MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 2005) Burke, Jason. Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam (London: Penguin, 2004). Brecher, Jeremy, Jill Cutler and Brendan Smith, eds. In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2005). Dajani, Souad. The Untold Story: The Cost of Israel’s Occupat The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article Crime and Punishment on Israel's Demographic Frontier On August 4, 2005, Natan Zada, 19, boarded an Egged bus at Haifa’s Hamifratz station, picked a seat in the back and rode it into Shafa ‘Amr, a mixed Druze, Muslim and Christian town in the heart of the Arab Galilee. Zada wore his Israel Defense Forces uniform and, as prescribed, carried with him his Jonathan Cook • 25 min read
MER Article The Ethnic Question in Iran Iran is not a Persian monolith, as it is often portrayed. Owing to waves of migration and foreign invasion over its long history, the Iranian plateau has become home to a diverse assortment of people speaking a range of languages and adhering to numerous creeds. The “Iranian” languages spoken in Ira Kaveh Bayat • 10 min read
MER Article 'Ajamis in Lebanon It is Muharram, the month of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, and the female-run husseiniyya in West Beirut is packed with women dressed in black. As the sounds of Lebanese and Iraqi Arabic dialects, as well as Persian, fill the hallways of this Shi‘i community center, the female religious performer ( Roschanack Shaery • 7 min read
MER Article Hizballah After the Syrian Withdrawal Since the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 in September 2004, Hizballah has been in the international spotlight. In addition to demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, the resolution calls for the “disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias,” p Joseph Alagha • 15 min read
MER Article The Iraq Effect in Saudi Arabia Shi‘is in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have watched Iraq’s political transformation with a combination of horror and optimism. Iraq’s slide toward civil war, the carnage wrought by militant violence and the targeted slaughter of thousands of Iraqi Shi‘is by Sunni insurgents have sown fears among Shi‘ Toby Jones • 15 min read
