Stories about Middle East & North Africa from June, 2006
Palestine: Peaceful Resistance in Bethlehem City
Al Khadr is yet another example of a peaceful village bearing the brunt of the Israeli occupation's policies to annex land while undermining the social and economic viability of the Bethlehem governorate. The soon to be built Apartheid wall near Al Khadr will isolate 95% of the village's lands behind...
Syria: Authoritarianism
Syrian comment on the cultural inclination which was cited by a study that claims that there is no anti-democratic attitude within the Mideast cultures. Syrian said: “While its true that an individual may not object to a democratic form of government does not explain his acceptance of the alternative. Syrians...
United Arab Emirates: Modhesh
Dubai Summer Surprises is back, and dubaiwalla has photos of its mascot, Modhesh, but Dubai Sunshine thinks that Modhesh-mania is going a teeny weeny little bit overboard.
Yemen: Presidency Next Seven Years
Omar Barsawad admire and respect his President, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yet, Omar felt both frustrated and relieved at Saleh's decision to run again for presidency. “Frustration, in that: by not standing he would have done an unprecedented, unheard of thing in the Arab World! And become a pioneer and role...
Iran: A Weird Business with Belgium
Ship considers recent news about Belgium based Exmar company's deal with Iranian Sadra company very weird. The bloggers says Belgian company asked Sadra to build ten ships for this company despite this fact that Iranian company has never constructed such a product before. The blogger was surprised when Iranian company...
UN Human Rights Council & Presidential Election
Several bloggers wrote about the presence of Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran chief prosecutor, in the Iranian delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. A few bloggers tried to find out why Iranian government sent such a representative with a very poor human rights record. Some other bloggers try to...
Algeria: China, America, and the Arabs
Nouri Lumendifi writes about officials speak Arabic. Nouri says that the US can compete with China in the Arab World. All it needs to do is get in the ring and change some time honored traditions like staffing embassies with people who can speak German or Italian but not Arabic....
Egypt: Journalist sentenced to one year
Hossam reports that Ibrahim Eissa, the liberal editor of Al-Dostour (Egyptian newspaper), has been sentenced today to one year in prison, for “slandering” President Mubarak.
Iraq: Reconciliation initiative, born dead
LadyBird commenting on latest developments in Iraq said: Maliki’s initiative for dialogue and national reconciliation included many positive points such as the disarming militias, stop torture and the release of detainees, but it is not expected to achieve any results in terms of halting security deterioration because the plan was...
Israel: What Gilad's father is thinking
Commenting on the latest news coming from Israel, David Bogner writes: “Since hearing about yesterday's attack on an IDF position near Gaza in which two of our soldiers were killed and another taken hostage, I'm embarrassed to say that I've had few thoughts for the dead. Quite simply our government...
Palestine: So how many Palestinians will be killed tonight?
If you have been busy watching the World Cup, here is something else packed with action and excitment you could watch tonight. Well, what happend is that some Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli post, killing two soldiers and kidnapping another. So the Israeli Forces right now are gathering hundreds of...
Iran: Death of Intellectualism
Andishe No, talks about that many university professors have been forced to be retired. The blogger writes the most important protest voice comes from universities and Iranian government's priority is to make universities quiet (Persian). The blogger adds it is the death of intellectualism and it started when a cleric...
Syrian Blogsphere in a Week
To start off with a rather hot topic, it's politics, with Ammar Abdulhamid asking THE question… How Secure Is the Assads Regime, Really? To many observers of Syrian affairs, especially in the aftermath of the vaguely-worded report by Brammertz and in view of the growing alliance with Iran, the Assads...
Turkey is Typing…
This week, we are going to visit Turkish bloggers in alphabetical order! Are you excited! Amerikan Turk talks about his racing (bicycle) this week. He spent Father's Day in a local bike race and was planning on participating in another on this Sunday, although his plans might have been foiled...
Iran: Hope & Homeless People
Dark Dreams has published several photos from sleeping homeless people in Iran and writes ” life goes on we have hope”.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
We have had enough. The fearsome nights are stifling us and we now have come to hate the Fall [of Baghdad]; we hate Liberation; we hate Sunnis; we hate Shiites; we hate turbans and sidaras; we hate Jihad and Jihadists, resistance and resistors; we hate concrete; we hate streets and...
Palestine: Roger Waters and The Wall!
Cultural icon and rock-god Roger Waters, co-founder and frontman of the legendary rock group Pink Floyd, spray painted “Tear Down The Wall” and “No Thought Control” on Israel’s Separation wall. Nadeem has the details.
Egypt: Pope Shenouda's health in danger
Zeinobia writes that Pope Shenouda's health is in danger now and already he went to Germany in treatment journey in the same hospital President Mubarak went last year. The medical test showed how danger his health condition has reached and that he must go to the United States for immediate...
Syria: Who's an Arab?
Amr was asked by an American friend; who's an Arab? Amr could not find an easy answer, so he made a research, which you might find interesting to read.
Saudi Arabia: Unity and Division in Islam
yinshuisiyuan has an excellent commentary on an article which picks up on a speech made by King Abdullah of Saudi, were he tells Saudis that they must accept diversity.
To Be or Not to Be a Martyrdom Seeker
In Iran some people call themselves martyrdom seekers and demonstrate in cities to show their readiness to die for Islamic Republic. A couple of weeks ago Mohammad Masih, blogger and martyrdom seeker invited several bloggers with different points of views share their ideas about martyrdom seekers. Let's look at briefly...
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