Understanding the Middle East and Islam

There are some serious changes taking place at 'Understanding the Middle East and Islam'. First, Understanding the Middle East and...

Reports coming out reveal that the CIA hired Blackwater to kill/ assassinate Al Qaeda figures. Somehow, the vision of the modern day Richar...

Postings for the month of August have been sparse, I know, for two reasons: 1. I have been doing a lot of crap to prepare for leaving for Ir...

It's just too good to be true. There is nothing, nothing, like reading that Erik Prince (founder, Blackwater among other skeezy and sket...

So, yes, this is a blog about the Middle East, but you all have known me to tangent over to discussions of steak , red wine and food on oc...

From Arabic Media Shack : "Alberto Fernandez, one of the few high-level US Foreign Service Officers who knows Arabic well enough to sp...

WHY on earth did I JUST find out about these guys ? Better question, can I come along next time, please? These guys are taking 'calling ...

Even though (or maybe because of the fact that?) I am a humanitarian in heart and mind, I have always been skeptical about American efforts ...

Saad Eddin Ibrahim (top Egyptian political/ human rights reform advocate and dissident) has a great article , "The Mideast's New Sp...

Juan Cole has a reveals what Andrew Sullivan called an "uncomfortable truth" on his blog today weith regard to the US condemnatio...

The Senate (despite the efforts of Lieberman, Kerry and Kennedy) does the right thing by voting against inclusion of the F-22 in the militar...

Peter Bergen on why Afghanistan is worth it. Would be a good read alongside Rory Stewart's argument against a major commitment there.

Interesting article on the Badakhshan province in Afghanistan. The province is unique for many reasons; for example, in recent years poppy f...

This is what I know is going to be a great article on Iran by Roger Cohen in the current NY Review of Books when I get around to reading it...

There is a tremendously revealing article on who is really in charge in Iran in the NYTimes today. Michael Slackman makes it very clear that...

In the ring: Bacevich v. Kilcullen . If Bacevich had a tag team, it would be Rory Stewart;. in Killcullen's corner would be Patraeus. I...

Congress needs to put the smack down on F-22s; not only are not even used on today's battlefields, their renewal make troops less safe b...

Instead of evidence, an assumption, that any Uighur in Afghanistan was there for a terrorist training camp, landed Uighurs in Guantanamo; Ri...

Reading the International Herald Tribune (basically select articles from the NYTimes) here in Essaouira, Morocco, I stumbled across two info...

Elaine Sciolino raises the issue Rafsanjani's Khamanei-Ahmadinejad like past in discussing the meaning and significance of his current s...

swine flu, I am going to be pissed. "In a statement to Rudaw newspaper, KRG Minister of Health Dr. Zrian Osman expressed concern that h...

I was going to take a hiatus from my blog while in Essaouira, besides of course posting many, many pictures of my lovely life here in my roo...

My view and my room. Essaouira, Morocco. (Riad Mimouna)

It's time for another trip. Tomorrow morning we leave for Essaouira, an awesome town on the beach about two hours west of Marrakech, Ara...

For the past few months I have been trying every now and then to brainstorm about a new, catchy, blog title. "Understanding the ME and...

Jason Jones plays football (American style) and hooks up with Iranian hip hop artist Hich Kas in this Daily Show episode . I haven't hea...

Several of the top blogs on the Middle East - Middle East Institute, The Arabist - have introduced The Bousra Exchange in past days. I defin...

I am on a Marc Lynch kick. (See two posts below.) He wrote an important article in The National, " Don't Just Watch ", this w...

Marc Lynch reports here on Yusuf al-Qardawi's new book, Fiqh al Jihad or the Jurisprudence of Jihad , which refutes Al Qaeda's vis...

Marc Lynch or Abu Ardvark, who many of you know is my most favorite Middle East scholar, has joined CNAS (Center for a New American Securit...

Who knows what is going to happen with the Kurds and Arabs in Iraq. I just hope they can keep it together so I can get on with my life. (I a...

The Arabist introduced a great news source on the Middle East: Majlis . It seems like a great site that does their own projects and collects...

With Gnaoua group after their performance.

Maybe it's because I am in Morocco, but I just found about "Hurt Locker", a new movie on Iraq and thought I'd spread the w...

Warning: This post is much longer than usual due to outakes from the article. I won't make a habit of it. “The Irresistible Illusion”, ...

Rory Stewart and Prof. Andrew Bacevich , both of military and academic minds, have recently come out with articles questioning the Obama ad...

Yet another stunning example of 'justice' Muslims receive in this world - inside or outside the Middle East, inside or outside court...

I will be posting on last night's Murshida meeting and lecture later today. In addition, I will be going with some the students from the...

I am so incredibly excited: tonight, one of the instructors at the American Language Center (ALC) here in Marrakech here has organized for a...

Instead of calm after the storm, it seems there is definitely some bad weather in middle and upper levels in the Iranian system. Massive dem...

"Kill Company" by Raffi Khatchadourian in the recent New Yorker is a damning, disturbing, devastating, and depressing portrayal o...

I just finished reading The Weight of a Mustardseed by Wendell Steavenson, a female British journalist. The book focuses on the life of Kem...

I have been totally OOC (Out Of Commission) (also known to be used as Out Of Control) for over a week now, and forgot to give notice before ...

This is the most inspiring thing I have seen since reading Paul Farmer's Mountains Beyond Mountains about PIH's - Partners in Health...

Rami Khoury writes an broad yet important synopsis of reactions in the Arab world to the situation in Iran. Sad, but true.

Jason Jones has had some truly spectacularly awesome reports from Iran this week on the Daily Show. Wednesday night's segment, in which ...

Excellent interview with Iranian-American Hooman Majd that Andrew Sullivan posted here earlier today. Here is the interview in its entirety ...

Mark Sanford is a liar and an adulterer, but worst in my book, he is a dirty, dirty hypocrit. He has always been Jimmy Judgy about the sex l...

The souqs, where I will be spending a significant amount of time.

Kotubia mosque, Marrakech.

I am the group leader for this fine group of Arabic students here in Marrakech.

I learned the coolest piece of history today: The pool/lake at the Menara in Marrakech was built in the 11th Century by the first Berber dyn...

Andrew Sullivan just reported here that T he Guardian has this firsthand account that the men carrying out these massacres are hired hands,...

Andrew Sullivan, The Guardian, C NN, Huffington Post, and several other news sources are reporting that there were massacres last night and...

CNN is reporting that mullahs are joining the protests. An important development.

Obama is just too good at this and this.

This is a great exchange between Fred Barnes (who clearly has NEVER asked an Iranian if they remember 1953 and furthermore understands litt...

McCain: "I don't consider it meddling when you stand on the side of the principles that made our nation the greatest..." What ...