Tripoli: An Unfinished Victory

This article was also posted on MidEastPosts.


Twenty-four hours ago, after a rapid advance on several fronts, the fight for control of Libya appeared to be over. The battle was finally taken to Tripoli on Saturday in what the media labelled “the final push” and by the time the sun set on Sunday the the six-month brutal and frequently stalemated campaign appeared to be at an end; Tripoli had as good as fallen, pro-Gadaffi forces had largely melted away, people were celebrating in the streets and Gadaffi’s two eldest sons were supposedly in rebel custody. 

This is NOT the London Spring

This article is also published on the MasterPeace blog.

Twitter and the blogosphere are alive with the sound of a significant minority of clearly deluded individuals declaring that the London Riots are comparable to the Arab Spring.

Mubarak: The Trial of the Century Must Be Above Reproach

This article is also published on both the MidEastPosts and MasterPeace blogs.

On August 3rd, as the entire Arab world watched with rapt attention, a legal circus unfolded in the police academy building in New Cairo, temporarily designated as a courthouse. While inside lawyers shouted over each other, and one went so far as to demand a DNA test as he believed the real Hosni Mubarak had died in 2004, outside street clashes took place between pro- and anti- Mubarak protesters and riot police stationed there to “keep the peace”. The importance of this trial can barely be understated, and it is for this reason that it must be held in conditions entirely above reproach. In this regard, the process has thus far been only a partial success. 

‘More Democracy, More Openness’: Norway’s Lesson

This article was published recently on both the MidEastPosts and MasterPeace blogs.

The “madman or terrorist” debate raging over the appropriate reaction to Anders Behring Breivik is dangerously obtuse. Simon Jenkin’s assertion in the Guardian’s Comment is free ‘that [because] he does something terrible does not make him a terrorist’ is nonsensical. The very definition of a terrorist is someone who uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. By any interpretation of his actions Breivik fits this description. While his mental health is something for medical experts to speculate on, he did not act in vacuum free from outside influences, and he had clearly stated political aims. His targets were both directly connected with Prime Minister Jens Stolenberg’s Labour Party, and his avowed purpose was to protest against the government’s stance on the perceived threat of Islam and it’s “loose” stance on immigration. 

Promise of Arab Spring Failing to Deliver for Middle-Eastern Women

This article was posted recently on both the MasterPeace and the MidEastPosts blogs. 

The Arab Spring has, not for the first time in the history of Middle-Eastern protest movements, proven beyond doubt that the women of the region are willing to, and capable of, taking their equal place alongside men in society, in both their public and private lives.

Tahrir is Dead. Long Live Democracy!

This is an article I posted on the MasterPeace blog in May, immediately after the "second day of rage". While many more concessions were made by SCAF following continued protests, including the pushing back of elections, I believe that the central point of this article, that Tahrir protesters are no longer representative of public opinion in the country at large, still stands.

Egypt held its “second day of rage” on Friday, otherwise known as “Revolution 2.0” and the result was flat and disappointing. On the original Day of Rage on Friday 28th of January, the mood was one of conviction and fervor. The chants and slogans had the weight of a united populace behind them. In stark contrast, the atmosphere in Tahrir Square on Friday 27th of May was uncertain and the chants somehow rang false. Despite the claims by those admitting people to the square that there were one million present, the numbers were clearly only in the tens of thousands, and the majority of them appeared to be spectators. The previously good-natured culture of protestors bringing large amounts of food and drink to the square and then handing it out for free to their fellow-protestors in a show of comradeship has been replaced by an aggressive army of vendors selling tea, packaged snacks, popcorn and candy-floss. 

France Banning the Burka: an affront to Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité

This is an article I posted on the MasterPeace blog back in April, when France became the first in a succession of supposedly "liberal" European democracies to ban the wearing of the face-covering Islamic veil. The ban has now spread to Belgium and Italy, and the arguments contained in this article can be applied to those countries as well as to France.

A few days ago, France’s ban on the face-covering Islamic veil came into effect, and all I could think was ‘what the hell were they thinking?’