Author Archives: Linda S. Heard

There’s no doubt that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan deserves multiple pats on the back. On his watch, Turkey has emerged as one of the most successful global economies putting its struggling European neighbors in the shade. The country’s infrastructure is second to none and its tourist industry attracted 36 million visitors last year. Moreover, he has proved to be an influential regional player and should be commended for his championship of the Palestinian cause and his generous hosting of over 300,000 Syrian refugees. Further, he’s shown the world that an Islamic-oriented government can be effective within a society that is essentially secular and until now Turkey is considered a model for other regional nations to emulate. Until now . . . Continue reading →

Subsequent to the hacking to death of a British soldier by two British Muslims on a London street, the British Prime Minister David Cameron characterised the killing as “an attack on the British way of life,” a statement echoing the words of George W. Bush who when president repeatedly alleged terrorists do what they do because “they hate our freedoms.” In 2006, Tony Blair complained that “the war on terror will not be won unless people stop blaming UK foreign policy for causing it.” Continue reading →

It’s one thing to be deported from a country for illegal entry, criminal or lewd behavior or as a potential threat to national security, but quite another to be kicked out based on one’s God-given good looks. When I first read reports in the UK press that three Emirati men attracted the attention of the Kingdom’s Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice for the “sin” of being too handsome, I thought it was a joke or a publicity stunt; simply too ridiculous to be true. Turns out my initial instincts were spot on. Continue reading →

The truth is out, much to the embarrassment of the Barack Obama administration. NATO’s presence in Afghanistan is scheduled to end in 2014 when an approximate 34,000 US troops are supposed to be pulling out on the basis of mission accomplished. However, if that mission was to eradicate the Taliban’s hold on this war-torn country—which is highly debatable in the first place—not only has it not been accomplished, but the Americans are not even planning to leave any time soon. Instead, the US is doing all it can to put on a grand show to give Afghans the impression they will soon be captains of their own destiny without foreign interference. Continue reading →

Israel’s intervention in the Syrian conflict has been described by Syria’s deputy foreign minister as “a declaration of war.” He’s right! Israel has not only aggressed on Syria unprovoked, Israeli jets have invaded Lebanese air space to launch attacks. Continue reading →

Explosions illuminated the skies over Damascus on Friday and Sunday causing casualties. But these weren’t the work of the Bashar Al Assad/Iran/Hezbollah camp or its opponents—the Free Syrian Army, Jabhat Al Nusra or Al Qaida. Israel has muscled into the raging conflict attacking an alleged military research centre close to the capital and a consignment of Iranian guided missiles en route to Tehran’s proxy, Hezbollah. Continue reading →

I never really bought into the purple fingers hype, which the Bush administration propagandized for all it was worth in an attempt to justify its 2003 criminal blunder. It stands to reason that a nation like Iraq, split along sectarian lines, would be democratic in name only when its citizens would be inclined to tick their ballots according to their ethnic or religious affiliations rather than on core issues. Continue reading →

The Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons would be “a game changer” said the US president, who is famously averse to military adventurism. Barack Obama was a harsh critic of the Iraq war, launched on a pack of fairy tales, and was reluctantly dragged into Libya by gung-ho France and Britain. However, he is presently in danger of being hoisted by his own petard towards intervention in Syria. Continue reading →

A cabal of Republican senators has issued a statement urging the White House to classify the 19-year-old alleged Boston bomber an ‘enemy combatant,’ a controversial designation abandoned by the Obama administration’s attorney-general in March 2009 on the basis that the US should “operate in a manner that strengthens our national security, is consistent with our values, and is governed by law” indicating that enemy combatant status is inherently illegal. Continue reading →

I’m no advocate for the death penalty primarily because too many innocents have been put to death for crimes they didn’t commit, especially in the days before DNA tests were routine. However, on learning about a British married couple that killed six of their own children by deliberately setting fire to their home in hopes of pinning the blame on the husband’s former live-in mistress, my first instinct was that death is too good for those monsters undeserving of being called human. Continue reading →

Most followers of world affairs have a tendency to yawn whenever nuclear-armed North Korea threatens war on its neighbours. After all, successive Kims cried wolf on so many occasions that they ultimately were not taken seriously. Continue reading →

Britain’s harsh austerity programme is not only suffocating economic growth, it is increasingly geared to ensuring the rich get richer while low-income families, the jobless and the elderly are being treated as collateral damage in the UK’s bid to clear debt. Continue reading →

Last week, someone asked me what the Middle East’s greatest problem was? My response: “It’s the unresolved Israel-Palestine impasse that been haunting the region for decades with no end in sight.” Continue reading →

Cinema-goers in Egypt may or may not get the chance to see the award-winning documentary “Jews of Egypt,” which was easily passed by the government censor and was scheduled to make its countrywide debut on March 13 until it was suspended for reasons of “national security,” apparently on the grounds that it could be inflammatory. Now, the film’s director Egyptian-born Amir Ramses says it will be screened in Cairo cinemas on March 27—but in this nation going through a period of confusion, there’s many a slip between cup and lip. Continue reading →

