With all the focus on Sunnis and Shi’ites, and now even the Allawites in Syria, it’s easy to forget about that other big Islamic sect – the Druze. The Druze are associated with the Ismaili side of Islam…
- Lecturer in Middle East Studies, Deakin University
The banning of (at this stage) ten candidates for Egypt’s parliamentary elections sends some worrying signals about the mechanisms for democracy in the Arab world’s most populated nation. Some candidates…
In one of those bizarre and seemingly random collisions between social media and the real world the Kingdom of Bahrain looked like it was going to miss out on the chance of seeing a Formula 1 Grand Prix…
With all the focus on Syria in recent weeks, the usual Doctor Evil of the region, Iran, has been getting a break. No doubt they have been spending their time testing nukes, building mega rockets disguised…
The cynical will be unsurprised at the revelations on the weekend that some dirty deals were done in the name of politics concerning Libya and the War on Terror. It appears that in the name of getting…
There’s nothing like Easter to show the complexity of Middle Eastern religious affairs. When you start looking at this part of the year, it soon becomes apparent why there are so many tensions. And it’s…
It was Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz who best encapsulated the moral paradoxes of modern warfare and the equivocal relationship between the foreign battlefield and the standards of home: “We train young…
The apparent total acceptance of a ceasefire plan by the Syrian government gives us today’s “WTF? moment”. It’s hard not to be surprised at this turn of events. Or to put it another way, it’s hard to believe…
Just over a year ago I wrote my first story for The Conversation. I was frustrated by media reporting of the Libyan Revolution; coverage that I felt did little to explain the fractured nature of the opposition…
I noticed at the start of the trimester that many of my first year students have dates of birth in 1993. In the spirit of similar lists I have seen over the years (and with the help of Wikipedia), I offer…
The BBC Online magazine has an intriguing military story of a type not often covered in the Middle East: the challenges faced by gay soldiers. Compulsory military service is as unpopular in Turkey as it…
Staff at The Conversation often accuse me of being some sort of war-mongering death nut, intent only on walking over the corpses of the Middle East in the quest for a story. (Stories that they publish…
President Obama and PM Erdogan of Turkey had a chat this week about aiding Syrian resistance through “non-lethal means”. By this they’re talking about providing medical and humanitarian support for those…
The stench of hypocrisy is a hard one to wash out for the West in the Middle East. We shook Gadaffi’s hand and pretended we liked his outfits when he coughed up for Lockerbie and we snuggled with Mubarak…
Recent days have seen a return to Cairo’s Tahrir Square by thousands of Egyptians concerned by what they see as a delay by the ruling military council in implement full democracy in Egypt. With reports…
The latest round of chest beating over Iran developing nuclear weapons has seen renewed speculation over the possibility of military strikes on the Islamic Republic’s enrichment facilities. Certainly if…
The relegation of Moammar Gaddafi to the meat-locker of history is a significant exorcism of Libya’s past. Whether it would have been better for him to face trial is a moot point. It’s doubtful that too…
The former Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been killed. He was caught in a firefight between his supporters, and rebels backing the National Transitional Council, following a Nato airstrike…
When Gilad Shalit was dragged away in a cross-border raid in June 2006, it’s doubtful he or his captors would have imagined five years’ of negotiations lay ahead. Nor in their most fevered imaginings would…
Somewhere in the bowels of Toyota City there must be a cadre of marketing salarymen working out how the corporation can apply for official sponsorship of the Libyan Revolution. After all, the whole ground…
President Mahmoud Abbas has formally submitted Palestine’s application for full member status of the United Nations. The United States has already promised to veto the application at the Security Council…
Some hypothetical situations just aren’t worth investing too much thought in. What would I serve the Queen if she turned up for dinner? What sort of private jet would I buy if I inherited a billion dollars…
The situation in Libya remains fluid but with armed rebel fighters now in Green Square in central Tripoli, it appears the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is in its final hours. Two of the dictator’s…
After five months of conflict in Libya, the Gaddafi regime remains in power in Tripoli despite the rebel campaign and NATO airstrikes. Recent days have seen serious developments in the country. Muammar…
The overnight attack by Taliban forces on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel demonstrates the ability of the Islamist group to attack Afghan and Western targets in all areas of the country. At least six Taliban…
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