What is happening in the Middle East today? How do we make sense of it? Ezzedine Fishere, Egyptian writer, former diplomat, and Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth College, attempts to put the pieces together through a series of conversations with some of the region’s most seasoned experts. From scholars to diplomats, his guests, like him, have a deep personal connection to the region’s turbulent politics and are united in the search for a glimmer of hope in the big mess that the ME has become.
Can Salafi Muslims Accept Peaceful Coexistence And Equality With Apostates and Infidels?
What is Salafi Islam? Are all Salafi Muslims global Jihadis? Is Salafism an insurmountable problem that keeps the Muslim world down, or is it part of a solution to the difficult questions arising from Islamic identity and its intertwinement with modernity? And, is there a way to make Salafi Muslims accept peaceful coexistence and equality with non-Muslims (and with Muslims who rejected Salafism)? Or, does their creed itself lock them into conflict - immediate or delayed - with others?I took this and other questions about Salafi movements, Arab liberals and democracy to Bernard Haykal, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Here is our conversation.
4/28/2023 • 29 minutes, 5 seconds
Is the Palestinian national struggle lost?
Palestinians today seem stuck . Their struggle for statehood led nowhere. If anyone maintained hope that a two-state solution could actually materialize, the latest Israeli election results disabuse them from that notion. Palestinian President is 87 and there is no mechanism to ensure democratic or smooth transition after him. The division between Fateh and Hamas is deep and all attempts to reconcile them have failed. Is the Palestinian national dream disintegrating? and what would it leave behind? I invited Omar Dajani to help me make sense of all that. He is a professor of law at the University of the Pacific, a former adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team, and to the UN Envoy to the Middle East.
2/15/2023 • 31 minutes, 9 seconds
MBS: conquest by fortune? a conversation with Khalid Aljabri
What is MBS after? Is he, as he once said, a new Alexander the Great? Is his brutal repression the price of reforming this old kingdom? Has he really defeated the royal family, the religious authorities and the business community and secured his rule, or is this another case of fake stability? I take these questions to Khalid Aljabri, the Saudi cardiologist and writer whose family is at the heart of all this.
1/1/2023 • 34 minutes, 19 seconds
What's the UAE up to? A conversation with Abdulkhaleq Abdulla
The UAE has puzzling policies. It has a strong alliance with the US but often challenges it – including by aligning its oil policy with that of Russia. It is a traditional Arab country and yet violates Arab taboos - including by building a security alliance with Israel. It antagonizes Iran but tries its best to avoid conflict with it. It has a modernizing profile in the Arab World but fights its democratization. What is the UAE up to exactly?I take these and other questions to Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati commentator and a visiting professor at Harvard University. Here is our conversation.
