Politics

Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission August 11, 2013 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is informed that, at 10:20 p.m., on 10 August, officers from the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police have taken into custody, Mr. Adilur…

SUNDAY, AUGUST 04, 2013 – Iran’s new President Hassan Rohani took the oath of office at the Iranian Majlis (Parliament), one day after being endorsed by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Iranian lawmakers and senior officials as well…

Thousands of supporters of Egypt’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, have refused to leave their protest camps in Cairo as the interim government’s deadline draws to an end.   A large number of demonstrators are protesting the military coup against the…

Public Negotiations began amid great fanfare in Washington DC. Saeb Ereklat sat next to a war criminal (Tsipi Livni who is responsible for massacre of hundreds of civilians in Gaza) and across from the Israeli lobbyist Indyk (representing the US) after giving up…

At the heart of all politics lies cold, hard opportunism. New circumstances, changed alliances and unexpected events will always conspire to alter one’s calculations to benefit a core agenda. In the Middle East today, those calculations are being adjusted with…

The governing Popular Party (PP) is on a crusade – not only against fundamental rights such as health, education, housing, work, but also against sexual and reproductive freedoms. The PP wants to impose a model of society, not only at…

By Eric Walberg* The removal of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, by the army threatens to open a Pandora’s box. Al-Qaeda’s post-Bin Laden leader, (Egyptian) Ayman Zawahiri, has always been focused on combating local regimes and Arab rulers,…

By Ismail Serageldin* Egypt is once more doing things its own unique way. After millions of people went into the streets and in 18 days that shook the world succeeded in toppling the regime of Hosny Mubarak after 30 years…

Freedom and democracy. How I have come to loathe this phrase. Two-lofty-words-and-a-conjunction bandied around by handmaidens of Empire: verbal grenades that can gut entire nations. When I hear “freedom and democracy” I instinctively look for cover – just as “Allahu…

Success in free elections held after the “Arab Spring” protests in Tunisia and Egypt has brought Islamists to power through democratic means, and Islamist influence is on the rise throughout the Arab world. Much of the debate about liberal democracy’s…