It’s been 10 years since the US and Britain unleashed ‘Shock and Awe’ on the Iraqi capita,1 Baghdad, ostensibly to punish a rogue dictator for hoarding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in non-compliance with binding UN Security Council resolutions. In reality, Saddam Hussain had shut down his nuclear programme and destroyed Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons more than a decade earlier. Continue reading →

The term ‘Arab Spring’ has become a painful reminder of all that could have been. As each day passes, people’s hopes for a better life are being dashed. Give democracy time to work its magic, say the optimists, even as it is becoming evident that populations that came together to boot out autocratic rulers are worse off today than they ever were. Continue reading →

As if the neighborhood wasn’t combustible enough, Israel reportedly received a green light from President Barack Obama to stoke the flames by launching an airstrike on a Syrian military research facility outside Damascus and deploying its warplanes to repeatedly infringe Lebanese airspace. Continue reading →

Last Friday, I could hardly believe my eyes when I watched a highly disturbing one-and-a-half-minute video showing a naked middle-aged man being beaten, kicked and dragged along the asphalt into a van by Egyptian CSF officers. The incident took place close to the president’s Ettihadia Palace where anti-government demonstrators were being arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails. Reminiscent of a 2011 incident involving Egyptian soldiers partially stripping and dragging a female protester, the video caused a firestorm within Egypt and around the world. Continue reading →

Running a country with an eclectic population of up to 90 million sick of heavy-handed governance and all clamoring for different things, isn’t as easy as President Muhammad Mursi might have imagined. Everyone wants better salaries and improved living conditions which the president can’t deliver unless he can lay his hands on a magic wand. Continue reading →

Millions of people in Arab Spring nations are painfully realising that the fruits of revolution are not all they were cracked up to be. Continue reading →

The Arab world’s most populous nation teeters on the edge of its own fiscal cliff. Foreign currency reserves have dwindled to a $15 billion “critical minimum,” the Egyptian pound is fast depreciating against the US dollar (4 percent over the past two weeks) and, in consequence, prices are soaring. Foreign investment is almost nonexistent and local investment is drying-up as entrepreneurs take a wait-and-see approach. Despite reassuring noises from the Central Bank, Egyptians are starting to panic, converting pounds into dollars and gold or, in some instances, withdrawing cash from banks destined to be stored under mattresses in fear their accounts could be frozen. Continue reading →

Egyptians are bracing themselves for potential violence on January 25 that marks the second anniversary of a revolution that ultimately handed over power to Islamists. Opposition parties, under the umbrella of the National Salvation Front, led by Amr Mousa and Mohammad Al Baradei, are urging Egyptians to take to the streets on that day to peacefully protest an unrepresentative parliamentary upper house, an Islamist-weighted constitution—and “tyranny in the name of religion.” Continue reading →

It took a savage attack on a 23-year-old medical student and her male companion to bring Indian authorities face-to-face with their shame. For too long, predominantly male politicians, prosecutors, judges and police have turned a blind eye to the widespread abuse of females for fear of upsetting cultural norms or, perhaps, because they, too, have minimal respect for the right of women to walk safe. Continue reading →

The widespread abuse of women and general undervaluing of females has been an ugly fact of life in India that’s been shamefully tolerated by the population and authorities alike for far too long. Continue reading →

The first ever visit of Khalid Mesha’al, Chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau, to Gaza was a historic moment eliciting high emotion not only for the man himself, but also for the hundreds of thousands who flooded into Gaza City’s Katiba Square to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hamas. This was their chance to see up-close-and-personal a person of stature who represents their interests on the world stage—his latest coup being the brokering of a ceasefire with Israel that was poised to launch a ground invasion. He is also celebrated among Palestinians for being instrumental in negotiating a prisoner swap that saw 1,000 Palestinians being permitted to return home in exchange for Gilad Shalit. Continue reading →

Just a few weeks ago Egypt was firmly on the road to recovery. President Muhammad Mursi had carved a name for himself as a pragmatic statesman internationally while his one-time opponents were beginning to grudgingly accept that he had a pair of safe hands faithfully representing the interests of Islamists, secularists and moderates alike. The economy was inching forward and even the poorest were patiently awaiting its fruits. That happy state of affairs was dissipated by a tsunami that shook the nation to its core, turning neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend. Why did Egypt’s first-ever democratically-elected leader choose to rock the boat with a power-grab that could sink the nation? Continue reading →

Finally, via the UN General Assembly, the entire world has recognized Palestine as a legitimate state with 1967 borders—with the exception of the US, Canada, the Czech Republic and a handful of Pacific islands reliant on Uncle Sam’s benefice. Yes, there were 41 abstentions but the fact that those countries refrained from voting ‘no’ implies their tacit approval. Continue reading →