perspectives

Can a federal system unite Libyans?

After the recent failure of Fathi Bashagha’s government to enter the capital – and their subsequent expulsion – many are concerned over what it will take to keep Libyans united. Some, however, foreshadowed this reality years ago. Shortly after the 2011 civil war, and the ousting of the then-leader Muammar Gaddafi, many in the eastern region of Cyrenaica started calling for a new federal regime. On the 6th of March 2012, the "Cyrenaican Transitional Council" issued a declaration of autonomy, but this move was quickly rejected by the National Transitional Council in Tripoli. The main arguments p...

The PA's 'political horizon' is a quest for its own survival

Since the leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas met with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz last year, Israeli media has focused on a purportedly “confused policy”. Yet despite seemingly diverging views on how to approach the PA, there is still a unanimous decision not to engage politically in terms of negotiations. Gantz’s meetings with Abbas focused mainly on security coordination and some meagre concessions to Palestinians, which should have been addressed as both human and political rights, rather than bartering issues. It must be remembered that Gantz’s overtures to the PA w...

Yemen’s unification is a divisive chapter in history

As Yemen’s 32nd national unification anniversary approached, people in southern and northern Yemen displayed various sentiments. Some cherish this occasion while others detest it. Nonchalance is the general attitude of many when it comes to discussing the national unity of the country. Every year on May 22, authorities in Yemen celebrate the anniversary of this occasion. However, the country’s unification has sustained severe scars since its birth in 1990, and the momentum of the southern secession is now stronger than ever before. The impact of the seven-year-old civil war on the country’s un...

Leaked Prevent review: It was always about targeting Muslims

The leaks around the Prevent review recommendations reveal more about the current UK government than it does about Prevent itself. In 2019 when the Independent Review of Prevent was announced, nobody could have imagined that three years and two not-so-independent reviewers later, we would still be waiting for the review recommendations. There has been no shortage of ‘leaks’ to keep us entertained. The latest round published by The Guardian suggests that the recommendation is to refocus Prevent’s lens back onto the Muslim community. According to Shawcross that is where the real ‘terror threat’ ...

Egyptomania: Enough with the West's mummy obsession

A new orientalist show that we didn’t ask for is coming to North America. Make way for Beyond King Tut: the Immersive Experience, a fancy production scheduled to premiere at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, in June. Using ridiculously inflated 21st-century marketing codes, the show’s website is a single landing page that prompts interested viewers to sign up and join a waitlist. Not much is revealed about the show itself which remains suggestively mysterious matching an over-exploited, exoticised mystique of ancient Egypt. A loud, sensational slogan in capital letters, unimaginati...

Can Biden mend the rocky US-Saudi relationship?

When a comedy sketch on Saudi TV went viral recently, it set people talking in Washington. The sketch depicted a senile President Joe Biden being manhandled by his staff – not exactly ground-breaking comedy, and hardly unique among international portrayals of the president. But for observers of the Gulf kingdom, it was worth noting. Known for its severe state censorship, the Saudi sketch was likely sanctioned by someone in authority. And for those willing to infer, such a disobliging portrait of the US president tallied rather well with the frosty relationship between the two countries. Saudi ...

The Iranian opposition’s peddling of Islamophobia

The Iranian opposition in exile is a well-heeled, formidable behemoth. No authoritarian state in the world is contested by such a vocal, unflappable conglomerate of resistance forces as is the Islamic Republic. Belarus, China, Russia and Venezuela have outspoken critics, but none of these detractors are making a living through bad-mouthing the regimes they despise. For the governments of Israel, Saudi Arabia and a handful of European countries sheltering and resourcing the Iranian opposition, it makes strategic sense to invest in amplifying the collective voices of disillusioned expatriates wh...

Sisi and the farce of counter-terrorism in Egypt

In one week, at least 16 Egyptian troops were killed in attacks attributed to and claimed by the Islamic State. Wilayah Sina, or the ‘Sinai Province’, as is the name that IS gives itself in the Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for an attack on Saturday at a checkpoint just west of Rafah on the border with Palestine. The Saturday before that, the group carried out one of its deadliest attacks in years on Egyptian military personnel when it killed 11 troops in El Qantara, which straddles the border between the governates of Ismailia and North Sinai. The bitter irony in all this is that si...

Warda Al-Jazairia: the timeless Algerian rose

*The flower that smiles to\-dayTo-morrow dies;All that we wish to stayTempts and then flies.What is this world’s delight?Lightning that mocks the night,Brief even as bright.* -Percy Shelly This week marks the anniversary of the death of Warda Al-Jazairia (The Algerian Rose) who passed away at the age of 72 in 2012. She is one of the most iconic singers of the Arab world who in her time on this planet had a great impact on the Arab music scene that is still felt till present day. Warda Al-Jazairia, whose real name was Warda Mohamed Ftouki, was born in Paris and had a Lebanese mother and an Alge...

For greedy golfers, cash over human rights in Saudi league

The former world number one golfer Greg Norman recently brushed away human rights concerns about Saudi money financing the sport’s breakaway league by saying about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi: “Everybody makes mistakes”. It was a remark that betrayed the kind of ignorance that we’ve come to associate with sports stars seeking to justify their morally questionable decisions. We do all make mistakes, of course. Another Saudi cheerleader, the golfer Phil Mickelson, made one when he described the Riyadh authorities as ‘“scary mother*******”. The sentiment was correct, of course, but his error wa...