Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri is among the Arab world's most distinguished historians of ideas, perhaps best known for his gargantuan Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism. To be launched by May 2008, the English edition of his autobiography -- to (...)
The issuing of fatwas must be codified, argues Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri*
Who has the right to issue a fatwa ? What are the necessary academic qualifications? What happens in the event that such religious decrees contradict one another? That such (...)
In the opening years of this century, the world was presented with a historic confrontation between the West and Islamic and Arab worlds. This confrontation has been used in the pursuit of imperial agendas. American failure in Iraq has left (...)
Abdel-Wahab M Elmessiri bores through the video clip (the ubiquitous benchmark of present-day Arab pop culture), probing its relevance to society, politics, globalisation -- and a range of compelling intellectual issues
EROTIC REDUCTIONISM: A video (...)
By Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri *
In the West, post-modernism has gained a popularity unprecedented for a philosophical world-view. It starts from a number of interrelated philosophical premises and high-flown terminology (which changes on average once a (...)