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TWI Arabic: اللغة العربية Fikra Forum

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Arab & Islamic Politics

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Articles & Testimony

During a campaign speech at the University of Uroomiyeh in northwestern Iran a few months before the June presidential election there, Mir Hossein Moussavi, the main reformist presidential candidate and now opposition leader, was interrupted by angry groups of basiji, the regime's paramilitary enforcers, carrying pictures of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Articles & Testimony

Women's Work Is in the Home?

Critics of Turkey's ruling party fear that its conservatism is going too far, leading, among other things, to exclusion of women in the workforce. Soner Cagaptay and Rueya Perincek assess the implications, both domestically and with regard to the country's accession to the European Union. © IHS (Global) Limited, Jane's

Articles & Testimony

U.S. Stepping Up Engagement with Syria

Five years ago this month, Washington withdrew its ambassador to Damascus to protest the Assad regime's presumed role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. For the State Department, which instinctively believes in the power of diplomacy, yanking its top diplomat was equivalent to the nuclear option

David Schenker

Articles & Testimony

The Hand Extended to Syria is Also Intended as a Blow to Iran

The appointment of Robert Ford as US Ambassador to Syria is part of the Obama administration's general policy of engagement with America's foes. Its timing to coincide with Under Secretary of State William Burns' visit to Damascus, however, has a wider purpose. The move is part of a massive diplomatic

Andrew J. Tabler

Articles & Testimony

Defeating Islamists at the Ballot

Whenever the United States pushes for elections in the Middle East and Muslim countries, Islamist parties often perform well -- better than liberal, nationalist, and secular parties -- a phenomenon that has occurred even in secular Turkey. Are U.S. efforts to promote democracy in Muslim countries as well as block

Articles & Testimony

The AKP's Hamas Policy

Why are Turks turning anti-Western and why do they view themselves in conflict the West? Examining the development of Turkish policies toward Israel and Hamas since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002 can provide many lessons.

Articles & Testimony

Saudi Arabia by the Numbers

The very concept of public opinion in highly secretive Saudi Arabia is almost an oxymoron. Hard data are difficult to come by, and even rarer is information about controversial and strategically critical current issues: views about military action against Iran, corruption and the state of civil liberties within the kingdom

David Pollock

Setback for Iran's Opposition:

Khamenei's Hardline Reinforced

A few hours after the official demonstration marking the February 11 anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated, "Was the presence of tens of millions of motivated and aware people in the festival of the thirty-first anniversary of revolution enough to awaken [to their mistakes] the

Mehdi Khalaji

Articles & Testimony

The Diyanet and Laicite:

New Turkish Exports to Europe

European secularism, or laicite, practiced in France and other European countries, is distinct from American secularism. While the United States is secular, providing for freedom of religion in education and politics, European societies are laique, providing for freedom from religion in education and politics. Secularism, however, is not a standardized

How to Assess Political Fissures in Iran

On February 5, 2010, David Cvach, Ali Alfoneh, and Mehdi Khalaji addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute to discuss developments in Iran that may indicate either lost ground for reform-minded activists or cracks in the very foundation of the Islamic Republic. Mr. Cvach is political counselor

Ali Alfoneh
Mehdi Khalaji

Khamenei and the Politics of Indecision

February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is the most important official holiday in Iran. The public faces of the opposition Green Movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi, have called for street demonstrations to mark the occasion. Meanwhile, government officials at every level have warned against such

Mehdi Khalaji

The Basij Resistance Force:

A Weak Link in the Iranian Regime?

In the months since Iran's contested June 2009 presidential election, the Basij Resistance Force has emerged as one of the regime's main pillars of support against the democracy movement. In the long term, however, it is uncertain whether the militia is capable of prevailing in a prolonged fight against a

Ali Alfoneh

Articles & Testimony

Solomon's Baby in the Middle East

View the maps originally published with this article. "Over our dead bodies!" Najib Khatib shouted in Arabic as I stepped out of our car in Ghajar, a picturesque village cut in two by the boundary between the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Lebanon. "Nobody tells us anything!" he said, his arms

Andrew J. Tabler

Articles & Testimony

America and the Iranian Political Reform Movement:

First, Do No Harm

On February 3, 2010, Institute senior fellow Mehdi Khalaji and Keston Family fellow J. Scott Carpenter, director of the Institute's Project Fikra, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia on ways the United States can best support the movement for political

Mehdi Khalaji
J. Scott Carpenter

Saudi Public Opinion:

What issues are of concern to ordinary Saudis? How does the average citizen view the state of the domestic economy? What are the prevailing public attitudes toward religious extremism? As in most countries, long-term stability in Saudi Arabia is ultimately dependent -- to one degree or another -- on popular

David Pollock

Articles & Testimony

The Iranian Republic of Fear

Iran's clerical regime governs by a simple formula: He who is the most frightening wins. "Victory by terrifying" is a trope that is present in many of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's speeches. Indeed, it is a reliable guide to his political philosophy. This view was not invented by Khamenei

Articles & Testimony

Revolutionary Ayatollah:

How My Father Went from the Prison of the Shah to the Prison of Khamenei

In the very cold winter of 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, returned to Qom, the spiritual capital of the Shiite world, for the first time after his long exile. A huge crowd came out that day. As he made his way to the

Articles & Testimony

Iraq's Politics of Fear

Until recently, the Iraqi elections on March 7, 2010 seemed likely to showcase the growing maturity of local democracy and offer the United States a chance to claim some success and, more importantly, a mandate to withdraw troops. The election would mark the third time a peaceful transfer of power

In-Depth Reports

Much Traction from Measured Steps:

The Iranian Opposition, the Nuclear Issue, and the West

Resolving the nuclear standoff with Iran remains a serious concern of major Western powers. At the same time, the international community has an interest in promoting Iranian human rights and democracy. The June 12 presidential elections in Iran brought the tension between these two objectives to a head, with Iranian

Patrick Clawson

Renewed Violence against Egypt's Coptic Christians

On January 6 -- Christmas Eve according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar -- six Coptic Christians and a policeman were killed in a drive-by shooting while exiting church in Naga Hammadi, Upper Egypt. The attack, which came in retaliation to an alleged rape of a twelve-year-old Muslim girl by a

David Schenker

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Supported by the

Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics

The Washington Institute's Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics focuses on social, political, and economic developments in the Arab world, with an emphasis on the Arab countries of the Levant.

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Featured experts

David Schenker

David Schenker is the Taube Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics. He is the former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

Ghaith al-Omari

Ghaith al-Omari

Ghaith al-Omari is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Irwin Levy Family Program on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship.

Hanin Ghaddar

Hanin Ghaddar is the Friedmann Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute's Rubin Family Arab Politics Program, where she focuses on Shia politics throughout the Levant.

Bilal Wahab

Bilal Wahab was the Nathan and Esther K. Wagner Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.

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