Harry's Place

Cross-Post by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi from the Daily Star in Lebanon
The decision of Wikileaks to publish in unredacted form some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables has deservedly attracted condemnation for compromising the safety of many of those individuals named in the files. However, a great deal that is useful can be garnered from the information disclosed. [...]

Cross-Post by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi from the Kurdistan Tribune
Among analysts of the ongoing unrest in Syria, it is a truism that the main reason Christians are generally not participating in demonstrations against Assad’s rule is because they fear reprisals at the hands of the Sunni Arab majority if the Alawite-dominated regime falls.
Alawites, who have incorporated [...]

This is a guest post from Hasan Afzal, Director of StandforPeace.
This weekend, thousands of young Muslims will congregate in Wembley Arena to see a special kind of superstar.
They’ll be there to listen to the words of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri, a Muslim scholar best known for his fatwa on terrorism who effectively argues that suicide bombing and terrorism [...]

Sunny Singh is a senior lecturer in creative writing at London Metropolitan University.
She writes on her blog:
I am beginning to realise that at least once a year, I use this blog to tell off fanatics. So far, it has been Islamist nut-jobs who got offended by my piece on Salman Rushdie. Then some time later, I wrote [...]

I’ve never been to Memphis, but if I had known about this, I might have made the trip (combined with a visit to Graceland, of course).

This past weekend, the 23rd annual Kosher BBQ Contest and Festival drew thousands of Jews from Tennessee and around the country.
It attracted a group of Muslims, too. Turns out [...]

Potkin Azarmehr has tried to get some leading environmental groups involved in the campaign to save Lake Orumiyeh in northwest Iran, which has lost almost 60 percent of its surface area in the past two decades largely due to government actions, including damming and construction of a causeway.
Orumiyeh is the world’s third largest salt lake, [...]

“Left wing interventionist” Roland Dodds, who blogs at But I am a Liberal, writes about how the recent behavior of US Republicans, culminating in the latest debates among the party’s presidential candidates, has helped him rediscover his socialist roots.
Regular readers of Harry’s Place may have noticed that I’ve gone through a similar process, although I [...]

Readers will remember that an ‘East End Pride’ event was cancelled earlier this year after EDL involvement was identified.  Today a march organised by East London Pride will take place – the route will begin in Hackney, go through Tower Hamlets and end in Bethnal Green. Peter Tatchell supports the march, but also has some [...]

This is a cross post by Harif
To coincide with the DURBAN lll CIRCUS
In 1948, there were 870,000 Jews in the Arab world. Today, there are just 4,000. This is what ethnic cleansing actually looks like.
All over the Middle East, the obsession with the demonisation of Israel means that the plight of real refugees – and [...]

This is a cross post by Bob Pitt
John Webster is mistaken in suggesting that the waving of the national flag of Israel at English Defence League demonstrations indicates support for the EDL among the Jewish community (Letters, September 15).
In fact Jewish organisations such as the Board of Deputies and Community Security Trust have repeatedly condemned [...]