Raising such a sensitive issue as Minority Rights in such a troubled part of the world as the Middle East (especially the Arab World) at this point in time, when external forces are once again actively involved in reshaping the region and when many of their officials and “experts” are loudly and unambiguously calling for “regime changes” and new Sykes-Picot arrangements of one type or another, is bound to raise some eyebrows as well, both as a reflection of confusion and dismay. Continue reading “Why Tharwa? Why Now?”
Author: Ammar
A Syrian dreamer & dissident, not necessarily in that order.
If Hillary can make it in Arabic, will Rousseau?
By Samar Farah | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
DAMASCUS, SYRIA – Nouri Bookstore, one of the main book dealers in Damascus, bulges and buckles with Arabic translations of Western texts – mostly books on computers, medicine, and cooking. On prominent display: a book by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke with the very loosely translated title “My Awakening, the Jewish Control over USA”; a copy of Hillary Clinton’s autobiography, and other works on Sept. 11 and the Iraq war. Continue reading “If Hillary can make it in Arabic, will Rousseau?”
Few Secular Observations Regarding Islamic Reformation
A paper presented at a conference in Europe
Abstract
The rise of Islamic Radicalism makes it more necessary than ever to come up with an equally Islamic alternative that can appeal to the Muslim peoples in the course of time. This alternative cannot be produced without reevaluating the very fundamentals of the Islamic faith, history and worldview, a process that will most likely assume the proportions of a full-fledged Reformation.
The argument here is that such a Reformation is indeed a must for the sake of salvaging the meager remains of Muslim identity and empowering the Muslim peoples to take a more active part in drawing up their future destiny(ies). The desired reformation, nonetheless, will need to satisfy certain secular conditions first so as to prove viable on the long run. After all, its influence is bound to extend beyond the sphere of practicing and believing Muslims to involve all the peoples of the world, religious affiliations notwithstanding. Continue reading “Few Secular Observations Regarding Islamic Reformation”
A View From Inside Syria
The text of a lecture given at the Woodrow Wilson Center during my first ever visit to Washington, D.C. which also marked my first venture back to the U.S. since I left in September of 1994.
The Syrian Shadow Government and the Possibilities of Change
Introduction
Syrian-American relations have always been much too complex, despite the fact that they have always been rather minimal. There was hardly a time when the relations between the two countries could be described as warm or cordial, not to mention strong. As such, the current observable lack of good will, to put it mildly, between the two sides is not exactly a new phenomenon or a peculiar development. Rather, there are many outstanding issues in Syrian-American relations that remain unresolved and that have not, in fact, been seriously addressed yet. Continue reading “A View From Inside Syria”
