Mohammed Omar Ali sits on a bench under a tree in Al-Zawra Park, looking around impatiently for any sign of his friend. Ali, 31, has not seen Ayad Murtadha for almost a year since he and his family, who are Shia Muslims, were forced to leave the Baghdad neighborhood where the two friends grew up …

The situation in Egypt today is like water overflowing from a bottle that had been tightly corked off for a long time. A society that has been stagnant for decades is now beginning to move, causing new interactions that give the impression that it’s spilling over. But the water overflows with no rhyme or rhythm. …

JOHANNESBURG – Terrorism and global warming loom, in many people’s minds, as the greatest threats to the planet. In the United States, the Bush administration wants to increase funding for border security and immigration enforcement by nearly 20%. More than $150 million is being spent to help transit systems in New York, New Jersey, and …

Many western observers, politicians and journalists considered the breach of the Rafah crossing a victory for the Hamas movement. Some viewed it as the beginning of the end of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people. The statement by Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the European Parliament, was an example in point. The breach in the …

Even the most skeptical of us would have to concede that things are better now than they were a few months ago, as they hasten to add that we have been here before and that this too shall pass. Yes, things are better: Palestinian and Israeli officials are talking, and final status issues are being …

The unexpected breach of Gaza s wall last month created a new flurry of security concerns and proved to be yet another example of how both Israelis and Palestinians are forced to focus on their most pressing security concerns, often at the expense of other long-term goals. It was in this security obsessed context that …

Things feel different these days in Ramallah, the de facto and economic capital of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and its seat of government. The markets are crowded with shoppers. Stores are well-stocked with goods, dozens of brand new cars have appeared on the streets. And all over downtown Ramallah are banners and posters heralding the …

Suppose you are concerned about children in Africa dying from preventable diseases. You want to donate money to a charity that is working to reduce the toll. But there are many charities doing that. How do you choose? The first thing that many people ask about charities is, “How much of my donation is spent …

I was surprised to find a letter in my mail from someone who proclaimed to be the author I wrote about in my column last week In that column I had spoken about writers who hasten to draw the attention of censorship authorities to their own work hoping that these authorities would react accordingly by …

Worldwide attention has for some time now been focused on media sources that paint Islam as an ideology that causes unrest, turmoil and mayhem in the world at present. Religious plurality in this world is willed by God, as is stated in the Quran. It equates the unlawful killing of a person – Muslim or …

Their homes separated by a wheat field, barbed wire, and Israel s blockade of the Gaza Strip, it s been more than two years since Amir Efrat last saw the Gazan who helped himmaintain the water systems in this collective. But he has talked to him by phone-and could hear the despair that lurked behind …

Extremists and terrorism have too often monopolized the media s coverage and thus the message coming out of the Muslim world. But what do the vast majority of mainstream Muslims really believe, think, and feel? What are their hopes, fears, and resentments? Why is it that a robust anti-Americanism seems to pervade the Muslim world? …

There are about 3.5 million Arab Americans. According to a 2007 Zogby poll, 61 percent of Arab American voters mention Iraq as the leading issue in the election, and 66 percent also rank Palestine as very high on their list of concerns. In the past, Arab Americans – especially the more affluent – voted Republican. …

As she opened the door and welcomed me into her home on a snowy morning in Tehran, K. (her name is withheld to protect her anonymity) – a 33-year-old mother – appeared to me as an unexpected epiphany. A brunette, speaking fluent English in a surprising American accent, she was wearing only skimpy shorts and …

As Pakistan gears up for its parliamentary election on Feb. 18, many observers hope that the vote will usher in a period of stability and calm by lending popular legitimacy to the government. But sometimes democracy is best served by refusing to participate. The upcoming election, to be held under the illegal Provisional Constitutional Order …

The collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the last decade of the twentieth century, leaving the United States as the sole superpower, led to the century being dubbed, The American Century. The world looked forward to enlightened leadership, visionary policies, and a multilateral approach in the conduct of American diplomacy. President Clinton …

A second big American interest-rate cut in a fortnight, alongside an economic stimulus plan that united Republicans and Democrats, demonstrates that US policymakers are keen to head off a recession that looks like the consequence of rising mortgage defaults and falling home prices. But there is a deeper problem that has been overlooked: the US …

At this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the buzz was about Asia’s growing power. One Asian analyst argued that by 2050, there will be three world powers: the United States, China, and India. He did not mention Europe, but underestimating Europe’s power is a mistake. Yes, Europe currently punches below its weight. It is …

Egypt is changing. This is the truth which some people are trying to stifle through legitimate and illegitimate means. If you think the margin of freedom that opened up three years ago will end, then you’re wrong. This truth is reinforced by the reality of the social and cultural awakening Egypt is going through today. …

Last week, the Egyptian Shoura Coucil (The Upper House of Parliament) demanded a review of the media code of ethics to examine the codes that control the content of the video clips shown on the specialized music satellite channels. The question is: do we need to review the codes and articles to decide which videos, …

In the years since 9/11, war and terrorism have led to much discussion over whether a clash of civilizations is occurring between the United States and the Muslim world. This turmoil, however, has inspired many others to work even harder to promote dialogue and understanding between our cultures. Ordinary Americans and people of the Muslim …

Immediately after last November s Annapolis conference, Israel declared its intention to construct 307 new housing units in the Har Homa settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, in addition to building new settlements in the Almatar and Sheikh Jarrah areas of the city. Thus, Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert – who announced before the conference that he …

When it comes to wishing for peace in the Middle East – virtually a New Year’s tradition ¬- one needs to be careful. So many hopes have vanished in the bitter failure of so many negotiations. But we have a wish for the Middle East – one that, while perhaps not bringing peace, can create …

I recently became the education coordinator for The Culture Project, a non-profit theatre company in Manhattan, whose mission is to bear witness to injustice by maximizing artistic resources to stimulate challenging conversation about the most profound and urgent matters of our time. Some of these issues include exposing innocent people wrongfully imprisoned on death row, …

In October 2006, a group of women from the Holy Land gathered in Colorado to co-create a Middle Eastern village experience-living, eating, and learning together. The women came from a wide variety of backgrounds: Jewish (several were religious,others secular and some pagan), Arab (Druze, Muslim, Christian and pagan), as well as women from the US …

In 1989, a photograph called Piss Christ by Andres Serrano, which depicted a crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist’s urine, was on show at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The exhibition received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The NEA has yet to recover from …

The best way to promote any book is to confiscate it. It’s a rule of thumb for writers whose books were banned and hence made huge sales unofficially because, according to another universal principal, forbidden fruit tastes sweetest. In the 1980s it was rumored in our literary circles that there was this one author who …

The first International Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, conceived as an antidote to the idea that the world is doomed to a “clash of civilizations, recently met in Madrid and revealed that there is more than a grain of truth in Robert Kagan’s idea that Americans are from Mars and Europeans from Venus. Ever …

A century and a half ago, Karl Marx both gloomily and exuberantly predicted that the modern capitalism he saw evolving would prove incapable of producing an acceptable distribution of income. Wealth would grow, Marx argued, but would benefit the few, not the many: the forest of upraised arms looking for work would grow thicker and …

In a remote part of Central Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, there is a rather unusual form of environmentalism taking root. Shadowed by the great Merapi volcano and surrounded by fertile fields of rice and sugarcane, a small school is graduating environmentalists whose commitment to the earth is not based on Western conservation texts, but …