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In an article posted on the BBC website this morning, Tony Blair calls for a "war of ideas" against religious extremism. There is no doubt that force is needed to confront a group like ISIS, Blair says, but we also have to "uproot the thinking of the extremists, not simply disrupt their actions…
Sir Richard Ottaway: Israel "has made me look a fool". Photo: Dean Calma, IAEA, via Wikimedia Commons
Last night British members of parliament voted overwhelmingly for recognition of "the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-…
The Baghdad papers: some were paid by the former PM to just write good things about him
Media organisations that fostered close links Iraq’s former Prime Minister and, some say, published or broadcast propaganda for him, are finding that their funding has dried up. Analysts and other…
Around 250 people gathered in London at the weekend for a conference on "the religious right, secularism and civil rights". It was a diverse event with speakers from more than 20 countries, ranging from an old-style Iranian Marxist to a representative of Femen (who appeared on the platform fully…
Later today the World Bank will be hosting an online discussion on a topic of great importance in the Middle East which rarely attracts enough attention: crony capitalism.
The problem began in the 1970s and 1980s when Arab states started to liberalise their economies and open them up to the…
Uniforms left behind by the Iraqi army when they fled their posts in Mosul earlier this year.
By Mustafa Habib in Baghdad, via niqash.org
The Iraqi army is suffering badly from what locals describe as the “astronaut phenomenon”. That is, soldiers who pay money to superior officers so they can…
The tweet above, posted last week by Telegraph journalist Andrew Critchlow, points to an article on the Telegraph's website which begins:
"International investors will have an important role to play in nurturing economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa, while helping in…
By Erin Kilbride, via muftah.org
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) could be heading for financial turmoil, potentially posting a deficit in 2015. For the Al Saud monarchy, which depends on its massive cash reserves to quell dissent against the regime, recent warnings from the…
In a series of blog posts over the last few weeks I have been arguing that the international response to ISIS is hopelessly inadequate. Even if the military effort succeeds in rolling ISIS back, it can be nothing more than a temporary palliative. This is because it is failing to address the…
By Ahmad Mohammed in Kirkuk, via niqash.org
In areas under the control of Sunni Muslim extremists, teachers have been issued a special set of instructions. Among other things they say that males and females are to be separated, all mentions of evolution are to be removed from textbooks and…
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
