Rounded Analysis On Contested Issues; Spotlighting Blind Spots; Politics, Religion, Travel, Books
Executed former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussain projected his unbridled power like other demagogues through the size, bombast, and grandeur of his palaces meant to constantly remind people of his riches, omnipresence, and permanence
The violence had begun to ebb by 2016 but corroded car bomb hulks, and abandoned, bombed out and bullet-riddled buildings represented the horrors Baghdad, the city of about seven million, had suffered
The graves at Wadi-al-Salaam, where burials have continued for over 1,400 years, are spread over 1,500 acres or an area equal to 900 rugby fields near
Cleric Ayatollah Ali al Sistani rallied the demoralised Iraqis in June 2014 by issuing a fatwa calling on all able-bodied to resist ISIS when the terror group controlled 40% of Iraq
In 1963, crown prince Faisal told US ambassador Parker T Hart that 'after Allah, we trust America' while Saudis were involved in a confrontation with Egypt over Yemen, highlighting the depth of their relationship that has endured
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini developed wilayat al-faqih (the rule of the jurist theory), the basis for the Iranian political system, during his 15-year exile in a small house in the warren alleys ringing the shrine of the Prophet's son-in-law, Caliph Imam Ali, in Iraq's Najaf
As the faithful prayed at the mosque in Dubai's Barsha Heights, their right to worship did not impinge on the rights of those going about their business in the vicinity, including women in shorts and mini-skirts
A culture of openness, pluralism, and innovation has transformed the United Arab Emirates into one of the most advanced countries
Medieval Europeans felt inferior to the then vastly advanced Muslim world before they outshined and rejected its scientific legacy besides writing Islamic civilization out of their intellectual history
Scholar Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah crafted the legal framework that inspired the declaration connecting early Islamic sources and the Prophet Muhammad's Charter of Medina with international human rights law for a model of equal, contractual citizenship as an Islamic principle
