Blog archive all
With the ailing and largely invisible President Bouteflika newly re-elected for a fourth five-year term, there are signs that the Algerian opposition is finally getting its act together.
In the article below, Anna Jacobs, a researcher specialising in the politics of… Read more
Tony Blair's unofficial activities in the Middle East are looking increasingly dodgy – and increasingly incompatible with his official role as the Quartet's peace envoy.
Yesterday, the Guardian caused a stir with a story that Blair is to advise Egypt's Sisi regime on economic reform "in… Read more
The British withdrawal from Aden in 1967 left Yemen divided into two states – north and south – both of them aspiring to national unity. After a lengthy period of on/off negotiation and occasional conflicts they eventually unified in 1990.
Unification soon turned… Read more
In a blog post on Saturday I wrote about efforts by some of the Arab states to criminalise anyone – non-Muslims included – who is seen eating, drinking or smoking during the daylight hours of Ramadan.
Compulsory fasting, as I suggested on Saturday, mis-uses the power of the state in order to… Read more
There was a time, back in the 1960s, when Habib Bourguiba – the first president of Tunisia – could appear on TV sipping tea during the fasting hours of Ramadan.
When the Marxists ruled in southern Yemen, state TV would pointedly broadcast cookery programmes at times when Muslims were supposed to be… Read more
"Individuals and organisations in London with connections to the Muslim Brotherhood are behind a series of media attacks on the UAE," the Emirati newspaper, The National, reported on Wednesday.
The paper certainly went to town on the story, with a news report, a 3,000-word investigative… Read more
Following Saudi Arabia's absurd decision to outlaw "calling for atheist thought" on the grounds that it is a form of terrorism, Egypt is trying a different approach.
Labelling Egyptian atheists as terrorists might be just a bit too confusing because the Sisi regime has already allocated… Read more
Earlier this year, Yemen embarked on plans to create a federal state comprising six regions. For some, a "United States of Yemen" offers the best hope of preserving national unity in the face of separatist activism. Others fear it will exacerbate separatist tendencies, possibly leading to… Read more
Scene of confrontation: the Saleh mosque in Sana'a
Close to the presidential palace in Sana'a is the Saleh mosque. Build at a cost of $60m and opened in 2008 by President Ali Abdullah Saleh (after whom the mosque is named), it is one of the most extravagant buildings in Yemen, with five domes and… Read more
Egypt's much-abused law against "insults" to religion has claimed another victim with the jailing of a 23-year-old schoolteacher in Luxor governorate.
Demiana Emad, a Coptic Christian, was arrested more than a year ago following a complaint from the head of the parents' association at her school.… 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
