NEWS
What Is North Korea Sending to the Assad Regime?
Two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country’s chemical weapons program were intercepted in the past six months. A confidential report by a panel of independent UN experts, which was submitted to the Security Council earlier this month and seen by Reuters on Monday, gave no details on when or where the interdictions occurred or what the shipments contained.
ANALYSING THE MASHREQ
According to Numbers, Most Terrorism Is Not Islamic
Ask most people who has committed the worst terrorist attack in Europe in the past decade or two. They’ll probably say Muslims. They would be wrong.
LEVANT & MESOPOTAMIA
Aggressive Foreign Policy of the Islamic State
The ideology of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that conquered substantial parts of Syria and Iraq has been described as based on Salafi-jihadism. The group has rapidly become a security threat to Middle Eastern countries, as it has challenged the Middle Eastern order and attempted to redraw the map of the region. Additionally, it has threatened Western countries, encouraging murders, suicide killings, and spreading fear among the their respective populations.
NORTH AFRICA
Al-Azhar and Sisi’s Regime: Cooperation and Conflict
Tensions between Egypt’s religious leadership and its political leadership—represented by the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, and Egypt’s President respectively—have reached a point where they can no longer be concealed. The underlying disagreement has become public, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has raised this issue in his public speeches, the most recent of which dealt with verbal divorce, to the point where Sisi told el-Tayeb, “you’ve exhausted me, honorable Imam.” The Council of Senior Scholars, which is headed by the Sheikh of al-Azhar, rejected Sisi’s call for divorce to be documented in order for it to be recognized….
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ARABIAN PENINSULA
The Gulf Crisis: Fighting It Out Down and Dirty
In the three-month old Gulf crisis, nothing is too expensive or too down and dirty when it comes to buying influence, garnering soft power, and trying to win hearts and minds.
TURKEY & IRAN
Turkey’s New Curriculum: Less Evolution, More Erdoğan, More Islam
ISTANBUL — With President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plans for greater powers firmly on track, Turkey’s government has set about shaping the country’s future outside the halls of parliament. Last month, as parliamentarians brawled over — and finally voted for — constitutional changes designed to establish Erdoğan’s long-awaited presidential system, the ministry of education published a draft curriculum for the new school year.
INTERCULTRAL
Syrian Children: When Going to School Becomes a Dream
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ATHEISTS AND MINORITIES
The Persecuted Yazidis
If freedom of religious belief is a fundamental human right, then surely no people is more deserving of universal sympathy and support than the persecuted Yazidis. With a long history behind them of victimization and oppression under Ottoman rule – more than 70 genocidal massacres are on record – in recent years their maltreatment has, if anything, intensified.
ORIENT-OCCIDENT RELATIONS
Rohingya Plight Feeds Muslim Assertiveness
The plight of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority is becoming the Muslim world’s latest rallying call emulating the emotional appeal of the Palestinians in the second half of the 20th century.
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