Copyright 2013 Middle East Forum Tue, 21 May 2013 06:17:16 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Middle East Forum :: Writings http://www.meforum.org webmaster@meforum.org (Middle East Forum) webmaster@meforum.org en-us http://www.meforum.org/3511/syria-madness Tue, 21 May 2013 06:11:46 EST "Syria's Descent into Madness" is the cover story of the May 27 Time magazine, recounting the act of ritual cannibalism by a Syrian rebel commander that transfixed the West last week. The sort of atrocities viewable on YouTube - the slaughter by http://www.meforum.org/3510/dumb-and-dumber Mon, 20 May 2013 14:27:32 EST Errors by the party in power can get America into trouble; real catastrophes require consensus. Rarely have both parties been as unanimous about a development overseas as they have in their shared enthusiasm for the so-called Arab Spring during the first http://www.meforum.org/3509/saudi-arabia-nuclear-bomb Sun, 19 May 2013 20:21:23 EST As the impasse over Tehran's nuclear program worsens, those most likely to be directly effected by an Iranian bomb are showing greater alarm. While the media fixates on Israel and its possible reaction, other regional players have no less at stake. http://www.meforum.org/3508/islamic-forced-conversions Thu, 16 May 2013 15:40:13 EST The lost history of Christians forced to convert to Islam—or die—is reemerging, figuratively and literally. According to the BBC: "Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony [last Sunday] at the Vatican—a list which http://www.meforum.org/3507/media-muhammad-blackout Thu, 16 May 2013 15:35:22 EST Yet again depictions of Islam's prophet Muhammad are causing controversy. The French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo has published a special edition released in January 2013 entitled La Vie de Mahomet, 1ère partie: Les débuts d'un prophète ("The Life of http://www.meforum.org/3506/sheikh-abdullah-badr Tue, 14 May 2013 10:27:26 EST American Middle East analysts often claim that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate organization, nothing like the more radical Salafis. If true, what do we make of the fact that the most intolerant, anti-American, hate-filled Salafis and jihadis http://www.meforum.org/3505/james-dobbins Mon, 13 May 2013 04:53:12 EST With little comment from conservative media, President Obama last week appointed James Dobbins as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, the high-profile job long occupied by the late Richard Holbrooke. Dobbins is a prominent exponent of the idea http://www.meforum.org/3504/christians-exodus-muslim-world Sun, 12 May 2013 17:54:50 EST A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other. We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world—much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was http://www.meforum.org/3503/imran-firasat-innocent-prophet Wed, 8 May 2013 13:19:13 EST On April 29, 2013, a Spanish court dismissed a hate speech charge filed against Imran Firasat. While this is an important victory for Freedom of Expression, Imran's case is far from over. He is still under the threat of having his refugee status revoked http://www.meforum.org/3502/boston-bombing-right-wingers-islamophobia Wed, 8 May 2013 12:22:55 EST How did scholars of the Middle East and those engaged in moonlighting (non-specialists who write about the region) react to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013? Before the smoke cleared, some were predicting that the perpetrators would be http://www.meforum.org/3501/bashar-assad-syria-civil-war Wed, 8 May 2013 05:33:12 EST To hear Obama administration officials talk about the Syrian civil war, you'd think it all hinges on the fate of one man. According to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Syrian President Bashar Assad "calculated that he could shoot his way out" of the http://www.meforum.org/3500/majlis-shura-al-mujahidin-gaza Tue, 7 May 2013 16:28:14 EST In recent weeks and months there has been a cacophony of Salafi protest that has swept Gaza against the ruling Hamas government related to treatment of prisoners, corruption, and ability to practice Islam as they see fit. One of the groups speaking out http://www.meforum.org/3499/snaking-the-scotch Mon, 6 May 2013 15:10:19 EST Ethnocentrism is the snake in Christianity's garden, and last week it slithered into the Church of Scotland. It took the form of a screed denying the special claim of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. By no coincidence, the most successful http://www.meforum.org/3498/silencing-speech-on-islam Mon, 6 May 2013 05:34:59 EST Bavaria's Interior Ministry announced April 12, 2013, that the provincial Office of Constitutional Protection (Verfassungsschutz) will monitor local chapters of the website Politically Incorrect (PI) and the small conservative Freedom Party (Die http://www.meforum.org/3496/saeed-abedini-iran Thu, 2 May 2013 02:20:59 EST In January, an American Christian was sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence on charges of "endangering national security" in Iran. A 32-year-old married father of two from Boise, Idaho, Pastor Saeed Abedini traveled to his country of origin last http://www.meforum.org/3495/the-iranian-nuclear-crisis-a-memoir Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:48:44 EST Few issues in recent years have seen as intensive high-level, international negotiations as Iran's nuclear program. Unfortunately, the account by Mousavian, an Iranian policymaker and scholar, will probably become the definitive book about that effort. A http://www.meforum.org/3494/india-israel-ties Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:42:57 EST Since their establishment in January 1992, Israeli-Indian relations have improved dramatically. Israel has emerged as a major Indian trading partner in the Middle East with bilateral trade rising from a meager US$100 million to over $6.6 billion.[1] http://www.meforum.org/3493/new-associate-fellows-appointed Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:24:52 EST PHILADELPHIA — The Middle East Forum is pleased to announce the appointment of David P. Goldman, Lars Hedegaard, Dawn Perlmutter, and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz as associate fellows. These accomplished experts have previously worked with the Forum in various http://www.meforum.org/3492/churches-under-islam Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:21:25 EST Christians throughout the Islamic world are under attack. Unlike Muslim attacks on Christians, which are regularly confused with a myriad of social factors, the ongoing attacks on Christian churches in the Muslim world are perhaps the most visible http://www.meforum.org/3491/egypt-st-mark-cathedral Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:28:24 EST What really happened on Sunday, April 7, 2013, during the St. Mark Cathedral attack in Cairo, where two Christians were killed and dozens wounded by Egyptian forces? As usual, different reports gave different versions, but now that the smoke has settled,