Back to secularism for Iraq?
“Maybe the only solution for Iraq and the Iraqis is to become atheists,” said Sameer when I asked him about a way out of the mess Iraq finds itself in.
“Many Iraqis were atheists before,” Sameer continued. “They were atheists until the plane was about to crash.”
The Iraqi plane crashed in 2003, brought down by the shock and awe campaign of the American military and the subsequent regime of George W. Bush’s governor in Baghdad, Paul Bremer.
Source: Your Middle East
Photo essay: crossing Qalandia and the Wall during Ramadan
The second Friday of Ramadan saw more than 350,000 Palestinians descending onto Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, many of whom were taking advantage of eased restrictions by Israeli authorities on those living in the West Bank. Qalandia checkpoint operates with several adjustments during the Islamic holy month and for those unable to cross legally, smugglers organize locations along the separation wall for Palestinians to sneak in.
Source: Mondoweiss
(Anti)terrorism and (anti)torture in the UAE
“In the UAE it’s now a case of ‘you’re with us or you’re a terrorist,’” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in 2014. “While the UAE proclaims to the world that it is leading the fight against extremist ideologies, it has empowered its courts to order the deaths of people they consider opponents of Islamic principles.”
Source: Muftah
