Headlines

A recent Al Quds Festival and Palestine Trade Show highlighted the importance of events that promote cross-cultural understanding.

While the dramatic, often violent events in the Middle East have dominated most attention, it is widely recognized that economic development -- jobs -- will ultimately either sustain the autocracies now in power or force change by uncontrolled, largely negative influences. The Middle East can and should learn from the economic consequences of failed governance elsewhere and harness the energy of entrepreneurship and its youth to its advantage with a recognition that change and challenge are inevitable components of visions for the future.

The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi caused global outrage and put the Saudi crown in a difficult diplomatic position vis-à-vis the international community. But the Arab and Muslim world have remained silent. Will this change with the outcome of the Khashoggi investigation? And what impact will it have on the kingdom’s reputation as the Custodian of the Muslim world’s holiest sites?

The centenary of the World War I armistice rings hollow in a world still scorched by war. We claim to remember the dead, but we have forgotten the living.

Despite intense frictions...

The war in Yemen continues, sustained by senseless conflicts, external support, and international interests. Promoting sectarian identities, and a variety of other identities, at the expense of a unifying national identity, is exacerbating the political quagmire — and will have lasting impact even after the Saudi-led intervention in the country ends.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have a long history of tattoo art. Once considered a sign of beauty, its popularity declined in many regions because of negative social stigma and the fact that Islam prohibits tattoos. Recently, young Arabs have begun to embrace tattooing once again, and they are changing people’s perception of tattoos.

Egyptian poet Iman Mersal’s “Solitude Exercises” and “The Idea of Houses” both portray narrators whose feelings of unease are projected onto their relationships with their homes; however, the narrators diverge in how they approach these emotions.

After four consecutive terms as president of Algeria, at the age of 81, Abdelaziz Bouteflika is apparently poised to run for a fifth term in Spring 2019. Chronically ill and possibly not even in control of his own faculties, how will Bouteflika manage the affairs of the largest country in Africa for the next five years?

A native of one of the most repressive regimes in the world, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi knew more about the nuances of freedom than most. In observance of last week’s International Day to End Impunity For Crimes Against Journalists, I discuss his final op-ed piece and his struggle and passion for freedom of expression in the Arab world and beyond.