Dana Jaf

1440 years ago, a man and his best friend started a dangerous 340 km journey from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution. Today, at least 150,000,000 men and boys are named after that man, Muhammed. Happy New Islamic Year to all lovers of Muhammed.

The future of democracy in the Middle East is dependant on whether Western democracies find see democratic although not perfect governments that might be dominated by religious parties temporarily a better ally or the current authoritarian regimes.

My dream for Iraq is a decentralised democracy where minority rights are protected, individual liberties maintained & elected officials respond to no one but the electorate. But is it a realistic vision for today's Iraq? Not. But it isn't an all or nothing game.

Western liberal democracy wasn't born overnight. It is the result of centuries of internal dynamism and conflict between opposing forces. It's utterly bizarre to expect other societies adopt liberal democratic forms of government overnight just like what they do to imran Kha now.

Many a time, democratically elected governments in Middle east have been sacrificed for a utopian and unrealistic expectation for liberal democracy. The result has been the death of democracy and birth of authoritarianism with a liberal facade. Look no further than Egypt.

While Western policymaking circles have generally been understanding of this fact in Iraq & in Lebnon to some extent, they haven't been able to maintain this nuanced view to democratisation elsewhere.

Democracy isn't a one size fits all. Societies have to negotiate their own forms of democratic governance. Do i want a clergyman tell me who should be the prime minister? Absolutely no. but what if we needed that to avoid a civil war? Then may be the answer will be different.

The role played by the Najaf myarja'yah represented in Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the current political balancing is a very curious case of how democracy is very context specific.

Given the Western far right movement is backed up by Western & non-western actors w/ huge money & strong propaganda machines, in both mainstream & alternative media, it's a miracle Swedish far right hasn't won over 20%.

I am against double standard. If it is free speech to write Mo (a very popular abbreviation of Mohammed) on a fighting dog and implying it is the secret hand of Muslims who are behind the Momentum/Corbyn, then extend that free speech to everyone !

The funny thing is 'political correctness' protects everyone from stereotyping except Muslims but then again it is Muslims who are seen as the beneficiaries of the PC culture.

Good to see Univeristy of Technology Malaysia(UTM) , one of the best Malaysian universities, open its first international franchise in Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimani.

Assad won the war in Syria when he successfully made ISIS terrorism and not his barbarism the number one issue for Western policymakers. He allowed ISIS to flourish. He literally handed in Raqqa to them. And now, the Western policy is 'better the devil you know,'

Assad isn't the first and won't be last person who has used the myth of 'Islamists coming to eat you' to stay in power. Anyone, literally anyone, who wants some support from the West has to play this card.

You may ridicule her as much you like but Russia and its proxies have successfully mainstreamed this nonsense. The reason Western policy towards Middle East especially Syria is crippled is because it is deeply based on this myth.https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/1038403077051703296 …

Moqtada al-Sadr has some serious commitment issues.