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26th September 2017
Seven people who waved rainbow flags during a music festival in Egypt have been arrested for “promoting sexual deviancy”.
The flags appeared during a performance by the popular Lebanese band, Mashrou' Leila, at the Music Park Festival in Cairo last Friday. Mashrou' Leila is controversial because… Read more
25th September 2017
American journalist Seymour Hersh – author of several error-strewn articles about chemical attacks in Syria – has accepted a controversial award for "truth-telling" even though the previously-announced presentation ceremony was cancelled.
Hersh received the award at a "festive dinner" on Friday… Read more
22nd September 2017
Viewed from outside, the war in Yemen is mainly a two-sided conflict between the "legitimate" government of President Hadi and the Houthi rebels backed by ex-President Saleh. But this fails to recognise the extent of Yemen's fragmentation since the outbreak of war, a former government minister… Read more
21st September 2017
A ceremony where American journalist Seymour Hersh was due to be presented with an award for an error-strewn article about a chemical attack in Syria has been cancelled.
[See update here]
Three weeks ago Hersh was named as this year's winner of the Sam Adams Award "for integrity and truth-telling… Read more
16th September 2017
Journeys through Arab lands have generated a large body of literature over the centuries, some written by western Orientalists and some by Arabs themselves. A remarkable new addition in the latter category is The Travels of Ibn Fudayl, due to be published for the first time in English next month.… Read more
15th September 2017
The London conference on Qatar, which has caused much hullabaloo over the last couple of weeks, took place yesterday – attended by numerous video cameras and a rather sparse audience of around 150 people, many of whom had badges saying "staff" or "press".
The controversial event had been dubbed as… Read more
13th September 2017
Despite having assistance from two PR firms – one headed by an American who used to organise events at the White House – the controversial and much-heralded "Qatar opposition" conference due to be held in London tomorrow is looking rather shambolic.
After sending out vaguely-worded "complimentary… Read more
11th September 2017
The controversial and much-heralded "Qatari opposition" conference due to be held in London on Thursday will be attended by "hundreds of world-renowned political figures, policy makers, academics, commentators and Qataris", according to a press release. However, the venue, conference programme and… Read more
9th September 2017
Qatar, which is reportedly paying a public relations firm $50,000 month to "improve ties with the Jewish community worldwide", has accused the UAE of employing "Zionists" to organise an anti-Qatar conference.
A news item published in Arabic by the Qatari-owned al-Jazeera on Thursday began:
"The… Read more
8th September 2017
The Saudi/Emirati squabble with Qatar which began in May with a fake news item on a hacked website has continued in the form of a virtual reality game which almost nobody outside the Gulf views as seriously as the protagonists themselves.
The latest round of cat-fighting relates to a conference on… 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
