James M Dorsey

A public apology by a prominent Salafi scholar sheds light on Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s version of “moderate Islam”, his effort to shape the Middle East and North Africa in his mould, and the replacement of religion with hyper-nationalism as the source of his legitimacy.

When Turkish vice-president Fuat Oktay and foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu became the first high-level foreign government delegation to travel to Christchurch after the attacks on two mosques, they were doing more than expressing solidarity with New Zealand's grieving Muslim community.

Friday's attack on two mosques in New Zealand reflects a paradigm shift: the erosion of liberal values and the rise of 'civilisationalism' at the expense of the nation state.

The United Arab Emirates is projecting itself as a leader of inter-communal and inter-faith harmony with the first ever visit by a Catholic pope to the Gulf and an inter-faith conference that is as much about dialogue as it is about absolute political control.

US President Donald J Trump's threat to devastate Turkey's economy if Turkish troops attack Syrian Kurds allied with the United States in the wake of the announced withdrawal of American forces potentially serves his broader goal of letting regional forces fight for common goals like countering Iranian influence in Syria.

Two attacks in Pakistan, including a brazen assault on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, are likely to complicate Prime Minister Imran Khan's efforts to renegotiate China's massive,

Saudi Arabia and Turkey, despite being on opposite sides of Middle Eastern divides, are cooperating in Syria to enable youth and women to acquire skills that would either allow them to compete in the job market or turn them into entrepreneurs.

This is a tough time for men and women of the cloth, at least those whose message is one of peace, tolerance, mutual respect, equality and inter-faith dialogue.

Three recent developments lay bare the fragility of Middle Eastern alliances and a rebalancing of their priorities: the Russian-Turkish compromise on an assault on the rebel-held Syrian region of Idlib, the fate of troubled Abu Dhabi airline Etihad, and battles over reconstruction of Syria.

An attack on a military parade in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz is likely to prompt Iranian retaliation against opposition groups at home and abroad.

An offer by a Saudi-backed bank to lend financially strapped Pakistan USD 4 billion is likely intended to bolster Saudi influence when former international cricket player Imran Khan is sworn in as the South Asian country's next prime minister.

Saudi conduct of its ill-fated war in Yemen coupled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's alignment with the Trump administration and Israel,

With multiple Middle Eastern disputes threatening to spill out of control,

A virulently anti-Shiite, Saudi-backed candidate for parliament in Pakistan's July 25 election symbolises the country's effort to reconcile contradictory policy objectives in an all but impossible attempt to keep domestic forces and foreign allies happy.

Iran, in the latest of a series of incidents on its western and south-eastern borders, said it had disbanded a Pakistan-based cell of anti-Shiite militants in a clash this week on the Iranian side of the border.

If the notion that history repeats itself is accurate, it is nowhere truer than in the Middle East where the international community, caught by surprise by the 2011 popular Arab revolts, has reverted to opting for political stability as opposed to sustainability, ignoring the undercurrents of change wracking the Middle East. Major powers do so at their peril.

Yahya Staquf, a diminutive, soft-spoken leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world's largest Muslim movement, and Indonesian president Joko Widodo's advisor on religious affairs,

With electoral upsets having become the norm, the latest upheaval that swept aside the long-standing president of Fenerbahce SC, the political crown jewel of Turkish soccer, has taken on added significance with Turkey heading into crucial snap presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24.

Protests that forced Jordan's prime minister to resign and laid bare the country's systemic economic and political crisis shed new light on the root causes of popular protests in the Middle East that swept the region in 2011 and have since continuously erupted at local levels in a swath of land stretching from Morocco to Egypt.

Newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Mahathir is adopting policies that could reshape the Southeast nation's relations with powerful Gulf states. A series of anti-corruption measures as well as statements by Mahathir and his defence minister, Mohamad (Mat) Sabu, since this month's upset in elections that ousted Prime Minister Najib Razak from office, are sparking concern in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.