Tag: Arab Revolution

North Africa

Libya slave trade becomes political football

Propagandists of the isolationist right and anti-war “left” alike are exploiting theĀ chilling emergence of a slave trade in abducted Black African migrants in Libya’s remote desert south as evidence that the NATO intervention of 2011 only led to nightmares. The popular uprising that ousted Qaddafi is invisible to themā€”as is the dictator’s own culpability in the social collapse that followed his rule.

North Africa

Tunisia: one step forward, one step back

Tunisia's parliament voted to overturn a 1973 directive prohibiting marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man—a victory for the country's transition to secular rule. But one day earlier, the parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve a controversial amnesty law pardoning thousands implicated in corruption and embezzlement under the former regime of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. The opposition bloc boycotted the vote, as protesters massed outside the parliament building, calling the step a move back toward dictatorship.

Syria

US tilt to Assad: now it’s official

Washington has now made it official that its enemy in Syria is just ISIS and al-Qaedaā€”and explicitly not the Bashar Assad dictatorship. A US Army representative told CNN that the Coalition has issued a directive to rebel forces operating out if its base in southern Syria that they must be exclusively focused on fighting ISIS and not the Damascus regime. One rebel faction, Shohada al-Quartyan, has refused to accept this ultimatum, and left the base.

North Africa

Tunisian revolutionaries betray Syrian revolution?

The democratic transition in Tunisia since the 2011 uprising has been the one real success story of the Arab Revolutionā€”and the Tunisian revolution was also the firstĀ that served to spark the subsequent wave. So Tunisia’sĀ pro-democracy forces have international responsibilities, seen as keepers of the flame. It is distressing to learn thatĀ the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), a pillar of the country’s pro-democracy movement, sent a delegation to Damascus to meet with dictator Bashar Assad and express solidarity with his “war against terrorism.”

Greater Middle East

Egypt sentences anti-Mubarak protesters to life

An Egyptian criminal court sentenced 43 men to life in prison for charges of vandalism, rioting and attacking authorities during the uprising that led to the downfall of long-ruling dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Ten other protesters were handed down lesser sentences of five or 10 years, Mubarak, acquitted on retrial of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 demonstrations, was meanwhile released from prison earlier this year.

Syria

Syria: new popular uprising against al-Qaeda

Residents of Saraqeb town in Syria’s Idlib province rose up and drove off fighters of the local al-Qaeda affiliate after jihadists fired on protesters. The incident began when Saraqeb residents held self-organized elections for the town council, and raised the Free Syria flag from the radio tower in celebration. Tahrir al-Sham fighters responded by tearing down the flag, trampling it, and firing in the air in a display of defiance. This sparked a general uprising against the group’s presence in Saraqeb.

Greater Middle East
Persian Gulf

Bahrain sentences rights defender to two years

Amnesty International condemned Bahrain's sentencing of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab to two years in prison—for the crime of protesting on his Twitter account the harsh conditions in Bahrain's prisons. Rajab has served time for illegal tweeting before, and still awaits sentencing on other similar charges. Amnesty condemned the conviction as a "flagrant violation of human rights."

Greater Middle East

Egypt: top court halts Red Sea islands transfer

Following rare public protests in defiance of harsh security measures, Egypt's Constitutional Court temporarily blocked the transfer of two disputed Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Syria

Syria: popular uprising against al-Qaeda rule

Thousands of residents have repeatedly taken to the streets of Ma’arat al-Numan, a town in Syria’s Idlib governorate, to oppose the rule of jihadist forces that have seized control there.

North Africa

Arab-Berber unity in Morocco protests

Protests continued for a second week in Morocco's neglected Rif region, and spread to cities throughout the country—bringing together Arabs and Berbers to demand democratic reform.

North Africa

Libya: Saif al-Islam Qaddafi released from prison

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi, was released from prison under a new amnesty law, according to the militia that has held him for the past five years.

Greater Middle East

UN to Bahrain: investigate protester deaths

The UN Human Rights Commissioner called on Bahrain to investigate the deaths of several protesters during a security operation against supporters of a persecuted Shi'ite cleric.