On Sunday came the anticipated verdict following the trial of Iraq’s former leader Saddam Hussein – death by hanging. Early media reports described Saddam as shaking and shaken. In reality, he fluctuated between being anger, defiance and composure. The BBC’s correspondent in Iraq John Snow, who attended the sentencing, said he noticed a smile on …

The Middle East, with its vital resources and strategic location, is at a boiling point, and the course of events in the region has a direct impact on international stability. From there, a world war could break out. Conversely, it is also the place from where global peace could emerge. It is widely understood, except …

Like North Korea, the Iranian government will not shy from a showdown over its nuclear program. Why should it? A nuclear weapon is the ultimate guarantee that the United States can never do to Iran what it did to Iraq. Moreover, this struggle with the US rallies much-needed domestic support. What, then, can the US …

Local tradition not only adapts but incorporates global trends Washington, D.C.: For decades Western popular culture has attracted the ire of Islamic activists who accuse it of subverting values, corrupting youth, destroying families or robbing Muslims of fundamental aspects of their identity. But hostility towards Western popular culture is not restricted to those who claim …

The psychology of the harasser and how to fight back CAIRO: As 17-year-old Layla is walking down a main street in Maadi, she notices a man straddling a bicycle on the corner. As she gets closer, she sees some unnaturally rapid movements underneath the man s galabiya as he hisses indecipherable words at her. A …

The words we use and the statements we make define who we are, what we believe. The more accurate our pronouncements are, the closer we are to the truth and to understanding each other. The better the understanding, the more engaged we become when the opportunity avails itself. In her keynote address to the American …

So Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. This does not come as a surprise. If one person were to be singled out in the world today for the ultimate sentence, Saddam would be the one. He is personally responsible for the death of about two million people through his rule between 1968 and 2003. With …

The Israeli-Palestinian political arena has never looked worse. This is a reflection of the negative political situation internally in both areas. It seems that the main political agenda of the Israeli government today is survival, and once that becomes apparent to the people of Israel, the government’s days are numbered. On the Palestinian side, the …

Last April, in the delegate’s lounge of the United Nations’ headquarters in New York, this columnist met with the Organization of Islamic Conference’s (OIC) permanent observer to the UN, Ambassador Abdul Wahab, to discuss ways in which Arab, Islamic, or African nation-states might assist in ending the genocide in Darfur. At that time, Qatar, Tanzania, …

A forgotten sense of national pride and obligation to country Ramadan’s come and gone. Not only is it the time of year characterized by the oxymoronic gluttonizing of food after a day of fasting, but it is also the season of an ever-so not entertaining clutter of cliché soap operas peppered with an ever-so-more unentertaining …

After the US-led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, it became clear that sectarian and ethnic identity would be a major principle of post-Saddam politics. With parliament seats and government posts being allocated according to a sectarian-ethnic quota system, powerful Iraqi actors – chiefly the religious Shiite parties and the Kurdish parties – advocated …

If you did not hear it, the bell for the second round of the new cold war in the Middle East rang on Wednesday, in the form of the United States and Hezbollah trading accusations against each other about assorted sinister aims. There is much that is interesting and important – indeed, historic – about …

A year after the wave of violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world protesting the publication of caricatures of Mohammed by a Danish newspaper, frictions between Europe and the Muslim world multiply, threatening to make the “clash of civilizations a self-fulfilling prophecy: Pope Benedict XVI outrages the Muslim world by quoting remarks critical of the Prophet …

A Danish perspective on recent events concerning the Muslim world The latest unfortunate events affecting the perception of Denmark in the Muslim world call for a reaction from an ordinary Dane. As a Danish woman, living and loving in Cairo, Egypt, I would hereby like to volunteer my point of view on a situation that …

The failure of the peace process to produce the desired outcome has provoked much speculation as to why it failed. The different sides to the conflict have different interpretations, mostly blaming the other. But few have questioned the approach on which the process was based. When the United States and the Soviet Union invited the …

