Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

And my co-worker H. , yes, that H. , couldn't be happier that this finally happend .  This is the same dude who called wahhabists the greatest people on earth and called the Shia infidels, and yet he is so very excited that Iran is "200 working houres away"- his information, not mine- from [...]

The Baathist regime in Syria, after years of brutal repression of Islamists, now seems to be courting the local branch of the Muslim Brothers. Or so says the NYT:The Syrian government has gone further to accommodate religious conservatives than in the past, officials and religious scholars said.It has appointed a sheik, as opposed to a [...]

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad appointed a new vice-president today — Najah Al Attar, the Arab world’s first woman to hold the position.“Attar will be responsible for following culture policy according to the directions of the president,” SANA said. Attar, part of the old guard in the ruling Baath Party, was culture minister for more [...]

Not that I am for calling anyone an infidel or stocking secterian fires or anything, but given that this is what the syrian Alawites’ believe in (Ali, the prophet’s cousin to be the vehicle of a divine incarnation of God), how is it that the region’s sunnis are defending Syria’s Alawi regime? Is it out [...]

The syrian opposition leaders are uniting against Bashar.Opposition groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, liberals, communists and Kurds, launched a “National Salvation Front” and issued a “National Programe for Change” during a six-month transition to democracy in a post-Assad era.Fourteen exiled politicians — all men — appeared on the platform at a joint news conference. Former [...]

Ammar Qurabi, a dentist who serves as the spokesman of a Syrian rights group, was arrested in Damascus after he returned from a trip to the US:Qurabi, who represents the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Syria, had left Syria in January, associates said. He spent more than a month in the United States, attending [...]

Syrian expat friends tell me the appointment of Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara as Syria’s new vice-president and the Cabinet reshuffle represent the removal of the last vestiges of Hafez’s clique. “The triumph of technocrats over Baathist dinosaurs,” one commenter on Josh Landis’ blog half-heartedly rejoiced. Though Al-Shara did serve as Hafez’s personal envoy to Arab [...]

As the debate rages on over the publication of controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Arab bloggers are reacting with their own take on the events that have unfolded over the past few days. Early on Jyllands-Posten stated that the cartoons were a test of whether ...

Syrian blogger Ayman Hourieh reports that Syrian ISPs are censoring Wired magazine. Ayman’s account of his conversation with his ISP’s tech support asking why the site was blocked is worth the quick detour. SyriaMirror.net reports, and Syrian blog readers confirm, that the government has also censored its first blog, Al-Domari of Syria, which takes its [...]

Don’t miss Nora Younis’ excellent and full account of the night when the Sudanese refugees were dispersed. It’s worth reading in full, as are the revealing comments. Those looking for the backstory behind former Syrian Vice-President Abd al-Halim Khaddam’s recent, explosive comments should check out the two most recent posts on Syria Comment. So is Khaddam [...]

I’m rushing out the door on my way to Jordan (so no posts for a few days), but this story caught my eye amid the morning news’ usual sad fare (anarchy in Somalia, missile strikes in Gaza, 40 dead in DR Congo clashes)… Those in the mood for more serious reading shouldn’t miss Hugh McCloud’s Dec. [...]

Here’s an interesting take, by a Lebanese journalist, on why young Syrians don’t really get the Lebanese independence movement because than can’t begin to imagine it as a separate place: In clear imitation of the one expression of Lebanese political will that had been most painful to the Syrian regime, the authorities commandeered one of Damascus’ [...]

Here’s an interesting take, by a Lebanese journalist, on why young Syrians don’t really get the Lebanese independence movement because than can’t begin to imagine it as a separate place:In clear imitation of the one expression of Lebanese political will that had been most painful to the Syrian regime, the authorities commandeered one of Damascus’ [...]

There is an excellent story from the current issue of The American Prospect that is making the rounds on American political blogs on John Bolton’s role as US Ambassador to the United Nations. It covers a lot of ground, but there is one thingI’d like to pick out and focus on in particular, because I [...]

There is an excellent story from the current issue of The American Prospect that is making the rounds on American political blogs on John Bolton’s role as US Ambassador to the United Nations. It covers a lot of ground, but there is one thingI’d like to pick out and focus on in particular, because I [...]