The race taboo
Comment Is Free, September 8, 2006

The existence of racist attitudes within some Arab countries is often denied, resulting in scandalous displays of prejudice against certain ethnic groups.

The unholy city
Comment Is Free, July 10, 2006

Arabs trying to move to one area of Jerusalem are reportedly running up against a campaign to keep them out.

Beyond belief
Comment Is Free, March 22 2006

A 41-year-old man is facing possible execution in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity.

Brokeback desert
Comment Is Free, March 21 2006

It is a pity Brokeback Mountain isn't showing in the Arab world, because it resembles current reality there.

Drawn conclusions
The Guardian, February 07 2006

In one of the less-reported protests against you-know-what, thousands of Yemeni women marched through the streets of Sana'a on February 1 with banners saying "Boykot Danish products".

'Gay party' guests face hormone treatment
The Guardian, November 30 2005

More than two dozen men arrested at an allegedly gay party could face compulsory hormone treatment, officials in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, said yesterday.

Saudi textbooks 'demonise west'
The Guardian, July 14 2004

Saudi schoolchildren are being taught to disparage Christianity and Judaism in a textbook issued by the education ministry, a report said yesterday.

Its best use ... is as a doorstop
The Guardian, May 24 2004

A critique of The Arab Mind, by Raphael Patai

The right answer or the wrong question?
The Guardian, March 27 2004

Amid the furore over the former Archbishop of Canterbury's remarks about under-achieving Muslims, experts on the Islamic world said yesterday that he was partly right but had failed to understand the problem and had ignored some important achievements ...

Saudis deny anti-Jewish visa policy
The Guardian, March 01 2004

Saudi Arabia has disowned a statement by its tourism organisation that Jews are not allowed to enter the country.

Hate mail
The Guardian, January 19 2004

Deborah Fink is a singer and music teacher living in London. She is also Jewish. Last month, out of the blue, she received a deluge of hateful emails - more than 150 in the space of a week.

Another rule for the Arabs
The Guardian, January 12 2004

While sifting through my father's belongings after his death a few years ago, I came across a book of autographs that he had collected as a child. Some of the signatories had added short verses or quotations, and on one page I found this: ...

Kilroy-Silk investigated for anti-Arab comments
The Guardian, January 08 2004

The chat show host Robert Kilroy-Silk came under fire yesterday for attacking Arabs in a newspaper article at a time when the BBC's other employees are being forbidden to express controversial views in the press.

Worst impressions
The Guardian, June 24 2002

A few days before the planes hit the Twin Towers last September, I was preparing a talk about the reporting of Islam in the British media.

Lying is cultural trait of Arabs, says Barak
The Guardian, May 23 2002

Palestinians have no compunction about telling lies and see truth as irrelevant, the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has claimed in an interview.

Saudi paper regrets Jewish pastry myth
The Guardian, March 22 2002

A Saudi newspaper has sacked a columnist who wrote that Jews use the blood of Christian or Muslim children in pastries for the Purim religious festival.

Syrians fall victim to racism in Lebanon
The Guardian, March 19 2001

Last Wednesday traffic in Beirut - probably the Middle East's most frenetic city - came to a halt. The cause of the chaos, depending how you look at it, was either a student protest against the Syrian presence in Lebanon or the roadblocks set up to control the protesters.

Arabophobia in the air
December 15 2000

There was a bizarre security alert in London this week. A British Airways Boeing 747, with 329 passengers on board, was just about to take off from Heathrow airport for Miami when a few playing cards were found in the lavatory by a crew member.

The politics of identity
October 27 2000

The other night, in Jewish West Jerusalem, I hailed a taxi.

Why the 'rules' of racism are different for Arabs
August 18 2000

"Stop it, you dirty little Arab!" My grandmother always used to say that when I did something disgusting, like picking my nose or flicking food at my younger brother.

The 'towel-heads' take on Hollywood
August 11 2000

The American embassy in Yemen is under siege, at the mercy of a frenzied mob. The US Marines whisk the ambassador away by helicopter. But as the riot continues Yemeni men, women, boys and girls fire at the marines.