The London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official Hamid Reza Zakiri recently defected. In an interview with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Zakiri disclosed information regarding the cooperation of the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian intelligence apparatuses 1 with Saddam Hussein's regime, terror organizations such as the Palestinian and Egyptian Jihad organizations, Al-Qa'ida, and Hizbullah. Zakiri also discussed the 1998 political murders in Iran, ...
Arab media reactions to the Columbia space shuttle disaster have been diverse. While several papers printed editorials expressing sorrow and condolences, some columnists linked the incident to America's war on terrorism, the anticipated war on Iraq, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. A few mocked the tragedy, with particular emphasis on the death of Israeli astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon. "The American Space Program is Part of the Scientific Heritage of Humanity" An editorial of the London-based ...
The Religious Establishment Leading elements in Egypt's religious establishment have expressed clear support for developing Arab/Islamic nuclear weapons, based on Koranic verses that they claim permit, and even require, them doing so. The first to support Arab nuclear weapons was Sheikh of Al-Azhar Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi in the opening speech at a conference on the future of nuclear strategy held at the University of Asyut in October 1999, with the participation of nuclear scientists from ...
Introduction For some time, there has been debate in the Egyptian and Arab media on the question of whether Egypt, and Arabs in general, should strive to develop nuclear programs and obtain nuclear weapons. Those participating in the discussion include Egyptian nuclear scientists, politicians, and clerics. Israel's 1981 bombing of the Osirak nuclear facility in Iraq, and the decade-later U.S.-led international coalition effort to destroy Iraq's nuclear capability, had a formative effect on ...
In this wire: I. Saddam: The Modern Day Saladdin II. The Iraqi 'Day of Martyrdom' III. Iraq's Prison System: Torture, Amnesty, and Status of Political Prisoners IV. Northern Iraq Update on Ansar Al-Islam Iraqi Efforts to "Arabize" the Kurds Kurdish Officials on Iraqi War Crimes Three Kurdish Women Appointed as Judges Kurdish Oil Reconciliation between Two Kurdish Parties V. The Iraqi Opposition Interview with Iraq National Congress Representative in Lebanon/Syria The Iraqi Opposition Conference ...
In the midst of the recent large-scale student demonstrations in Iran calling for freedom of speech and condemning the death sentence handed down for Dr. Hashem Aghajari , 1 the regime's leaders, notably President Mohammad Khatami , called on the students to demonstrate for International Qods (Jerusalem) Day 2 against Israel and Zionism. In response to these calls, the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) 3 issued a statement critical of Islamist terror groups ...
I. Special Focus Syria: Economic Reform or Economic Stagnation Syria's predominantly state-controlled economy remains stagnant because of the failure of the political establishment to implement extensive economic reform. Falling growth rates, rapidly rising population, an old-fashion socialist command economy, inefficient and heavily-regulated public sector, and restricted political freedoms have deterred direct foreign investments or the emergence of a viable market economy. Syria's inadequate ...
Tunisian journalist Lafif Lakhdhar was recently fired from the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat , for his liberal views. The paper is owned by Saudi Prince, Khaled bin Sultan . Lakhdar used to write a weekly article for Al-Hayat's Sunday Madarat section for liberal journalists 1 . Lakhdhar is a leading figure in the drive for modernization and secularization in the Arab world, and his positions had long irritated the paper's Saudi management, as he had previously been suspended for two months ...
Introduction Depicting Jews – and sometimes also Zionists – as "the descendants of apes and pigs" is extremely widespread today in public discourse in the Arab and Islamic worlds. For example, in a weekly sermon in April 2002, Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the highest-ranking cleric in the Sunni Muslim world , called the Jews "the enemies of Allah, descendants of apes and pigs." 1 In one of his sermons, Saudi sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam and preacher at the Al-Haraam mosque ...
Ayatollah Jalal Al-Din Taheri, the Friday preacher of the city of Isfahan , recently announced his resignation from the post he had held for over three decades. He explained that his resignation was in protest of Iran's human rights violations, the regime's failure to meet the people's expectations of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the harsh situation of unemployment, poverty, the spread of prostitution, illegal drug use, and AIDS. Ayatollah Taheri's announcement came on the eve of the ...
