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MENASource

Jun 14, 2016

The Orlando Shooter and the Misnomer of Homegrown Terrorism

By MENASource

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a gunmen entered Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Three hours later, at least 50 people were dead, including the gunman, and another 50 were injured. The attack, the worst mass shooting in US history, was carried out by Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old US citizen born […]

MENASource

Jun 9, 2016

The Impact of Ennahda’s Shift Away from Political Islamism

By H.A. Hellyer

The international media greeted a monumental announcement by the leader of Tunisian’s main Islamist movement, Rachid Ghannouchi in mid-May with a variety of reactions. Ghannouchi’s declaration that Ennahdha would separate the movement’s religious mission (al-da’wah) from its political imperatives (al-siyasah) was taken to mean a step towards secularism; a departure from its historical Islamist orientation; […]

North Africa

MENASource

Jun 7, 2016

New Pressure on Saudi Arabia is Changing the Logic of the Yemeni Peace Talks

By Jillian Schwedler

Two developments in Yemen over the past week illustrate both promise and concern for Yemen’s peace talks. Escalated fighting in the Marib and Shabwa provinces took more than a hundred lives, but the latest prisoner swap of pro-Hadi and Houthi fighters indicates that the peace process has not collapsed. With increased US pressure on Saudi […]

Saudi Arabia Yemen

MENASource

Jun 7, 2016

Who is Persecuting the Copts?

By Alaa Al Aswany

In the 1930s, the Ministry of the Interior under the Wafd administration announced a competition for positions in the ministry. When the results were not made public, the entrants complained to the Prime Minister, Mustafa Nahhas who summoned the official in charge of the competition to ask him the reason for this. The official whispered […]

North Africa

MENASource

May 31, 2016

Tunisian Economic Reforms: Between Textiles and Terrorism

By Mohamed Malouche and Scott Mastic

Last month the US-Tunisia Joint Economic Commission (JEC) met in Washington to reaffirm economic partnership between the two countries and promote growth in key sectors.  The meeting was an opportunity for Tunisia’s leaders to demonstrate their commitment to economic reforms and for the United States to commit further economic support to Tunisia in the form […]

Economy & Business North Africa

MENASource

May 27, 2016

What an Islamic State Offensive in Aleppo means for US Policy

By Faysal Itani

On May 26 the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) launched a successful westward offensive in Syria’s northern Aleppo countryside. ISIS effectively encircled thousands of insurgent fighters in the town of Marea and is now less than 2 miles from the critical opposition-held city of Azaz. Although ISIS only seized six villages and may yet lose […]

Syria Turkey

MENASource

May 25, 2016

The Non-Option of Disengagement from the Middle East

By Frederic C. Hof

In 2003 American forces successfully took Baghdad, but without the benefit of a ‘day after’ civil-military stabilization plan. The unintended results: a chaotic occupation, a vicious insurgency, the premature withdrawal of the United States from Iraq in 2011, and the subsequent rise of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh). This and other disappointments—Libya 2011 (again […]

Iraq Libya

MENASource

May 25, 2016

Small Signs of Hope in the Yemeni Peace Process

By Jillian Schwedler

UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has worked tirelessly to keep Yemeni peace talks alive in Kuwait, expressing cautious optimism.  He described the truce on the ground as holding at around 80 to 90 percent, even as the delegations of the Houthi-GPC alliance and the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi express frustrations at […]

Yemen

MENASource

May 20, 2016

The Nakba, Sykes-Picot and Today’s Arab World

By H.A. Hellyer

On May 16, precisely one hundred years ago, two British and French politicians signed the now infamous ‘Sykes-Picot’ agreement, which, according to one view, was responsible for setting in motion turmoil in the Arab world. Those two names of ‘Sykes’ and ‘Picot’ would probably have passed away into history with few people noticing, except that […]

MENASource

May 20, 2016

A Swift Response to Egypt’s April 25 Dissent

By Khaled Dawoud

Egypt’s opposition was dealt a heavy blow early this week after several courts sentenced 152 protesters, arrested on April 25, to two to five years in prison. They were detained for demonstrating against the maritime border agreement signed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia in early April, ceding Cairo’s sovereignty over the two strategic Red Sea […]

North Africa