While many people are bewildered that a character like Donald Trump is the president of a powerful country like the United States of America, many hope that he will be a one term president, but we tend to disagree with this. In fact, at the moment Trump’s re-election chances look pretty high, as his modus operandi and the way ... Read More »
A|O Exclusives
Book Review; Confessions of a Muslim Journalist by Roshan Muhammed Salih
As most things in life, the age of information comes with its positives and negatives. The negative aspect is an information overload, constantly combined with a sophisticated spin which creates a great deal of confusion about the world around us. If you are a person who wants to de-fog the confusion created by the corporate media, Confessions of a ... Read More »
Key Specifics of the US Soft-Power
In August 2016, Dr. Hosam Mattar published an article in the journal of Contemporary Arab Affairs titled, Limits of US Soft Power in the Arab World. While Dr.Mattar’s paper does an excellent job in theoretically framing the application of soft-power in the Arab world, due to space and topical limit, it had to leave out the practical aspects. Therefore, this ... Read More »
Are Muslims Ready to Use Trump’s Presidency?
Daniel Haqiqatjou, a prominent Muslim-American blogger and intellectual, in his widely read column Why Trump Is Surprisingly Good for Muslims, published in August 2016, Haqiqatjou makes a well-researched argument that “if trump wins the presidency the US political cast identifying itself as Democrat will likely latch on to the Muslim cause like never before. We saw shades of this during ... Read More »
Demystifying American “Soft Power” Strategy
“Soft Power” refers to strategies by Western countries to affect change in other countries prioritizing non-violence, but not excluding violent means. The term has come to prominence in 2003 when Joseph Nye discussed it in a paper aiming at presenting alternatives to US Government to affect change in other countries without having to primarily rely upon hard or military power. While ... Read More »
The PR Weakness of the Resistance Axis in Syria
The purpose of this column is not to study the functionality and the legitimacy of the Syrian government, but the weakness in the public relations sphere on the Syrian front of a far more potent and globally relevant force, namely the Resistance Axis, led by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since the start of the crisis in Syria, Corporate media ... Read More »
Temporary Marriage: an Islamic Response to Contemporary Promiscuity
Anti-Orientalist.com aims to provide a platform for indigenous perspectives and solutions of the Orient, it does not mean we endorse all of them. The article below is the view of the author (who chose to remain anonymous), not of Anti-Orientalist.com This column aims to discuss the not so widely deliberated Prophetic tradition that can help Muslims preserve their sexual ... Read More »
Brexit & Siding with the Right-Wingers
Anti-interventionist current in the Orient ought to be very diligent when siding with some rational policies of right wing European socio-political organizations. On a simplistic level the message of the right-wing groups might sound as non-interference in the affairs of the MENA region. However, in 2016, strict pursuit of national interests without strong cosmopolitan and supranational components in national ... Read More »
Will the MENA Region Repeat the Mistakes of the Cold War Era?
With the rise of the Russian global hegemony, regional forces in the MENA region should avoid repeating the tragic fallacies of the Cold War era. During the Cold War both (US & USSR) hegemonic powers used, misused and abused the developing world for their imperialist ambitions with no regard for the people of Africa, Asia or Latin America. As ... Read More »
Turkey’s Coup and the Sultan
After following the unfolding events of the attempted coup in Turkey, many couldn’t stop themselves from asking whether the “Arab Spring” chaos has reached the Eurasian country. There were terrorist attacks in the past, but nothing comparable to a direct attempt to change the rule in Turkey. Less than four hours later, news emerged that the coup has failed. The “Plot” ... Read More »