At a town hall meeting here last night on U.S. foreign policy, a former Pentagon spokesman and a Syrian scholar found much to criticize not only in the Bush administration’s war on terror, but also in the Islamic world and the underlying causes of terrorism there. Continue reading “Scholar criticizes Islamic world, war on terror”
Special to The Daily Star
An interesting phenomenon has been taking place of late: coverage in the international media of the activities of Arab and Muslim terrorists has given way, for a short while at least, to a consideration of Arab liberal intellectuals and activists and their potential role in the longed-for reform process in the Arab world. Continue reading “Arab Liberals: the last hope for reform”
Tharwa Editorial
One of the main criticisms that the Tharwa Project has received focuses on its emphasis on the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in the region, noting that this could easily conflict with other avowed goals of the Project, namely: the interest in democracy promotion in the region and raising the standards of civic awareness and citizenship therein. The emphasis on minorities, we are told, could eventually increase the feeling of non-belonging and separation among minority groups, further isolating them from the rest of society and further feeding the growing ethnic and sectarian suspicions that exist between minority and majority populations in the region. As such, wouldn’t it be better to simply focus on democratization and citizen rights? Continue reading “Why Minorities?”
A Heretic’s Log: A series of philosophical essays written between September 20, 2002 and July 15, 2004.
When it comes to the issue of poverty in the world, there are no lights at the end of the tunnel, although there is a need for lights to be present all through it.
We can easily assert today, and studies in this regard are too numerous to mention, that the majority of the peoples of Earth are not receiving their “fair and reasonable” share of the material benefits of globalization. Meanwhile people’s expectations regarding what constitutes this fair and reasonable share are being reshaped daily, making it ever harder for their attainment to take place and creating a condition of constant frustration as a consequence. Continue reading “The Rich and the Poor”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 