In the winter of 2002-3, supporters of regime change in Iraq were upbeat in their vision of the post-invasion phase of the war. Anyone who suggested that what is happening today was a likely scenario was criticized as being a pro-Saddam appeaser, anti-American, or both. Yet a sober assessment of the difficulties ahead would have …

Following next Tuesday s elections, President Bush will face some of the most difficult decisions of his presidency as he struggles to craft a strategy for dealing with the ruinous mess in Iraq. Bush will have to do what he has sometimes found hardest – which is to make a decisive choice among conflicting recommendations …

Unlike the Middle East, which is frequented by senior officials from the United States government, when it comes to Africa, the US prefers to send its second-in-command. This is not new State Department protocol, however, as Congo’s 4 million deaths and Rwanda’s 800,000 deaths rarely received senior level treatment, and with Darfur only recently becoming …

My wish for my country is that we would stop being hypocrites and demand that the Bush administration ends the increasing cycle of violence and suffering in Iraq. If an honest assessment by President George W. Bush was accompanied by an ounce of courage, President Bush could say to the world: The time has come …

This is a kind country. It’s one that promotes family values. Its culture nurtures the old, the sick, the poor and children. Its strong religious beliefs, both Muslim and Christian, teach respect for women. Right. It’s very possible that those statements might have been true of Egypt at one time, but I cannot, in all …

In an ironic turn of events, Yemen s September 20 presidential and local elections garnered extensive favorable coverage by the normally critical Al-Jazeera, while they received only scant attention from the US government, heretofore eager to highlight any sign of reform in Arab states. Why did US officials refrain from highlighting what many foreign observers …

Despite Washington’s most recent reiteration that there will be no dramatic shifts in the US policy toward Iraq, not many except US President George W. Bush’s coterie know what exactly awaits the war-torn country. But many of the ‘Plan B’ or “course correction recommendations doing the rumor rounds in the United States pose more questions …

Every once in a while, we TV journalists have to admit that we’ve made a bad choice of stories. You can research an idea from afar, call local producers to check that it’s viable, arrange for interviews and apply for all the proper permissions, yet somehow, despite all the careful planning, the whole project occasionally …

Negotiations for a unity government between Fatah and Hamas are the fruit of international pressure, which has forced Hamas to consider sacrificing some of its formal authority within the Palestinian Authority (PA) despite the fact that the Islamic movement and its allies hold 77 out of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). How …

In 2002, I addressed a television audience somewhere in North America and explained that the American adventure in Iraq was doomed to failure. Of course, this was not a welcome notion, especially when the viewing public had been nurtured on a bevy of carefully calculated propaganda plots assisted by various so-called Iraqi exiles, many of …

Israel has killed 2,300 Gazans over the past six years, including 300 in the four months since Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid by Palestinian fighters on June 25. The wounded can be counted in the tens of thousands. Most of the casualties are civilians, many of them children. The killing continues …

The local councils of Saudi Arabia elected in spring 2005, still in their formative stages, have yet to make their mark on municipal decision-making. They are caught between the promises that they made to voters during last year s elections and the reality of dealing with local governments known for deeply ingrained bureaucracy. Although it …

A theory to explain the chaotic world of 2006 – in which people from Baghdad to Beijing seem unable to cooperate on projects that would make them better off – was written in 1965 by an obscure American economist named Mancur Olson Jr. His short book, “The Logic of Collective Action, explained why big groups, …

One of the depressing aspects of reading, viewing and listening to the mass media in the United States on an extended trip, as I am doing these days, is to suffer the very superficial and often ideologically skewed coverage of important movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas. For various reasons, directly or indirectly related to …

Diplomatic mission may indicate improved bilateral relations CAIRO: It may not be commanding global headlines, but this week s visit to Syria by intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman could be much more than a low-key diplomatic mission. Both countries are anxious to improve their relations, under deep strain since Israel s onslaught on Lebanon in July. …