Arab World

Opinion: Will Jordan lead ISIL to the ‘gates of hell’? The Jordanian government must shift its stance on ISIL from containment to confrontation.

About the Author: Afzal Ashraf is a consultant fellow at Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) and served in the UK Armed Forces. He was involved in developing a counterinsurgency strategy and in the policing and the justice sectors in Iraq. The Islamic world has a […]

Nations Must Repeal Blasphemy Laws

Huff Post: What did the terrorist attacks against the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and the kosher supermarket in Paris share with the flogging of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi in Jeddah last month? Each was an assault on freedom of conscience, religion, or belief. Moreover, in the Charlie Hebdo and Badawi cases, […]

King Salman’s shady past

With the US and Pakistan both in Saudi Arabia’s figurative pocket, King Salman is set to likely rule much of the world. —AFP Rafia Zakaria is an author, attorney and human rights activist. She is a columnist for DAWN Pakistan and a regular contributor for Al Jazeera America, Dissent, Guernica […]

Examining root of western hostility

 SABRIA S. JAWHAR Published — Monday 2 February 2015 ARABNEWS.COM (a view from Saudi Arabia) As the self-ascribed Islamic State (IS) continues to murder as many people as possible and idiots with automatic weapons try to wipe out journalists who “hurt their feelings,” a trend is emerging to lay […]

Jihad or Murder?

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid Newsline: Such is the unfortunate volatility of our state that a blast in Peshawar, on any other day, might have been viewed as just another act of terrorism. Bomb blasts have been ubiquitous in Pakistan in the last several years, and this city has been jarred […]