Wednesday 16 March 2016

The Chronikler‘s subscribers now equal the population of a middle-sized town (even one with its own much-loved newspaper). That's the size of a decent turnout to a regional football clash. That's the size of a mercenary army from Greece, led by Cyrus the Younger in his attempt to wrest control of the throne back from the Persians…. Okay you get it now.

Ten thousand is, of course, a number just like any other and, in the grander scale of things, a rather modest one. However, for a volunteer outfit like The Chronikler, it means a hell of a lot.

We started with just the diatribes and pontifications of our founder Khaled Diab and co-opted a couple of willing victims in Christian Nielsen and Khaled's brother Osama to regularly grind out insights, posts, positions on contemporary issues and alternative views on diverse topics in, on, beside and behind the news headlines. Today, five years and 10,000 subscribers later, we are proud to have provided a platform for so many aspiring and established journalists and commentators… whose contributions have helped us reach this milestone. Onwards and upwards for The Chronikler!

Here is a selection of some articles which readers found interesting that have appeared on the site since its launch in 2009:

A successful caliphate in six simple steps

Confessions of a ‘self-hating Arab'

Atheists: Egypt's forgotten minority

Yassin al-Haj Saleh: “Syria is a unique symbol of injustice, apathy and amnesia”

The danger of an elected dictatorship in Egypt

The liberation of exile

Half a day with the last ‘Arab Jew'

The Arab myth of Western women

Can Hizbullah reinvent itself?

Where ‘no' means jail time

Egyptian presidential election: Who should the revolution vote for?

Safeguarding Arab media heritage… in Israel

‘Reel' freedom in East Jerusalem

A Syrian ‘ode to joy' on Europe's border