Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Nasim Ahmed
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Iraq after the Arab Spring
This is the first article of a two part series examining the Iraqi revolution and the five years that followed it. Part II looks at Iraq’s ancient Sunni-Shia division . Read Part II here. The Arab Spring carried with it the Middle East’s hopes, dreams and aspirations. Like its cousins...
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The politics behind the flight of Christians from the Holy Land
In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, Christmas has very special significance, with services and processions by all of the Christian denominations, including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Ethiopian and Armenian. Celebrations stretch over more days than usual as some of the denominations celebrate on different days. The festive period will...
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Another iniquitous division of the Middle East maybe no better than a Daesh caliphate
One recurring theme during last week’s House of Common’s debate on airstrikes in Syria that merits far greater attention than it’s been given is the “imaginary line in the sand” between Syria and Iraq. In fact it’s gone completely under the radar, with barely any follow up conversation about...
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Cameron’s case for bombing Syria is more political grandstanding than comprehensive strategy
I was probably not alone in wanting to be surprised by British Prime Minister David Cameron as he made the case for air strikes against Daesh/ISIS in Syria to a packed parliament on Thursday. I was hoping that he would succeed where others have failed by setting out a...
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BDS has to be taken more seriously than Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson’s privileged upbringing may have rescued him from the ignominy of life as a jester, but his talent for buffoonery hasn’t gone entirely to waste in his political career. If anything, London’s mayor and Uxbridge/South Ruislip MP carries it as a badge of honour to tackle opponents head...
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Urgent question raised in parliament about Al-Sisi’s visit to Britain
On Tuesday, October 27, a full-page advertisement appeared in The Guardian, announcing the support of more than 300 UK-based scholars for an academic boycott of Israel. A week on, the list of supporters had grown to some 600. Criticism from the usual suspects was immediate, with condemnation by the Israeli...
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From Balfour to Rabin: Israel’s many contradictions
This week is the 98th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration – 2 November 1917– and the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on 4 November 1995. The events are each very significant in the history of Palestine-Israel: one is etched in Palestinians’ collective memory...
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It’s unlikely that Blair will be in the dock any time soon
Tony Blair’s fortified exterior is slowly beginning to crack. He may not, yet, feel justice closing in on him but he will certainly have become resigned to the fact that his political legacy is in tatters; that in itself must weigh heavily on a moral crusader like the former...
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Ideology is toxic, but a deadly ideology underpins the State of Israel
It takes blind faith and a refusal to face facts to ignore the ideological undercurrents fuelling the escalating violence in Jerusalem; its takes even more hypocrisy to go on to underwrite Israel’s ongoing assault on the Palestinians as though it is just another ordinary nation state facing extraordinary threats....
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With the rise of settler terrorism, can Israel still be described as a rational political actor?
Benjamin Netanyahu’s long pause as he addressed world leaders at the UN General Assembly in his inimitably disdainful manner will probably be the first image that comes to everyone’s mind in a conversation about Israel and its growing irrationality. As tempting as it is to focus on the cartoonish...
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To win the battle against war: target the suppliers
The mass proliferation of weapons is one of the major sources of instability in the world. Its devastating consequence is universally felt: prophets and politicians alike warned of its destructive effects upon society and human lives. Muslim scholars, in guarding Prophetic values and principals, proscribed selling arms during civil...
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Israel faces many existential threats but Hamas, Daesh and Iran are not amongst them
“Israel will not exist in 25 years,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei affirmed earlier this week. He joins a growing number of people, Jews and non-Jews, Zionists and non-Zionists, who paint a very bleak future of the future of the Jewish state. While Khamenei sees many existential threats to Israel, he...
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Refugees’ plight exposes the moral degeneration of modern politics
David Cameron’s hard-line refusal to take more refugees from the Middle East is dismaying, especially after the distressing image of a lifeless Syrian child, refused asylum by Canada and washed up on a Turkish tourist beach captured global attention. Thousands of people are calling for Britain to do more. The...
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Why is Cathy Newman still making false allegations when a British court has cleared Sheikh Raed?
Since becoming the front runner in the Labour leadership contest, Sheikh Raed Salah, to discredit him as a potential leader. Yesterday, it was the turn of Channel 4 news presenter Cathy Newman, who ambushed him with questions about his alleged links to Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites – including his...
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Recognition of historical injustice should not be a political afterthought
“Britain caused many of the world’s problems.” These are not the words of a “radicalised” individual “indoctrinated” by an extremist narrative; they are the words of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. This rare admission of guilt over the violent hangover from Britain’s colonial past was made in 2011 during...
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Cameron's anti-extremism speech failed miserably
David Cameron’s much-trailed speech in Birmingham this week about “the struggle of our generation” failed miserably to live up to its billing. Instead of tackling genuine concerns about terrorism, the prime minister displayed a worrying level of misleading rhetoric and what might best be described as wilful ignorance. To the...
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If we are really serious about destroying ISIS, why is our policy so misguided?
I have been watching a bit more television than usual, certainly more than I expected to in this blessed month of Ramadan. I was gripped, in part due to the never-ending conversations about Islam; partly because I despair at the rhetorical belligerence of neo-cons like Douglas Murray; and also,...
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RAND Corporation predicts a bleak future for Israel
The unsustainability of Israel’s occupation is acknowledged almost universally, yet its permanence is the only reality known to most Jews and Palestinians. Its supposed temporary nature has not prevented Israel from becoming more entrenched in its occupation, thus making any future peace deal unviable. This unbridgeable divide is reflected in...
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Charleston Church killings: is the 'war on terror' narrative costing American lives?
Following the tragic killings in Charleston Church, many noticed, once again, the striking difference between the mainstream media and political establishment’s coverage of violent crimes perpetrated by Muslims and those carried out by non-Muslims. It reinforced the widely held perception of media prejudice in the labelling of violence committed...
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How America keeps alive the ghost of the inquisition in Guantanamo Bay
A church apologist in the early fifteenth century, writing approvingly of the Inquisition, declared, “We persecuted the seeds of evil not only in men’s deeds, but in their thoughts.” The statement is emblematic of the centuries-old system of oppression that targeted thoughts, actions and beliefs of those deemed by...
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The Henry Jackson Society and the Degeneration of British Neo-conservatism
A new report by Spinwatch, a public interest investigation group, provides an in-depth scrutiny of The Henry Jackson Society and the Degeneration of British Neo-conservatism; it examines the history, activities and politics of the right-wing think tank, which is a leading exponent of neo-conservatism in Britain. Based at the University...
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Curtailing free speech and activism comes at a great cost to us all
Millions of Muslims around the world are buying dates for the coming month of Ramadan. Many will be careful not to purchase those produced by Israel in occupied Palestinian land. This growing act of solidarity is in no small part the result of sustained campaigning by organisations linked to...
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We need to challenge Israeli exceptionalism
On 15 May millions of Palestinians will be commemorating 67 years of the Nakba, the episode in their history described as the “catastrophe”, with the creation of the state of Israel on their land and subsequent ethnic cleansing. To astute observers, the seven decades of continued violence against, and dispossession...
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Egypt's junta has no intention of letting the people be free
My previous article on Egypt examined how “the heart of the Arab world” has been locked into foreign dependency since its formation as a modern nation state. I argued that Egypt, for decades, has endured “development of underdevelopment”; the process has fostered poverty and the impoverishment of Egyptian society...