Germany and the United States on Friday called for the release of ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi amid mounting tensions between supporters and opponents over his overthrow. "We call for an end to the restrictions on Mr. Morsi's whereabouts," a German foreign ministry spokesman told reporters, according to the AFP news agency. The
The operation of Sharia courts in a democracy has nothing to do with religious freedom, but everything to do with political power and the appropriation of the host culture. It was not so long ago, in 2008, that Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, welcomed Islam into the United Kingdom. He now speaks
Tensions between rival Syrian rebel groups boiled over Saturday near Ras al-Hosn, in the north of Idlib province. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human rights, fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) clashed with jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), exposing a growing rift between Al Qaeda-affiliated groups and
After evicting the Muslim Brotherhood from power, Egypt may be headed toward “a divorce from all things Palestinian,” an expert says. “A number of influential voices are now calling for an expulsion of Palestinians from Egypt’s military and police academies and its universities, a suspension of visas to all Palestinians, and an end of
Egypt’s public prosecutor office said on Saturday it had received complaints accusing ousted President Mohamed Mursi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood of spying, inciting the killings of protesters and damaging the economy. Al Arabiya’s Cairo correspondent reported that the prosecutor’s office said it was investigating the complaints to allow those accused to
A fatwa (religious edict) apparently permitting ‘sexual jihad’ appeared on a Facebook page reportedly affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), but some have dismissed it as a parody. The fatwa supposedly came in response to a question by a female Brotherhood supporter asking if ‘sexual Jihad’ is allowed in Rabea al-Adawiya Square
A senior leader of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's party called for mass rallies across Egypt on Monday, hours after tens of thousands of Mursi's supporters demanded his return in a peaceful protest in Cairo. Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi is expected to swear in a new cabinet next week to enforce
The youthfulness of Qatar’s new leader Sheikh Tamim may help steer the country to a new course in its regional and international foreign policy, notes an analysis published by the Atlantic Council. The article --What’s next for the youngest leader in the Arab world -- states that Qatar has been the most consistent
The Syrian rebels are continuing to turn on one another. Syrian rebels linked to Al-Qaeda killed a senior figure in the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Thursday, an FSA source told Reuters. Kamal Hamami, a member of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council, known by his nom de guerre Abu Bassel al-Ladkani,
Egypt is planning a large scale offensive against Sinai terrorists, where it has already killed scores of Islamist fighters - including 32 Hamas men - in recent days, according to reports. Egyptian forces also arrested several others over the past few days in the Sinai Peninsula, an Egyptian military source told the London-based Arabic-language
