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A British academic whose Twitter account is tagged as "Iran state-affiliated media" was the main author of a report on Islamophobia published this week with funding from the EU's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme.
The academic in question – former professor David Miller – is a director… Read more
A man has been sentenced to death in Libya after converting from Islam to Christianity, according to local news reports.
Details are scarce, but Dhiaa al-Din Ahmed Miftah Balao – described as an information technology graduate – appears to have previously been a devoted Muslim and is… Read more
The Egyptian authorities have got themselves in a tangle over photography. They want the country to be seen as an attractive tourist destination and if photographers would just focus on nice things, like feluccas sailing on the Nile and sunsets over the pyramids, all would be well. The problem,… Read more
Shortly before Christmas in 2012 a mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in the United States left 20 children and six teachers dead. Eight months later an incendiary bomb hit a school in Syria's Aleppo province, killing at least 10 students on the spot. Six other victims died later and… Read more
Thirteen people charged in connection with the world's worst crane disaster have gone on trial in Saudi Arabia for a third time, after previously being acquitted twice. The latest retrial in the seven-year-old case follows a decision by the kingdom's Supreme Court to quash the earlier verdicts.… Read more
A few years ago Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Regulation decreed that gay people must not appear in print or audio or visual media "except in recognition and acknowledgment of their misconduct". In other words, if they are to be seen or heard at all, gay people should always be presented in a… Read more
Following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher advocated using banned chemical weapons against Iraqi forces, declassified documents show. Despite the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibiting their use, Thatcher repeatedly pressed the US to be ready to… Read more
There’s a verse in the Qur’an that cautions Muslims against spreading false news and urges them to check the facts first with people of “sound judgment”. It was good advice in the time of the Prophet Muhammad and it’s good advice now in the age of social media. But is there more to the verse than… Read more
As British troops pulled out of Aden in 1967 the band of the Royal Marines struck up a tune to send them on their way – not Rule Britannia or Land of Hope and Glory but a Cockney song, Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be. It was an ironic choice but, in the circumstances, probably the right one. "Fings… Read more
After months of apparent deadlock, the last few days have brought tentative signs of a shift in Yemen's seven-year conflict.
On Friday Hans Grundberg, the UN's special envoy, announced that the protagonists had agreed to a two-month ceasefire. The truce, which came into… 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
