The plight of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority is becoming the Muslim world's latest rallying call emulating the emotional appeal of the Palestinians in the second half of the 20th century.
Like the cause of the Palestinians, the Rohingya, (...)
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), by breaking off not only diplomatic but also economic relations with Qatar, are likely to make it this time round far more difficult for the Gulf state to resist pressure to change its controversial (...)
Next month's annual congress of the world soccer body, FIFA, is likely to become the first international forum since US president Donald Trump took office to debate Israel's controversial settlement policy in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli efforts (...)
US president Donald J. Trump's vow to defeat what he terms radical Islamic terrorism forces the United States to maneuver the Middle East and North Africa's murky world of ever shifting alliances and labyrinth of power struggles within power (...)
Controversy and uncertainty over the possible appointment of a Pakistani general as commander of a 40-nation, Saudi-led, anti-Iranian military alliance dubbed the Muslim world's NATO goes to the core of a struggle for Pakistan's soul as the country (...)
Troubled ports in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, envisioned as part of China's string of pearls linking the Eurasian heartland to the Middle Kingdom, exemplify political pitfalls that threaten Beijing's ambitious One Belt, One Road project.
Political (...)
A Saudi decision to license within weeks the kingdom's first women-only gyms constitutes progress in a country in which women's rights are severely curtailed. It also lays bare the limitations of Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman's plan for (...)
2016 was not a good year for Saudi Arabia. Sharply lowered oil prices sparked a domestic financial crisis that is forcing the country to restructure its economy. Saud Arabia's bitter struggle with Iran for regional hegemony has embroiled it in wars (...)
Efforts to leverage Qatar's 2022 World Cup hosting rights to create the soft power the Gulf state needs to punch above its weight and ensure a sympathetic hearing in the international community in times of emergency operate on the Leninist principle (...)
For much of the last six years since winning the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup, Qatar appeared to be taking a slow and torturous path towards some degree of reform. Yet, in an increasingly conservative world in which human rights are put on (...)
Faced with a drop in popularity, intermittent protests against rising prices, and calls for a mass anti-government demonstration, Egyptian general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is seeking to appease the country's youth, soccer fans, and (...)
Pressured by human rights and trade union activists leveraging Qatar's exposure as a World Cup host and influenced by subtle changes sparked by popular Arab revolts in recent years, young Qataris are pushing the envelope, broaching publicly hitherto (...)
Egyptian general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's failed economic policies are prompting protests and widespread expressions of discontent.
While the grumbling is unlikely to mushroom any time soon into a popular revolt similar to the one (...)
This week's decision by Pakistan's supreme court to delay ruling on an appeal in the country's most notorious blasphemy case and the thousands of security personnel deployed in its capital, Islamabad, in anticipation of a verdict, lay bare the (...)
The soccer soft power contrast between Qatar and Iceland speaks volumes. A comparison of the strategies of both countries demonstrates that it takes more than money to leverage soccer to create political, geopolitical, and economic (...)
Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, an Islamist with close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, recently convened some of Islam's most prominent leaders to determine the theologically and politically explosive question of who is a Sunni Muslim. (...)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused world soccer body FIFA of allowing FIFA-sanctioned matches to be played on occupied land in the West Bank in violation of FIFA rules and has demanded that the group ensure that future games be staged within the (...)
An Egyptian businessman with close ties to general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has submitted a bid for the broadcasting rights of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in a move that is widely seen as an effort to polish the image of (...)
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds Fethullah Gulen, the self-exiled conservative leader of Hizmet, one of the world's biggest Islamic movements, responsible for the attempt to overthrow his democratically elected government. Erdogan (...)
Abu Otaiba, the nom du guerre of a self-taught imam and Islamic State (IS) recruiter in Jordan, uses soccer to attract recruits.
"We take them to farms, or private homes. There we discuss and organise soccer games to bring them closer to us," Abu (...)
A Turkish demand that Pakistan close 28 primary and secondary schools associated with controversial, self-exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen has put the government in Islamabad in a quandary as it attempts to get a grip on an education sector (...)
A recently published United States (US) State Department report on human trafficking provides Qatar with yet another roadmap to counter World Cup-related international criticism of its labour regime.
The State Department's annual review serves as a (...)
If Islamic State (IS) was serious about attacking Euro 2016, its plans clearly never materialised. Leaked transcripts of the interrogation of one of the attackers of Brussels Airport in March leave little doubt however that soccer is featured (...)
Egypt may be inching towards a return to the stands of soccer fans who played a key role in the 2011 toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak, and have been barred entry into stadiums for much of the last five years.
Clubs, players, and fans see a (...)
A football star-turned-protest leader-turned-jihadist encourages peaceful anti-Bashar Al-Assad protests in Syrian rebel-held territory. Nearby, in "Islamic State" (IS)-controlled territory, young boys play football with decapitated heads.
The (...)