Podcast: Baladi covers everything from bread to dance
Baladi is one of those elusive Arabic words that can mean different things to different people at different times.
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women
For drinkers, Ramadan brings a special kind of thirst
Ramadan is the time of year when hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world abstain from food or drink. But one group of fasters suffers a special variety of thirst this time of year: Muslims who drink alcohol.
Read MoreThe truth about Islamic reformations
Islam needs a reformation for Muslim societies to develop and prosper, is one of those rare convictions shared by both Islamophiles and Islamophobes. Tunisia has done just that: radically reformed its brand of Islam and established a vibrant democracy to boot, yet prosperity eludes it. Why?
Read MoreIslam for Donald Trump and the politically incorrect
Mr Trump, if you really want to know “what the hell is going on” with Islam, I invite you and all the other bigots out there to join me on a mind-expanding journey through Islam(s), passing through the main thoroughfares and back alleys of history, society, culture, politics, theology and, above all, people.
Read MoreGreek island teaches Europe how to welcome refugees
The Greek island of Tilos has hosted more than seven times its population in refugees… and has done so with dignity, respect and with almost no external assistance.
Read MoreUganda’s refugee crisis, part 1: “Back home, all we could hear were guns and screaming”
Northern Uganda houses more refugees than entered the European Union during the peak of the “refugee crisis”. And Uganda has only 8% of the EU’s population and a fraction of its resources.
Read MoreFeminism’s Ancient Egyptian roots
Women’s liberation is generally believed to have started in the West but the roots of female emancipation go back millennia, to Ancient Egypt.
Read MoreRefugees trapped inside Fortress Europe
The plight of the 63,000 refugees and migrants still marooned in Greece should give Europeans pause for thought.
Read MoreFICTION: Escaping terror firma, Part 4 – Drowning in a sea of dashed dreams
“I fully expect to be escorted off the ship and onwards towards oblivion, first in a prison cell in Israel and then in the prison of Gaza… But then…”
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.
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