The escalating violence between Israel and Gaza should remind us of old lessons that still need to be learned and new realities to which attention must now be paid. First and foremost among the old lessons is the fact that the successive waves of violence that have characterized the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have More »
The issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not among those front and center in the recent foreign policy debate between U.S. presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, but is has come up numerous times during the course of the campaign. Both candidates have stressed the close relationship between the U.S. and Israel but More »
- Middle East issues dominate the last of the U.S. presidential debates - What is the response among Jewish and Muslim American voters? - Report: the number of registered Syrian refugees has climbed to more than 358,000 - Qatar’s emir receives a hero’s welcome in the Gaza Strip - Egypt’s electricity woes amplify economic frustrations More »
Global Voice Hall uses social media and town hall meetings to bridge the gap of misunderstandings between the Middle East and the West. Their recent forum near Washington, D.C. looked at the volatile issue of being a Muslim in America. What’s the reality of problems and opportunities? I spoke with Cheryl Montavlo, a co-founder More »
Arab-Americans make up roughly 0.5 percent of voters who will cast a ballot in the November general election in the United States. But as VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports from Dearborn, Michigan – home to the largest Arab-American community in the United States – despite those numbers, their influence is growing, and Arab-American community leaders More »
Many Muslims in the United States have been closely following news of the protests in the Middle East and the anti-Muslim film that sparked widespread unrest there. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee spoke to many of them about their thoughts. Many condoned the violent reactions to the video, others did not with some suggesting that there More »
In the aftermath of widespread protests throughout the world stemming from an anti-Muslim film produced in the United States, VOA’s Jerome Socolovsky investigates the origins of Islamophobia in the U.S. Experts say U.S. Islamophobia comes from a well-financed group which has been cultivating these sentiments since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Jocelyne Cesari from More »
Violence and calls for calm continued throughout the region in response to the Internet video ridiculing Islam and the Prophet Muhammed. Muslim and Coptic leaders stood shoulder to shoulder urging peace between the religions. Services were held in Tripoli, Libya to remember Ambassador Stevens and the three other Americans killed in the most violent More »
Following violent anti-American protests unleashed in many Middle Eastern and Muslim countries by the release in the U.S. of an amateur online video lambasting the Prophet Muhammad VOA’s Mohamed Elshinnawi spoke to Imam Hassan Qazwini, President of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, to ask about how American Muslims reacted to the More »
This week in the Middle East, a film trailer lambasting the prophet Mohammed contributed to anti-American protests in Cairo, Sanaa and Benghazi, resulting in the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Embassy staff members. Also, new attacks broke out in Syria, UNHCR visited refugee camps, and protests against poor living More »
U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three embassy staff have been killed after a mob angered over an amateur American-made short film that mocks Islam’s Prophet Muhammad stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern city Benghazi late Tuesday. Responding to the violence, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, has condemned the killing of the More »
The 9/11 terror attacks against the United States unleashed a deluge of surveillance activities by law enforcement agencies specifically targeting American Muslims. The initiative was met with broad opposition by the affected communities and produced a public outcry by civil liberties groups claiming that the effort amounted to nothing more than religious and ethnic More »
A recent poll of 2,100 Americans shows that many harbor negative views of American Muslims and Arab-Americans. Arabs, Muslims, Arab-Americans and American Muslims have the highest unfavorable rating among 13 religious and ethnic groups covered in the poll, conducted this month by the Arab American Institute. VOA’s Mohammed Elshinnawi spoke to Dr. James Zogby, president More »
Ashraf Khalil, an Egyptian-American journalist living in Cairo, literally wrote the book on Egypt’s Tahrir revolution. After writing for the Times of London and Foreign Policy magazine, in 2010, Khalil wrote “Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation” about the events leading up to the January 25 revolution that More »
There was never a real estate boom like it: In May 2002, Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoom, issued a decree granting foreigners lifetime rights to buy, sell and lease property in specifically designated areas of the oil-rich emirate. The result was a scramble of buying, selling and lending in which huge More »
يرى الدكتور باسم يوسف مقدم برنامج السخرية السياسية المشهور”البرنامج” أن النكتة السياسية سلاح المصريين في مواجهة الدكتاتورية وأن كل مرشحي الرئاسة في مصر قد انتهت صلاحيتهم وكان ينبغي أن يكون رئيس مصر من شباب الثورة. ورغم الاختيار الصعب الذي فرضه الواقع على الناخب المصري بين مرشح للإخوان المسلمين ومرشح محسوب على النظام السابق يشعر More »
The Voice of America is calling on Egyptian university students, freelance journalists and youth of all political persuasions to help our reporters tell the story of Egypt on Election Day. On June 16 & 17, grab your mobile phone and show the world what you’re experiencing when #EgyptDecides. Hosted by @MEVHutch Twitter hashtags: #EgyptDecides For Arabic users, More »
Egyptian Americans started voting at Egypt’s diplomatic missions around the United States this week to help choose a president for their ancestral homeland 10,000 kilometers away. The polling in the U.S. is part of a run-off vote that will culminate in Egypt proper June 16-17. The presidential election – the first after strongman Hosni Mubarak’s More »
For the first time in their history, Egyptians are about to freely choose their president. While the outcome is still anybody’s guess, one thing is clear – whoever it might be, he will face the daunting task of rebuilding Egypt’s economy, which took a tremendous hit during the uprisings of last year’s Arab Spring. More »
Voters in Egypt go to the polls Wednesday and Thursday, May 23 and 24, to choose a new president. Ahead of that historic election, Egyptians living overseas have been able to cast their ballots at local consulates and embassies. In the shade outside of her office in Washington, D.C, Nihal Elwan is about to do More »
