From the Middle East Quarterly
By HEATHER ROBINSON
Spring 2009
Amid growing conservatism and ethnic and sectarian populism in Iraq, parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni Arab, has become the country’s chief advocate for liberal values including a free market, free press, religious pluralism, cooperation among democracies in fighting terror, …
Hopeful news out of Iraq this morning as an Iraqi court has voted to acquit Mithal al-Alusi, a great Iraqi champion of human rights, of prosecution for visiting Israel.
Alusi is a member of the Iraqi Parliament and founder of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation (DPIN), a grassroots Iraqi political party advancing human–including …
Last Friday I attended a talk organized by the Legal Project of Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum. The speaker was Geert Wilders, the Dutch Parliamentarian known for his controversial statements about Islam and Muslim immigrants to Europe, as well as for producing the film “Fitna.”
The film, whose title in Arabic means “disagreement …
Rereading Amir Taheri’s interview of Jesse Jackson that ran in Tuesday’s New York Post, I realize I may have fallen into a trap.
Yesterday I noted here on my blog that, while Jackson is not an official spokesperson for the Obama campaign, his speculation concerning Senator Obama’s plans for U.S. foreign policy and towards …
Granted, Jesse Jackson is not an official spokesman for the Obama campaign. But I don’t hear Obama repudiating the alarming statements Jackson has made in recent days concerning Barack Obama’s plans for U.S. foreign policy generally, and specifically with regard to Israel.
Last week at the First World Policy Conference in Evian, France, Jackson, who …
In today’s American Spectator online, I have a piece about the Iraqi Parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, whose sons were murdered in February 2005 following his visit to Israel to attend a counterterrorism conference there. Over the weekend, I received an alarming e-mail from al-Alusi’s friend Esther Kandel, who alerted me …
On Tuesday, members of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary wing of the government, stormed the offices of Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, arrested and interrogated him. In 2003, Mr. Choudhury, editor of the newspaper The Weekly Blitz, was arrested and tortured for seventeen months. His “crimes” included trying to visit Israel, investigating the …
In today’s New York Times Sabrina Tavernise reports that young people in Iraq have begun to turn against extremist Islam.
“The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore,” she quotes one young man as saying.
Her reporting also contains some interesting and important facts that …
My opinion piece in today’s Jewishworldreview.com addresses Rudy Giuliani’s demonstrated commitment to Israel, including in times when it won him no accolades.
An added bonus: my dear friend Julia Gorin and I, unbeknownst to each other, were at work simultaneously on pieces on this subject, and those pieces are featured today on jewishworldreview.com side by …
Just got word that on Tuesday, New York’s lawyers, organized by the New York City Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, and New York County Law Association, in cooperation with law schools and human rights organizations, will hold a public rally in support of Pakistan’s attorneys.
The rally will take place at 60 Center Street …