Syria Faces Pressures to Democratize

Quoted by NPR

Syria is under intense international pressure. It was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April; Washington accuses it of supporting insurgents in Iraq. In the second story of a series on the prospects for democratic change in the Middle East, a look at whether the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad can survive. Continue reading “Syria Faces Pressures to Democratize”

The Heretical Game!

The recent mention I received in the Arabic version of Newsweek as one of 43 people making a difference in the Arab World was bound to raise eyebrows and generate some cynical, if not downright hostile, responses here. After all, I was the only Syrian on the list, yet very few people around here know me. So how could I be making any difference? – A very legitimate question indeed, and the fact that someone did indeed raise it in the Syrian press on Monday was not particularly surprising to me. 

Continue reading “The Heretical Game!”