A Blog about Middle Eastern & North African Politics, Society and Culture
By Tam Hussein @tamhussein The Arabs at War in Afghanistan questions the foundational myths of the Afghan Jihad which touched a generation of Muslim men growing up in the 90s.… Continue reading "The Arabs at War in Afghanistan: From the Cradle of the Jalalabad School of Jihad to Syria and Iraq"
Mr. Fathi Warfali is one of Libya’s earliest and youngest political activists and hails from a pedigreed religious and scholarly family from Bani Walid. At sixteen he joined the nascent… Continue reading "Fathi Warfali: A Democrat who Sought Martyrdom in the Fields of Afghanistan."
Here begins a series of interviews and dialogues with al-Maqālāt who describes himself as “an independent media outlet”. He tweets under @Al_Maqal_Ps. The reader will find that the interviewees attitudes… Continue reading "The Human Nature of Jihadism- an interview with al-Maqālāt"
It takes a brave person to comment on the Middle East, one never knows when a crisis will erupt that threaten to render one’s judgment obsolete. Since first reading Shadi… Continue reading "Taking Exception to Shadi Hamid’s Islamic Exceptionalism"
Western media rarely gets an insight into how Islamist battalions work and think especially within the rebel operation room, Jaysh al-Fath, the Army of Conquest. This is a coalition of… Continue reading "Aleppo under Siege: Interview with Suqour al-Sham- an Islamist Rebel Perspective"
The nature of the Syrian conflict, now in its fifth year, has become overtly sectarian and ideological. Undoubtedly the foreign fighters who continue to trickle in are coloured by this.… Continue reading "The Virtues of Sham: The Place of Syria in Muslim Sacral Imagination"
How an ISIS organised attack looks like There is a myth that the Islamic State claims every terror attack in the West as its own. But even its claims of… Continue reading "Islamic State Attacks in Europe: A Rough Guide to ISIS Lone Wolves"
Apart from the odd father attending to the needs of their families, most Syrians sleep in late in the Jungle in Calais. They are wrapped up inside their tarpaulin… Continue reading "A Day in The Life of The Jungle: Syrians Camped out in Calais"
By Valentina Viene In a world of opposing ideologies and intense scrutiny, critically thinking individuals must often migrate to an imaginary world to express their ideas. For writers with a… Continue reading "Asia Alfasi’ ‘Extraordinary Tales’: Bringing Together Libya, Scotland, and Manga"
Tourists and bohemians love rummaging through the stalls on Portobello Road with its shimmering trinkets and shaggy clothes fit for an art student. To the locals it’s a “joke ting”,… Continue reading "What happened to ‘Man like Fatlum?’- The inside Story of the British Suicide Bomber of Ramadi"