Worldcrunch
Hijab is merely a custom that, by force of tradition, has turned into a religious symbol — nothing more. The early Quranic interpreters, who favored transmission over reason due to their limited knowledge and weak analytical abilities at the time, interpreted the so-called “verses of hijab” without considering their historical context or the reasons behind their revelation.
The joys of victory, the tears of defeat, all the while ignoring the Zionist deterrent known as “peace.”
Jordan has cautiously followed the emergence of Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, from the ranks of jihad fighters to a statesman. Amman is increasingly concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood could exploit the rise of Islamists in Syria to sow chaos in Jordan, or the return of extremist fighters to areas on its borders.
After the downfall of Bashar al-Assad, Kurdish citizens of Syria rejoiced, but deep concerns over the people’s fate have not gone away.
The Muslim Brotherhood is heading back into Jordanian politics, 30 years after being excluded following the 1994 peace deal with Israel. It’s a post-Oct. 7 sign from Amman about the specter of masses of Palestinians flooding into Jordan from Gaza and the West Bank is scary enough to play ball with the Islamist Brotherhood.
Violence and denunciation won’t beat political Islam. Its deconstruction must be through reasoned criticism, the methods of modern science and allowing space for religion to have its influence.
The Israel-Hamas war has revived the urgency of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the two-state solution. The West views that this solution would soften polarization in Western societies, and calm down the Middle East, so the United States and NATO can again focus their efforts on confronting the real adversaries in Beijing and Moscow.
Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza have given Islamists new momentum and a new outlook on their recent political setbacks.
This is a debate that must challenge those in our region who benefit from the perpetuation of the male culture of violence.
When Arab countries started normalizing relations with Israel, they did so disregarding the fate of Palestinians. It was a terrible error of judgment, and worse. Yet while the Palestinian cause remains a cornerstone of political legitimacy in the Arab world, few reasonable solutions are being brought forward, and radicalization continues to gain ground among the masses.
The arrest this week of top opposition leaders shows Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed is drifting ever farther away from basic democratic practices. Yet there’s no mass uprising, unlike in 2011, perhaps because economic factors are foremost on people’s minds.
By defending their fundamental rights, Iranian women are effectively fighting for the rights of all in the Middle East. Their victory could spell an end to Islamic fundamentalism that spouts lies about “family values” and religion.
Ennahda’s founder Rached Ghannouchi calls for an end to ‘political Islam,’ a groundbreaking shift for a key Tunisian leader and intellectual long identified as Islamist.