Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Silhouetted supporters of the ousted Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, stand in front the Egyptian army soldiers, not seen, after the protesters block a highway that link to the airport, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, July 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Opinion: What’s more important, religion or politics?

by Mshari Al-Zaydi | Jul 14, 2013 | Opinion

If you were to look for a common denominator between all the crises that the Arab world is currently witnessing, you would find it in the phenomenon of religious slogans. Different parties, movements, and organizations that are fighting—from Libya and the Sahara in...

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A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 30, 2013 shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaking during an interview Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim party Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV in Damascus. Source: AFP Photo/HO/SANA

Opinion: The trap of sectarianism

by Yousef Al-Dayni | Jun 2, 2013 | Opinion

Perhaps, the most serious offense, hazard and threat to face the “Shi’ite” brothers in their contemporary history is Hezbollah’s involvement in the cold-blooded killing of the Syrian people, to protect a Ba`athist regime that long sang the...

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Egyptian Salafi Muslims chant slogans during a protest in support of the bearded police officers who were prevented from carrying out their work in the interior ministry, in front of Abdeen presidential palace in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Friday, March 1, 2013. Source: AP Photo/Khalil Hamra

Opinion: The Islamist Divide

by Abdulrahman Al-Rashed | May 16, 2013 | Opinion

“If you are fools, try stopping us!” This is the title of a campaign being led by an extremist Islamist group in Tunisia. By “fools,” the group is referring to the Islamist Ennahda party and its government. The paradox is that Ennahda Islamists doubt the presence of...

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Robert Harris (AAA)

Robert Wright on Religion and Conflict

by Mamdouh Al-Muhaini | May 8, 2013 | Media

Washington, Asharq Al-Awsat—The American writer Robert Wright refuses to be labeled a scholar, preferring instead to be called a journalist. In truth, he combines the best of both fields: expressing thorough scholarly research with the graceful, simple style of the...

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Salafists in Tunisia wave black flags reading “There’s no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet” during a demonstration. AFP PHOTO / SALAH HABIBI

Saudi Arabia: Secular or Political Salafism?

by Abdullah Al-Otaibi | Apr 11, 2013 | Opinion

Among the various ideological interpretations of Islamic religious texts, there has always been one reading that offers a vision similar to that of modern secularism. That reading corresponds with the modern secular view of religion and the state—the relationship...