April 26, 2017

France: As Fillon Switches to Macron, Many of His Voters Break for Le Pen

The French voted on Sunday to elect their president and their verdict came like a thunderbolt, marking their desire to turn the page on their big traditional parties . The two candidates to go into a run-off in a fortnight are Emmanuel Macron - th...

April 2, 2017

In France, conservative Fillon takes a swing at socialist President Hollande

In a French presidential campaign increasingly patterned after the U.S. recent soap, rightwing nominee François Fillon publicly accused socialist President Hollande of dirty tricks to destroy his candidacy and any chance of a political change....

March 9, 2017

In France, Fillon against All Odds

They must be too a sign of the times - presidential races turning to circuses. The latest twist in the French campaign is the investigation of the leading candidate, former Premier François Fillon, prompted by allegations that he paid his wife...

November 28, 2016

France selects her Republican presidential nominee

François Fillon just won a landslide victory as the presidential nominee for France’s Republican party. Two days ago, the former French premier was already seen as the winner at the end-of-campaign two-hour televised debate with his r...

November 10, 2016

Can Trump’s presidency overturn Hillary’s bloody legacy in Syria?

Syrians have a lot of riding on the election of Donald J. Trump as president, owing to the dark legacy of death, destruction and terror left by Secretary Clinton in their beloved country.  There is indeed reason to be hopeful. In his election ni...

October 23, 2016

A Syrian Doctor’s Testimonial from Aleppo

Aleppo, Syria, has lately been the focus of much world attention, with some people even hearing in it the first rumblings of WW3. It is not really possible to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the torrents of information and opinions pouring daily...

July 7, 2016

Austria Throws Out Its Presidential Election and May Throw Out Jihadists, Too

Europeans are revolting against their transnational elites, with Austria now throwing out its presidential election that cheated the nationalist candidate of victory.  Friday last week took Austria through a roller-coaster of emotional news -- a...

June 7, 2016

Austria’s shift to the right

Austria’s anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPÖ) is likely to formally challenge the presidential election that took place last month and ask for a recount of the postal ballots by Wednesday, its leader said Monday.  Speaking on ra...

April 25, 2016

Musing over migration on taxi rides across Paris

On a recent trip to Paris, I had plans to meet an American friend at a new burger joint in the Latin Quarter.  After fumbling to figure out a way to get there by public transportation, I gave up in favor of a cab ride because it was getting late...

March 17, 2015

Al-Azhar's grand imam confesses tearing up when reading Jesus's Sermon on the Mount

This Sunday’s issue of the Coptic Egyptian online publication Apologetics contained an interesting presentation of a TV program showing Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Sheikh Al-Tayeb praising Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.  The publicatio...

March 8, 2015

Sisi's religious revolution gets underway

Last week, the news spread across the web that Egypt’s President Al-Sisi had “cancelled Islamic education” in all of Egypt. Was it in fulfillment of his New Year call for a religious revolution?  Was that dramatic announcement ...

January 25, 2015

El-Sisi Modifies Stance on Islamic Reform at Davos

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Egyptian President Abdelfattah el-Sisi had strong words against global terrorism and islamic extremism, but he nonetheless took a step back from his now famous al-Azhar New Year’s speec...

January 18, 2015

Herve Gourdel - the ordinary hero beheaded by jihadists

The body of French mountaineer Hervé Gourdel was recovered by Algerian troops Thursday 15 January, four months after he was abducted and beheaded by jihadists. The army had mobilized 3,000 troops to find him. Excavations were carried out in Ak...

January 8, 2015

Egypt's Sisi First President ever to Attend Coptic Christmas Mass

In a historic event that created quite a commotion in Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made an unannounced appearance at the Coptic Cathedral where Christmas Eve Mass was being celebrated by the Egyptian Pope Tawadros II. The Coptic Chu...