The United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has decided to establish a chair at the Islamic University of Gaza. The decision came as a shock to the State of Israel, which expressed “consternation” at the news. “The Islamic University of Gaza is a known hothouse and breeding ground for Hamas terrorists,”
Despite a 1996 ban on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Egypt, the issue continues to be a divisive one, especially amid fears that the ban could be reversed under an Islamist government. Many Egyptians find it difficult to accept the issue is a pressing one and deny the alarmingly high statistics, like one by
Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Mursi, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for his first foreign trip since taking office and met with King Abdullah, the official SPA news agency said. Mursi was met on his arrival in Jeddah by Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, crown prince, deputy prime minister and defense minister. The
A suicide bomber killed at least 22 people, mostly cadets, inside a police academy in Sana’a on Wednesday in an attack that bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, police investigators said. The investigators said dozens of people leaving the academy at the end of the day’s training sessions, were injured in the attack also.
Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party Ennahda holds its first congress at home in 24 years on Thursday, seeking to clarify its strategy against a backdrop of political and religious tensions in the country. Some 25,000-30,000 people are to attend the three-day congress, which is also the party’s first since it came to power following the
Egypt’s President Mohammed Mursi will respect a court ruling overturning his decree for the dissolved Islamist-dominated parliament to convene, his office said on Wednesday amid a power struggle with the military. The statement appears aimed at mollifying an infuriated judiciary, which has been placed at the forefront of the complex struggle between powerful generals
Officials in Ramallah on Wednesday slammed the Netanyahu government's plans to accept the conclusion of the Levy Commission report on Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. "We will not sign any peace agreement if there is a [single] settlement on Palestinian Land," Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rodier said. The
From corner fruit stalls in Hebron to chic Ramallah ballet studios, Palestinian women are making their mark in business, some out of necessity and others looking to break the gender mould and pursue a dream. For Shyrine Ziadeh, a 24-year-old Birzeit University graduate, that dream was to open a dance studio. Now the
The Obama administration on Tuesday criticized an Israeli panel that issued a report that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria do not violate international law, but did not contradict its findings that they do not violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. "We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose
It was an open miracle, residents said. A Palestinian Authority Arab sniper aimed at the junction to Kibbutz Yad Mordechai on Monday evening, and scored a direct hit into the back windshield of a car, pumping bullets into the back of the vehicle. At least one went dead center into the back of a
