Current Analysis

Writing Ourselves into Existence with the Collective for Black Iranians

The groundbreaking work of the Collective for Black Iranians is the first and only effort of its kind in Iran that brings together the voices of Black and Afro-Iranians, sharing their stories and experiences to foster greater racial consciousness and combat the anti-Black racism endemic to the Irani

Beeta Baghoolizadeh, Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda • 13 min read

Current Analysis

Who is “Indian” in the Gulf? Race, Labor and Citizenship

How do race and racism operate in the Gulf? Neha Vora and Amélie Le Renard closely examine how the term "Indian," as it is used in the United Arab Emirates, refers to much more than national origin. They trace the role of colonialism, capitalism and the state in creating "Indian" as a racialized cat

Neha Vora, Amélie Le Renard • 11 min read

Current Analysis

Israel and the Antisemitism Playbook in Great Britain and the Grassroots

The ongoing attacks on Congressional critics of Israeli policies like Rep.'s Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for their alleged antisemitic remarks appear culled from the same playbook that Israel’s supporters in Great Britain used to tarnish Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn: continuously vilify the me

Neve Gordon, Lynne Segal, Kristian Davis Bailey, Olivia Katbi Smith • 29 min read

Current Analysis

Some Thoughts on November 13 and After

My son and I were both so excited. It was my first time attending a soccer game at a stadium. And it was a momentous match, pitting the French national team against their counterparts from Germany. The Stade de France just outside Paris was full of almost 80,000 spectators of different social groups

Azadeh Kian • 5 min read

Current Analysis

Ahmed Mohamed, Liberal Rhetoric and Obama Administration Propaganda

Most readers will know by now that a 14-year-old kid named Ahmed Mohamed was recently arrested in Irving, Texas [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/texas-student-is-under-police-investigation-for-building-a-clock.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=2] for, well, for making a clock while Muslim. Ahme

Leili Kashani • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Ferguson to Palestine

The world’s attention again shines on Ferguson, MO, where Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American 18-year old was shot by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. This time, the occasion is the grand jury’s failure to indict the officer. There will be no trial. There will be no oppor

Stephen Tamari • 5 min read

Current Analysis

Justice for Rasmea Odeh

This past winter, I was privileged to participate in several events in Chicago organized by Rasmea Yousef Odeh, associate director of the Arab American Action Network [http://www.aaan.org/] and leader of that group’s Arab Women’s Committee [http://www.aaan.org/?cat=27]. The events brought together a

Nadine Naber • 5 min read

MER Article

The Grand (Hip-Hop) Chessboard

In November 2006, the film The Making of a Kamikaze by Nouri Bouzid, a respected Tunisian director, was screened to great fanfare at the Carthage Film Festival. The film, a collaboration between the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tunisian Ministries of Interior, Defense and Culture, examines the grievances

Hisham Aïdi • 46 min read

Current Analysis

The Race Is On

“We are so racially profiled now, as a group,” the Arab-American comedian Dean Obeidallah says in his routine, “that I heard a correspondent on CNN not too long ago say the expression, ‘Arabs are the new blacks.’ That Arabs are the new blacks.” Obeidallah continues:

Moustafa Bayoumi • 32 min read

MER Article

States of Fragmentation in North Africa

Nearly 50 years after independence, the North African states of Algeria and Morocco face challenges to their national unity and territorial integrity. In Algeria, a

Paul Silverstein • 18 min read

Current Analysis

Israel’s “Demographic Demon” in Court

A low-key but injudicious war of words briefly broke out between Israel’s two most senior judges in the wake of the May 2006 decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law. A temporary measure passed by the Knesset in July 2003, the law eff

Jonathan Cook • 12 min read

MER Article

Slavery, Genocide and the Politics of Outrage

In October 1999, PBS aired The Wonders of the African World, a six-part documentary produced by the renowned African-American intellectual, Henry Louis Gates, wherein the Harvard educator travels from Egypt to Sudan and down the Swahili coast of East Africa and up though parts of West Africa examining the encounter

Hisham Aïdi • 48 min read