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5th November 2009
President Salih has ordered Yemen's military to "put an end to the battles with the Houthi insurgents within 10 days",according to the Yemen Post.
Whether this is a realistic prospect, or whether it will simply open an even more bloody phase in the conflict, remains to be seen. In a speech on… Read more
5th November 2009
In Arab schools, the time allotted to religious instruction is far above the global average of 5%. In Saudi Arabia it is 28%, in Yemen 20%, in Sudan 18% and in Oman 17%. This is one of the factors that skew the curriculum, with the result that maths is virtually the only subject where the… Read more
4th November 2009
Suspected al-Qaeda militants ambushed and killed three senior security officials along with several guards yesterday near the Saudi border in Yemen's south-eastern Hadramawt province. The dead included the chief of political security for Hadramawt, the regional security chief and the head of the… Read more
4th November 2009
The Lebanese Shia organisation, Hizbullah, is on its highest possible state of alert, according to The National. Besides confirmation of this from an unnamed Hizbullah military commander, the paper notes signs of unusually strict security measures on the ground.
“In 20 years, I have never seen… Read more
4th November 2009
Amid all the fuss about the Goldstone Report and accusations of anti-Israel bias at the Human Rights Council, another damning UN report – this time about Egypt – has attracted zero attention from the world's media.
The report, issued last month, is by Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on… Read more
3rd November 2009
The UN's special rapporteur on modern forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, is due to complete a two-week fact-finding visit to Mauritania with a press conference today.
Despite legislation against it, light-skinned Arab Muslims (bidanes) continue to own black-skinned haratines, though estimates of… Read more
3rd November 2009
Last week I noted the publication of the first Arab Knowledge Report and said I would come back with more comments after taking a closer look.
Sadly, my first reaction was one of disappointment. The Arabist blog is right to say the report contains “a lot of turgid language”, which makes the content… Read more
2nd November 2009
You've probably heard of the butterfly effect – an idea in chaos theory where some small event, such as a butterfly flapping its wings, can trigger hurricanes, tidal waves and other cataclysms.
In order to avert such crises in the future, Dr Makhboul Rasmi, a scientist at Azhar hospital, has come… Read more
2nd November 2009
The first review of my book, What's Really Wrong with the Middle East was published today in the Jordan Times.
2nd November 2009
Writing in The National, Marc Lynch of George Washington University cautions against slamming the door on democratic currents within Islamist movements.
"Moderate Islamist movements across the Arab world have made a decisive turn towards participation in democratic politics over the last 20 years… 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
