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TWI Arabic: اللغة العربية Fikra Forum

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In-Depth Reports

What Arab Democrats Want from Our Next President

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, J. Scott Carpenter, Mohamed Abdelbaky, Oussama Safa, Engi El-Haddad, and Nader Said addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Carpenter is a Keston Family fellow at the Institute and director of its Project Fikra. Mr. Abdelbaky is foreign affairs editor

J. Scott Carpenter
Mohamed Abdelbaky

In-Depth Reports

Reversing the Tide of Radicalization

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Colin Mellis, Maajid Nawaz, and Farah Pandith addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Mellis is a policy advisor on radicalization to the City of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Mr. Nawaz is the founder and codirector of the Quilliam Foundation

Farah Pandith

Articles & Testimony

Islamic Charities

The Price of Fear: The Truth behind the Financial War on Terror. By Ibrahim Warde. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. 261 pp. $24.95. Understanding Islamic Charities. Edited by Jon B. Alterman and Karin von Hippel. Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2007. 200 pp. $21.95, paper. "Terror

The Way Back from Islamism

On July 11, 2008, Maajid Nawaz addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. Nawaz was a longtime member of the British leadership committee of Hizb al-Tahrir (HT), an international Islamist movement. In 2002, while studying in Egypt, he was arrested for his membership in the group and was

Articles & Testimony

Why Terrorists Quit:

Gaining from Al-Qa'ida's Losses

In recent months, there has been a spate of seemingly good news in the counter-terrorism arena, as former terrorist leaders and clerics have renounced their previous beliefs. Former Egyptian Islamic Jihad head Sayyid Imam al-Sharif (also known as Dr. Fadl), whose treatises al-Qa'ida often cited to justify its actions, has

Interfaith Talks Abroad, Intolerance at Home

This week, Saudi Arabia is organizing a global interfaith conference in Madrid, with more than 200 Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist religious leaders from 54 countries expected to attend. The conference, in the words of its main organizer, the Mecca-based Muslim World League, will "focus on common human values."

Simon Henderson

Articles & Testimony

Turkey Versus Turkey

The jailing of two retired Turkish generals over the weekend has heightened tensions between the government in Ankara and its critics. The generals are among 21 people whom police have detained over the past week, including a senior industrialist and a prominent journalist, on suspicion of plotting a coup against

Articles & Testimony

Innocence Abroad

In the spring of 2002, I made my first post-9/11 visit to Cairo as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs. The trip's purpose was a soup-to-nuts review of the large U.S. economic aid package to Egypt. I had been asked specifically to look at

Articles & Testimony

Turkey's Changing Landscape

Modern Turkey's identity is based on its secular stance, but the ruling Justice and Development Party's policies show Islamist leanings. From mundane matters, such as the cost of ordering a drink, to major issues, such as women's role in society, Turkey seems to be undergoing a change. In this article

Articles & Testimony

Return of the Purple Fingers

Within the next few months, Iraqis will once again wave purple fingers in the air as they cast ballots for provincial governments. As Iraq's parliament debates a law to govern the elections, U.S. diplomats and international experts have an opportunity, if not to correct past mistakes, then to help put

In-Depth Reports

Challenges at Home and Abroad

Haim Ramon, deputy prime minster of Israel, delivered the concluding address at the Institute's 2008 Soref Symposium. The following is a rapporteur's summary of his remarks. The importance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed dramatically in the last decade. Today, it is increasingly taking a back seat to the fight

Kuwaiti Elections:

Democracy in Action, or Inaction?

Tomorrow, Kuwait's nearly 400,000 voters -- more than half of them women -- will go to the polls to elect a new parliament. The incoming body will replace the 2006 parliament that was dissolved by the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah, for failing to work together with the cabinet. Kuwait's

David Pollock
Mehdi Khalaji

Articles & Testimony

Just Like Us! Really?

On the inside back cover of books published by Gallup Press there is the following breathtaking statement: Gallup Press exists to educate and inform the people who govern, manage, teach and lead the world's six billion citizens. Each book meets Gallup's requirements of integrity, trust and independence and is based

Robert Satloff

Highlighting al-Qaeda's Bankrupt Ideology

According to recent U.S. government reports and senior U.S. counterterrorism officials, contesting al-Qaeda's message is no less important than capturing or killing the group's operatives. And as the administration prioritizes its agenda for the last eight months in office, recognizing the need for a refocused communication plan to highlight the

Matthew Levitt
Michael Jacobson

Turkey's Headscarf Legislation:

The Negative Impact on EU Accession

In February 2008, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) passed two constitutional amendments that intend to lift the ban on Islamic headscarves on college campuses. Although it is still unclear how the legislation will be implemented, the new laws are likely to have a negative impact on how the

Antonia Ruiz Jimenez

Tackling Turkey's Image Problem in the European Union

In February 2007, the Austrian government became the latest member of the European Union to propose a referendum on Turkish accession, citing "differences in values and standards" between Turkey and the EU. Recent data, however, reveals that these cultural differences are not so pronounced. And at a time when Turkey's

Antonia Ruiz Jimenez

Human Rights and the Basis for EU Sanctions against Iran

When the UN Security Council approved the third round of sanctions against Iran by adopting Resolution 1803 in March 2008, U.S. policymakers anticipated that the European Union would follow past practice and enact additional punitive measures. Almost two months later, however, Europeans are still at loggerheads on how best to

Bad News or Bad Data?

The Debate over Arab and Muslim Public Opinion

On April 17, 2008, David Pollock and Dalia Mogahed addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Dr. Pollock is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute and author of its recently released Policy Focus Slippery Polls: Uses and Abuses of Opinion Surveys from Arab States. Ms. Mogahed is executive

David Pollock

Bad News or Bad Data?

The Debate over Arab and Muslim Public Opinion

For better or worse, yesterday's "Arab street" has merged with today's information superhighway. With public opinion polls from the Middle East becoming front-page -- and usually alarmist -- news, the results raise as many questions as they claim to answer: How reliable are numbers from undemocratic states? Do the region's

David Pollock

In-Depth Reports

Slippery Polls:

Uses and Abuses of Opinion Surveys from Arab States

For better or worse, yesterday's "Arab street" has merged with today's information superhighway. One can hardly pick up a newspaper, turn on the television, or go online without coming across the latest poll numbers purporting to show what Middle Easterners are "really" thinking. Even senior U.S. officials often give such

David Pollock

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Supported by the

Project Fikra: Defeating Extremism through the Power of Ideas

Fikra n. [Arabic] "Idea"

The Washington Institute's Project Fikra is a multiyear program of research, publication, and network-building designed to generate policy ideas for promoting positive change and countering the spread of extremism in the Middle East.

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Featured experts

Catherine Cleveland

Catherine Cleveland

Catherine Cleveland is The Washington Institute's Croft-Wagner Family Senior Fellow and managing editor of Fikra Forum.

Ben Fishman

Ben Fishman is the Steven D. Levy Senior Fellow in the Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, where he focuses on North Africa.

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