way (16 October 2010)

Free speech for some? (6 October 2010)

Reading between the red lines (3 October 2010)

September 2010

The battle against cyber-jihad (29 September 2010)

Asylum and the 'gay Saudi' (15 September 2010)

Saudi juggling act on homosexuality (13 September 2010)

Bahrain warns 'preacher candidates' (10 September 2010)

Bahrain seizes control of human rights group (9 September 2010)

Blaming Arabic (5 September 2010)

August 2010

Taxation and representation (24 August 2010)

The trouble with Islamism (5 August 2010)

A burqa for the BlackBerry (5 August 2010)

July 2010

Arabs and vegetarianism (30 July 2010)

Tweeting the revolution (25 July 2010)

Journey from left to right (24 July 2010)

Monitoring homophobia (22 July 2010)

Political gangrene (17 July 2010)

CNN and the new McCarthyism (9 July 2010)

RIP: Nasr Abu Zayd (6 July 2010)

Muslim Brotherhood taking over Europe? (5 July 2010)

Failed States Index (1 July 2010)

June 2010

Zionist 'gay workshop' cancelled (26 June 2010)

Pinkwashing Israel (17 June 2010)

Where next for the Middle East? (10 June 2010)

Arab Free Press Forum (3) (8 June 2010)

Arab Free Press Forum (2 (6 June 2010))

Arab Free Press Forum (1) (6 June 2010)

Collateral damage (1 June 2010)

May 2010

The power of Facebook (25 May 2010)

Israel and the Bomb (24 May 2010)

Promoting democracy (23 May 2010)

The great unwatched (14 May 2010)

Child labour in the Middle East (10 May 2010)

Britain and the Middle East (6 May 2010)

April 2010

Fred Halliday, RIP (27 April, 2010)

BBC tackles an Arab taboo (25 April, 2010)

The future of Arabic (2) (19 April, 2010)

The future of Arabic (19 April, 2010)

Is Arabic dying? (18 April, 2010)

Middle East bookshelf: Yemen (10 April 2010)

Randa's story (4 April 2010)

March 2010

Middle East bookshelf: the final list (29 March 2010)

Middle East bookshelf: society and politics (27 March 2010)

Middle East bookshelf: Islam (26 March 2010)

Middle East bookshelf: fiction (24 March 2010)

Middle East bookshelf: history (23 March 2010)

Did the neocons get anything right? (22 March 2010)

A Middle East bookshelf (1) (20 March 2010)

Middle East for beginners (19 March 2010)

Murdoch, Israel and Avatar (17 March 2010)

Helping or hindering internet freedom? (13 March 2010)

Arabs and the death penalty (12 March 2010)

The economics of free expression (10 March 2010)

But is it fiction? (3 March 2010)

February 2010

Civil society: independent or not? (23 February 2010)

Headbanging against repression (22 February 2010)

Homosexuality a disease, say doctors (18 February 2010)

Is anybody watching? (15 February 2010)

The do-it-yourself revolution (11 February 2010)

Arabs, gay rights and modernity (5 February 2010)

Chaos and the Arab state (3 February 2010)

Junblatt versus Jumblatt (2 February 2010)

Arabic and the Roman alphabet (1 February 2010)

January 2010

Clinton, Arabs and the internet (23 January 2010)

Beware the militant engineers (2 January 2010)

December 2009

US pours more money into al-Hurra (29 December 2009)

The internet's snowball effect (28 December 2009)

Bored with al-Qaeda (28 December 2009)

When is a dictator not a dictator? (18 December 2009)

Writers in search of readers (18 December 2009)

Orientalism in reverse (13 December 2009)

Self-righteous agonising over Muslims (6 December 2009)

Minarets, culture and creed (3 December 2009)

November 2009

Reflections on Eid al-Adha (28 November 2009)

What's Really Wrong ... (28 November 2009)

Arabic and information technology (21 November 2009)

Palin’s peace process (20 November 2009)

With respect, Mr President ... (18 November 2009)

Shielding corruption (16 November 2009)

Lining up against the Shia (12 November 2009)

Middle East International is back (10 November 2009)

Reforming Arab education (5 November 2009)

The Arab Knowledge Report (3 November 2009)

Book review (2 November 2009)

Dangers of slamming the door (2 November 2009)

October 2009

A reply to The Angry Arab (31 October 2009)

The state of Arab knowledge (30 October 2009)

Undermining the climate talks (23 October 2009)

Arab winds of change (23 October 2009)

Arab press freedom: a sorry sight (22 October 2009)

September 2009

Running dry (22 September 2009)

Orientalism revisited (20 September 2009)

Ramadan rebels (18 September 2009)

Bin Laden's latest message (15 September 2009)

Islamists and violence (12 September 2009)

Motives of the suicide bombers (11 September 2009)

August 2009

What Thomas Friedman reads (27 August 2009)

Religion and the search for security (25 August 2009)

Arabic slang goes online (23 August 2009)

Searching the internet in Arabic (22 August 2009)

Bloggers and journalists (19 August 2009)

Religion and development (17 August 2009)

What's really wrong (15 August 2009)

Keep off the grass (15 August 2009)

Censorsing the internet (14 August 2009)

Arab science fiction (12 August 2009)

How to be good at Arabic (10 August 2009)

Falconry: an ignoble sport (9 August 2009)

A step forward for workers' rights (8 August 2009)

Arabic web addresses are coming (6 August 2009)

Searching for sex in Ramadan (3 August 2009)

July 2009

A question of citizenship (31 July 2009)

The voice of China – in Arabic (30 July 2009)

They're coming to get you (29 July 2009)

With friends like these (27 July 2009)

Arabs and the hymen (26 July 2009)

Security, but not as we know it (22 July 2009)

Shock of the new media (15 July 2009)

The boys are in town (15 July 2009)

Swine flu and the hajj (12 July 2009)

A female pearl diver (11 July 2009)

Sex news (10 July 2009) 

Egyptian floozies (9 July 2009)

The Arabic blogosphere (8 July 2009)