Almost everything you think you know about Aladdin is wrong.
middle east
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Story
If You Were a Sack of Cumin
In the midst of the Syrian Civil War, three grown siblings attempt to fulfill their father’s final wish. The journey is dangerous, but that’s no surprise; nowadays, death is always hard work.
Posted inNonfiction
Queens of Infamy: Zenobia
In third-century Syria, a widowed monarch dared to be wildly ambitious — and almost brought the Roman Empire to its knees.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Ethical Enjoyment of Museums
In his review for the New York Times, Holland Cotter writes that the museum fails in “truth-telling.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Fight of His Life
Afghan Noorullah Aminyar was a valuable ally to the American military. Now, after a failed defection attempt and three years in detention, his asylum claims rests on the argument that the U.S. has lost the war in Afghanistan.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Six Years Later, Over 400,000 Dead: The Graffiti Kids Who Sparked the Syrian War
Mark MacKinnon tells the story of Naief Abazid — who, at the urging of some older boys, graffitied a school wall on a lark in Daraa, Syria, at age 14. The “writing on the wall” enraged Syria’s Baathist dictatorship, and became the source of ignition in the Syrian war.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
An Imam’s Jihad Against Ignorance and Radicalization
At The Walrus, Nadim Roberts profiles a Canadian imam who is working to counter radicalization with knowledge.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Syria and the Left
Jacobin‘s Yusef Khalil conducted an wide-ranging interview with Yasser Munif, a Syrian scholar of grassroots movements, to break down the key moral and political issues feeding the Syrian war.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
On Being Eritrean
In her essay in Pacific Standard, Rahawa Haile writes about identity, the anxiety of origins, and the search for a grounded life in unstable, isolating locales. Born to Eritrean parents, Haile grew up in Miami, Florida, speaking English and Tigrinya in a low land of built of hurricane deposits that felt doomed to rising sea levels. […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The 'Serial Abuse' of Our Armed Forces
The intensification of the War for the Greater Middle East after 9/11 revealed unsuspected defects in America’s basic approach to raising its military forces. Notwithstanding the considerable virtues of our professional military, notably durability and tactical prowess, the existing system rates as a failure. The All-Volunteer Force is like a burger from a fast-food joint: […]