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The Journey of Small Things

The Journey of Small Things

Every democracy enshrines free speech in its constitution, but the reality is different.    What does a novelist cowering in her home after uttering a...

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The Limits of Freedom

Who defines and sets the standards of global liberalism?  Standing in a Netherlands court room, the Dutch MP Geert Wilders ran his hands through his hair and...

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Still Out There, Still Relevant

Nine years on, Osama bin Laden is still relevant to modern jihadism and catching him must remain a priority.   Nine years after the September 11 attacks on...

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More than Words

What matters more than what a niqab-wearing Saudi poet said is what happened after she said it. The words of Hissa Hilal cause uproar in the Arab world.   It&...

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The Science of Beirut

It’s hard to tell the difference between friend and foe when one is in Lebanon.In Lebanon, you never know when your enemies will reappear as...

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New Venue, Same Script

Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry gave no new answers to very old questions.When Tony Blair appeared before the Chilcot inquiry last month, his...

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A Balance for China

Two incidents in China suggest the Asian giant may have its own way of doing politics. Two stories from a faraway country. The first involves Lou Jing, until...

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Gaza - A Year on

What has changed? And when the conflict in Gaza finally ends, where will it leave us?  By the time you read this, many things may have happened, but little...

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Different Strokes

The French and Syrian bans on the niqab may look the same, but underneath they are very different. Naturally it is gratifying, for those of us who spend significant...

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A Year of Change

Next month marks a year since US president Barack Obama took office. He may only be a quarter of the way through his first term, but that hasn’t stopped his...

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Questions of Colour

Talk of immigration masks complex questions but politicians only ever give the same answer.  After a brief respite, it’s back. Immigration talk is on the...

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Walking Across the World

Tangiers, a steaming, bustling city on the northern coast of Morocco, is the city of Ibn Battuta, the great 12th century traveller who spent three decades traversing...

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A Turkish Love Affair

There is an old song playing on the radio and somehow it seems to make sense. Sertab Erener’s “Every Way That I Can”, a blend of traditional Turkish...

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Taking on the BNP

Plastered around the trendier parts of London, in those places where hipsters in Mens Skinny Jeans congregate, are posters for indie rock band the Cribs’ latest...

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Blogging All Over the World

Sometime over the last decade or two, the Americans lost their youth. The unconventionality and lack of regard for establishment that marked out the country from the...

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Gagging the Guardians

The biggest journalism story of the month was an anonymous company’s attempt to gag the Guardian newspaper.  The saga itself only lasted a few hours, but...

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The Freedom to Dress

Current introspection among some French politicians over banning the burqah seems like – as with so much in this contentious area of women’s clothing &...

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What Obama did not say

The US president Barack Obama’s long awaited speech to “the Muslim world” was finally held last month, in the opulent surroundings of Cairo...

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Make your point

First Published on November/December 2004To access the issue page, click here  "It’s the one-a-week rule: that every week, every person should make...

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Faisal Al-Yafai

Faisal Al-Yafai is a commentator