360 Articles
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360° Analysis / Ahmed Ben Bella / Algeria / Ali Kafi / Bouteflika / Chadli Benjedid / James Dorsey / Jeunesse Sportive de la Saoura / NATO / Politics / Protest / Soccer / Union Sportive de la Médina d'El Harrach / Middle East / AfricaWith President Bouteflika recovering from a stroke in a French hospital, Algeria's rising tension among soccer fans could lead the country towards an uprising, argues James M. Dorsey. Algeria is competing to be the next Arab nation to witness a popular revolt. That is assuming soccer is a barometer of rising discontent in a region experiencing a wave of mass protests that have already toppled the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen, and sparked civil war in Syria. In fact, there is increasingly little doubt that soccer, a historic nucleus of protest in Algeria, is signaling that popular discontent could again spill into the streets of Algiers and other major cities. Two...
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360° Analysis / Aleppo / Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool / Bashar Al-Assad / Damascus / Free Syrian Army / Jabhat Al-Nusra / Jihad / Jordan / Lattakia / Nicholas A. Heras / Politics / Qatar / Saudi Arabia / Sayyida Zeinab / Syria / Turkey / Middle East / Global SecurityAlwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool is a growing force against the al-Assad government in Syria. It is poised to become one of the most heavily observed and commonly cited fighting forces of the Syrian Civil War. Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool (Brigades of the Descendants of the Prophet) is an increasingly powerful national umbrella organization of locally-based Syrian Sunni Islamist armed opposition fighting groups which are active belligerents against the al-Assad government. It is a “franchise” organization whose constituent kata’ib (battalions) announce that they are formally part of, and fight under the banner of, the national “Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool.” The number of kata...
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360° Analysis / Bashar Al Assad / Children / Damascus / Exile / Firsthand Account / Human Impact / Jennifer F Helgeson / Politics / Syria / Syrian Civil War / Syrian Observatory for Human Rights / Tammam Azzam / Global Change / Middle East“Without our voices, we have no choices. And without choices, we could be stuck forever in violence.” A reflection on discussions with Syrians in and outside of Syria. This is the first of a two part series. The civil conflict in Syria has raged for over two years. The large majority of aid workers outside of the United Nations World Food Program are no longer allowed within the country’s borders; they wait in Beirut, Lebanon and do what is possible from there. Now, potential intervention from external military forces appears to be gaining some traction. There are new reports of car bombs and slaughter on a daily basis, and without the media being allowed into the...
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1948 / 1971 War / 360° Analysis / Bangladesh / Bengali / Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed / Fair Observer / India / Indian Muslims / Islamabad / Pakistan / Pakistan Elections 2013 / Politics / Shrikant Krishan / AsiaIn its 66 years of existence, Pakistan has been far from democracy and nowhere near a beacon of Islam. In a recent Fair Observer article, Pakistan: Democracy in a Confessional State, Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed states: “There is no denying that the erstwhile modernist Pakistani leadership tried to make Pakistan both democratic and Islamic. However, no constitutional formula could find the proper balance.” As is the approach of the Pakistani establishment in general, Ahmed is very tepid in identifying the fault lines that underlie the country. It has hardly been a case of finding the proper balance; it has been an imbalance of gigantic proportions. In its 66 years of existence, Pakistan...
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360° Analysis / Algerian War / Colonialism / Extremism / France / Informed Comment / Islam / Juan Cole / Muslims / Russia / Stalin / terrorism / Tsar / United States / World War 1 / World War 2 / Europe / Middle East / Africa / Global Security / AsiaBy Juan ColeTerrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents, argues Juan Cole. Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States. As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the 20th Century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than or different from other human beings, but...
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360° Analysis / Boston Bombings / Chechen-Russian War / Chechens / Chechnya / Iliana Hagenah / international security / terrorism / Tsarnaev / United States / Europe / Global SecurityHistorically, radical jihadists in Chechnya do not have the ideological ambition to form a network of Chechens against the US, argues Iliana Hagenah. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher once called Chechen rebels "freedom fighters" but they are now seen by many as radical Islamists. Chechen Islamists have recently been making the headlines. Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two brothers who recently bombed the Boston Marathon, are suspected to be products of the radical Islamist movement that has gripped Chechnya and parts of the Chechen Diaspora. Chechen history offers clues about whether these radical jihadi Islamists are part of a broader anti-American network...
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360° Analysis / Arab Spring / Bhutto / Bilal Ahmed / Democracy / Imran Khan / Islamabad / Nawaz Sharif / Pakistan / Pakistan Elections 2013 / Pakistan Spring / Pervez Musharraf / Politics / Rawalpindi / AsiaBy Bilal AhmedBilal Ahmed argues that the discourse surrounding democracy in Pakistan is flawed, and that its liberal republican articulations will come to provoke additional mobilization in future years. It was the end of January. Tahir ul-Qadri's Long March had just ended in Islamabad. There were inspirational images of tens of thousands cheering on his fiery speeches, but we were all aware of what was happening. Qadri had strong links to General Pervez Musharraf. His populist stance against Pakistani political dysfunctions meant that the entire event was likely a performance to strengthen military influence on the civilian government. Many Pakistanis read the Long March along these lines,...
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360° Analysis / Bhutto / Education / illteracy / Imran Khan / Ishtiaq Ahmed / Islamabad / Karachi / Pakistan / Pakistan Elections 2013 / Pervez Musharraf / Politics / Taliban / AsiaNo state can tolerate a challenge to its monopoly of power from within; in other words, a state within a state is a contradiction in terms of state sovereignty Hopefully by the time this article is published, Pakistan would, despite the reign of terror let loose by the Taliban on the very idea of democracy, and especially on some parties, have completed the election process, and the results would be at our hands. Whosoever wins a majority or most seats and on that basis forms a coalition government, would have to have some concrete and practical measures to address a number of egregious problems, which if not tackled quickly and effectively can render Pakistan a failed state....
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2011 Constitution / 360° Analysis / Casablanca / Economic Reform / IT / Jean AbiNader / Justice and Development Party / Labor Market / Morocco / Rabat / Subsidy / Youth Unemployment / Finance & Economics / Middle EastJean AbiNader reflects on Morocco's challenge of reforming the labor market and realigning government subsidies. After a year away, I returned to Morocco today for ten days. I am sure that I will find the visit both challenging and satisfying. My central interest is to better understand the tangible governance issues facing the PJD (Justice and Development Party)-led government. It continues to struggle with advancing its agenda through parliament and achieving a consensus among its coalition partners on policies that effectively attack unemployment, the budget deficit, corruption, and social reforms. Most organic laws required to enable reforms promised in the 2011 constitution are...