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Category - middle east

  • 25 May 2011
    'Investing in peace' is a prominent Kirk assembly theme

    Investing in peace was a major emphasis in a 'deliverance' put forward by the Church of Scotland World Mission Council to the Kirk's General Assembly.

  • 25 May 2011
    A pessoptimistic overview of the Middle East and North Africa

    There are plenty of grounds for a paradoxical 'pessoptimism' about developments in the Middle East and North Africa, writes Harry Hagopian. The huge Arab struggles for dignity and freedom are vital but will take a long time. History in Europe and the USA should surely teach us that revolutions are never made in one swoop, but take time and cause pain.

  • 16 May 2011
    Christians in Qatar

    In a region where tensions, animosity and outright violence often abound between different communities and also different faiths (let alone between communities and the 'state' itself), Qatar has been one of those encouraging and forward-looking stories of relative conviviality, learn-as-you-go openness and consequential growth.

  • 12 May 2011
    Western violence will not help Arab Spring, says Euro religious network

    Europe's largest network of spiritually based peace groups has expressed its support for nonviolent revolution in north Africa and the Middle East.

  • 10 May 2011
    Threats force Syrian demonstrators underground amid nationwide protests

    Human rights activists seen to be involved in pro-reform protests in Syria have been forced into hiding after receiving threats from Syrian authorities.

  • 8 May 2011
    Reconciliation: encouragement or hindrance to peace?

    There are serious questions to be asked about the unity pact between the two Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas, says Harry Hagopian. But meanwhile the Israeli prime minister remains dwarfed by the real significance of the Arab Spring, and a huge block to progress towards a just peace for all. He is still a tactician at best, with precious little strategic foresight.

  • 3 May 2011
    Where are the signs of hope in Syria?

    No matter which way the winds blow in the weeks ahead, it is clear that the majority of Syrians desperately seek reform but they also fear sectarianism and foreign intervention, says Harry Hagopian. Much will depend upon how parties both inside and outside the country, including the power-brokers, choose to respond. An approach which feeds hope at the base rather than replicating top-down diplomacy is needed.

  • 2 May 2011
    A death blow or shot in the arm for al-Qaida?

    US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call on the Taliban and al-Qaida to renounce violence in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden is a statement from the heart of a world power which feels a renewed sense of vigour in the light of what is being called a "policy success". But it does not strike one as arising from a very thoughtful, perceptive or accurate view of the world.

  • 2 May 2011
    The murder of Osama bin Laden: The end of the beginning of the 'clash of civilisations'?

    Osama Bin Laden may be dead, but if Americans and Europeans now think that they can begin to relax over the prospect of ‘international terror’, they are very mistaken, says Michael Marten. US policy in particular is catastrophically misaligned in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia. The 'clash of civilisations' thesis is also gravely misleading, and religion (not least Islam) is not implicated in all this in the way simplistic analyses presume.

  • 29 Apr 2011
    A sprint or a marathon in Syria?

    How should one respond to decades of subjugation, oppression, marginalisation, imprisonment, brutalisation, torture, rendition, murder and unenlightenment? Harry Hagopian examines the case of Syria, and finds complexity and long-term struggle, as well as immediate rebellion and repression, in the picture.