December 4, 2013 | Al Jazeera

Why was Arafat killed?

On November 7, Raanan Gissin commented on the instructions given by the then PM Ariel Sharon in 2002, to the effect that “everything [must] be done to ensure that Arafat… was not killed by our soldiers,” the statement is correct but also misleading as to Israel’s responsibility for Arafat’s death. The Swiss team has concluded…

Palestine

October 31, 2013 | Al Jazeera

The souls of Muslim folk

In his book The Souls of Black Folk, a powerful analysis of racism’s effects on African Americans and a critique of US society, W E B Du Bois theorised on the concept of “double consciousness”: the self-measuring and regulating mechanism that causes African Americans to “look at one’s self through the eyes of others”, denying…

September 15, 2013 | Al Jazeera

Religious authority, state power and revolutions

Current events in Egypt, Syria and Tunisia – and before that in Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey – point to a great struggle between religious authorities and state powers. At play are various claimants to religious authority; states in pre- and post-colonial and pre- and post-nationalist periods; and the role of religious authorities in existing…

Islamic Politics Islamic Thought

August 20, 2013 | Al Jazeera

Egypt, the ‘war on terrorism’ and Islamophobia

In an interview with Der Speigel , Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy offered his German audience a history “lesson” reminding them of “their experiences with a democratically elected politician who then behaved in an undemocratic manner”, thus asserting that the removal of Morsi is in reality a preemptive action undertaken to protect democracy itself. Fahmy…

Islamophobia