The unlikely demonisation of Salman Rushdie
By Khaled Diab Salman Rushdie made a very unlikely target for the fury of conservative Muslims, which is why the
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Dreaming of a vanished Syria
“A lot of Syrians are indulging in a nostalgia that requires a lot of denial,” says Syrian-American author Alia Malek. “This is why I’m a student of history, not to live in a fantasy but to learn why and how we are where we are today.”
Read moreWhen you’re a collector… don’t give too much away
Collecting may seem like a harmless hobby but it allows others to gather a whole lot more about us than we let on or probably even know.
Read moreFICTION: Escaping terror firma, Part 2 – Breaking out of the fish bowl
We live in a fish bowl. It would be more likely for a pink elephant to fall out of the sky than for me to get Faris alone somewhere. But the pink elephant somehow managed to land right next to me.
Read moreA Riche chapter of Egyptian history
For a century, Café Riche was a microcosm of Cairo’s bewildering contradictions, and a “refuge from the pain of loneliness” for intellectuals.
Read moreThe Viking Allah
A mysterious ring in a dead Viking woman’s tomb shows how Northern Europeans came into contact with Muslims and Islam before even becoming Christian.
Read moreThe Syrian Kurd who went blind because he’d seen too much
From the man literally blinded by horrors to the girl whose dream is to read books, we meet the Syrian Kurds fleeing the ISIS onslaught on Kobani.
Read moreFiction: Football
I ask if he is making friends… She tells me he has black skin, lifting her arm to show me in case I don’t comprehend the significance.
Read moreReimagining Palestine: Inserting the human dimension
The outside world primarily see Palestinians as two-dimensional heroes or villains. A new generation of artists and writers is adding a vital third dimension, the human.
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