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25th January 2011
Today is national Police Day in Egypt. It marks the occasion, 59 years ago, when police in Ismailia refused to surrender to British forces and 41 of them died in a three-hour battle. Their act of heroism is officially commemorated every year on January 25.
But since 1952 perceptions of the Egyptian… Read more
25th January 2011
Not much to say about this – except that I rather like it. It's a new font from the Monotype company, looking sleek and modern, and known as Neo Sans Arabic.
23rd January 2011
There were more anti-government protests in Algeria and Yemen yesterday.
In Yemen, about 2,500 students and opposition activists demonstrated at Sana'a University, calling for President Salih to go. Although recent demonstrations have increasingly focused on Salih's presidency, this seems to have… Read more
23rd January 2011
Having ignored the Tunisian uprising initially, the American right is now struggling to come to terms with it. Very inconveniently, it's hard to fit into standard neocon/clash-of-civilisations narratives – though that doesn't stop Robert Kaplan, writing in the New York Times, from having a try. He… Read more
22nd January 2011
The "Tunisia effect" continues. Several thousand protesters took to the streets of Jordan yesterday, for the second Friday in succession. More than 5,000 marched in the centre of Amman, with smaller demonstrations in several other cities, according toagency reports. The protesters are said to have… Read more
21st January 2011
The Tunisia effect continues with a Reuters headline, "Protests erupt in Yemen", reporting that thousands took to the streets in the central city of Ta'izz yesterday.
This followed two nights of rioting by secessionist supporters in the southern city of Aden on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Since the… Read more
19th January 2011
Writing for Comment Is Free yesterday, I suggested that events in Tunisia could herald the rise of a new post-Islamist politics in the Middle East – a politics where religious movements are not automatically seen as the main threat to hidebound Arab regimes.
Tom Pfeiffer, a Reuters correspondent in… Read more
18th January 2011
Almanara, the Libyan opposition website whose disappearance I reported yesterday, is now back on line and saying that it was attacked by Gaddafi's security people. Al-Jazeera has a storyabout it (in Arabic).
Besides declaring his support for the ousted Tunisian president, Gaddafi has also been… Read more
18th January 2011
Having got rid of Ben Ali and his family, the question now for Tunisians is how to dismantle the system of control that he established over the last 23 years – and it's looking far from easy. Without continuous pressure from the public, the Ben Ali loyalists are likely to retrench and continue… Read more
17th January 2011
Yesterday, I noted that a Libyan opposition website, Almanara, had posted videos showing disturbances in Libya during the last few days. After that, something odd happened: the website disappeared. Trying to access Almanara this morning, I simply got an error message.
Conceivably this could be just… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
