Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Nasim Ahmed
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State-sponsored crackdown on Muslims in France: International law defines as 'Persecution'
In late 2020, the French government’s decision to dissolve two of the most prominent and respected Muslim NGOs in the country, Baraka City, and the CCIF (Collective Against Islamophobia in France) by decree, shocked both French and European Muslims. While unknown at the time, this decision was to be...
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Putin’s aggression would be impossible without the US creating a world safe for autocracy
I have been watching the Russia-Ukraine crises unfold while reading Ben Rhodes’ new book, “After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made”. It is riveting, essential reading for anyone who wants to get a deeper understanding of Russian aggression and, more generally, the rise of authoritarianism around...
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With near consensus over Israeli apartheid, will UK Labour move to the right side of history?
The near unanimous consensus amongst leading human rights groups over Israel’s practice of apartheid has thrust the UK Labour Party into an awkward and somewhat bewildering dilemma. The cognitive dissonance which for decades has enabled Labour, along with every major political party, group and institution, to maintain support for...
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With apartheid an irrefutable reality, Israel’s democracy has always rested on blind faith
Amnesty International became the latest human rights group to label Israel an apartheid state. In a damning report titled “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians“ the rights group concludes that the occupation state has imposed a “cruel system of domination” and is committing “crimes against humanity.” Needless to say, Amnesty will not be...
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Israel throws millions into new clandestine hasbara initiative
Israel has long relied on its much-vaunted hasbara to conceal the reality of its domination of Palestine and subjugation of its people. Propaganda in short, the hasbara industry has been an invaluable tool in shaping the narrative and how it is viewed in the West, where the perception of...
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Will progressive Jews aligned with Muslims really have a ‘destructive consequence’?
Every now and then the influential Tel Aviv based think tank the Reut Institute publishes a report on the growing threat to Israel’s privileged status within the American body politic. Although its reports are often described as conspiratorial, bordering on Islamophobic, its assessment of the forces aligned against the...
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Islamophobia is a billion-dollar industry in the US; it’s time to uproot it
US lawmakers voted, last month, in support of a bill to create a State Department office tasked with monitoring and combating Islamophobia across the globe. With members of the House of Representatives casting their vote along party lines, a ten-seat majority held by the Democrats ensured a marginal victory...
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Is the US guilty of putting alliance with Israel over justice in 36-year murder case?
Renewed interest in the murder of Palestinian-American civil rights activist, Alex Odeh, has fuelled speculations that the US-Israel alliance has blocked justice and hindered the criminal investigation into the killing. No one has been formally arrested for the murder of Odeh, despite strong leads indicating that his killers were...
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US lawmakers vote to tackle global Islamophobia, but will Israel be investigated?
Judging by this week’s close vote on combating Islamophobia, and sensational revelations by a major US Muslim group, President Joe Biden’s attempt to move the US into a new period of history and exit the post-9/11 era while remaining, just about, the sole superpower, will face some of its...
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Remember this: it will be Israel, not Iran, which destroys any new nuclear deal
World leaders have been trying desperately to salvage the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+ countries: the US, Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany. The seventh round of talks in Vienna ended on Friday with very little to suggest that the...
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Remembering Resolution 181 calling for the partition of Palestine
UN Resolution 181 The Partition of Palestine...
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Does Britain’s sleepwalking into a racist two-tier citizenship system serve the UK’s interest?
The UK is sleepwalking into a racist two-tier system of citizenship following the revelation that Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had quietly introduced a highly controversial plan last week to strip people of citizenship without giving them notice to appeal. The question is, is this really about combatting Daesh terrorists...
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Rushing to support the ‘ugly, extremist face of Israel’ does not defend ‘free speech’
Britain is mired in another row about freedom of speech following Tuesday’s student protest against extreme right-wing Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely. To the dismay of Palestinian student groups, the 42-year-old was invited by the Debating Society at the London School of Economics (LSE) for what was billed as a...
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When it comes to climate change, the Middle East is in a bind
Alarm bells are ringing at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow over the perilous fate of the planet. The threat of a “doomsday” scenario was echoed in the speeches of world leaders taking part, warning of the “existential threat to human existence”. The message could not be clearer or...
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Remembering Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Kafr Qasem
In one of the worst massacres in Palestinian history, Israeli border police killed forty-nine residents of Kafr Qasem, including women and children...
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The Middle East is in desperate need of geopolitical recalibration, maybe it’s underway
One of the gains from the much talked about American “pivot” towards Asia is the genuine prospect for geopolitical recalibration. As implausible as this may sound, amongst the shifting sands of Middle Eastern politics, at least one part of the formula for engendering the much-needed regional adjustment is already...
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The checkpoint between academic freedom and Israel needs to be lifted
The public debate around three high-profile cases related to academic freedom in UK universities has exposed the contradictions and double standards at the centre of this row, the result of which will be nothing less than a hierarchy of protected speech and the right to hurt and offend some...
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By endorsing the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, Europe stifles academic freedom
The European Commission is set to incorporate the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism as part of Europe’s strategy to combat anti-Jewish racism. Details of the Commission’s plan were outlined yesterday in a 26-page programme. The three central goals are to prevent anti-Semitism in all its...
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Sudan is turning on former allies under the pretext of fighting corruption
Sudan’s Transitional Government has been accused of illegally expropriating the assets of Malaysia’s national oil company, Petronas, which could trigger legal proceedings against Khartoum in the International Court of Arbitration. Petronas is a multi-billion-dollar company, ranked amongst the largest corporations in the world with more than 20 years of successful...
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Middle East disinformation wars and the battle for narratives in the digital space
MEMO in conversation with Marc Owen Jones...
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Israel’s future is apartheid in a ‘solution of the three classes’
Reading the reflections of one of Israel’s most celebrated contemporary public intellectuals on the apparently never-ending occupation of Palestine, I was reminded of an old saying about the nature of truth. “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is...
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Blair mustn’t be allowed to ‘dodge’ responsibility for the chaos caused by the ‘war on terror’
Two schools of thought have emerged to explain the defeat of the West in the so-called “war on terror”. With proponents such as acclaimed CIA analyst and author Michael Scheuer, the first claims that it was a result of imperial hubris. “Al-Qaeda hates us not for who we are...
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Blair’s criticism of the Afghan withdrawal is a robust defence of Western militarism
The architects of the “war on terror” have hit back following the humiliating US withdrawal from Afghanistan. From the political leaders who sanctioned never-ending wars to the intellectual high priests in journalism, academia and think tanks who cooked it up, exponents of Western imperialism have been doing the media...
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Kier Starmer’s Labour is ‘purging’ Jews critical of Israel, says new report
The infighting within UK Labour over Israel took a surprising twist last week that could push the party into further disarray. Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) – the main grouping of left-wing Jews in the Labour party known for their highly critical stance on Israel – have accused Labour...