By Nathan Brown
The official Muslim religious establishments in Arab countries give governments a major role in religious life, but these institutions are rarely mere regime mouthpieces and can be difficult to steer in a particular direction. Read More
Kidnapping has become a growing problem in Libya, where three governments and several militia are vying for power. The BBC’s North Africa correspondent Rana Jawad has been talking to people personally affected. Read More
By Alaa Bayoumi
A new wave of anti-democratic momentum is spreading across the Arab world, targeting regimes and movements that supported the Arab Spring. Read More
By Muhammad Mansour
The stability that some believe a strongman guarantees is actually a perfect incubator for sectarianism and terrorism. In the 18-day uprising in Tahrir square in 2011, I witnessed the peak of unity between Egypt’s Muslims and Coptic Christians. Read More
By Rebecca Hersman and Sarah Minot
Humanitarian catastrophe is becoming commonplace – part of a new normal in which fragile governments, violence, and conflict now too often co-exist with large-scale humanitarian crises. Read More
By Bachir Amroune
Qatar stands isolated under accusations of sponsoring terrorism. But this diplomatic crisis is actually about young princes’ unbridled quest for power – with the help of Donald Trump, says DW’s Bachir Amroune. Read More
By Ahmed Salah Ali
There is a contradiction in General Khalifa Haftar’s narrative. Although he denounces his opponents as “takfiri terrorists and Kharijites” and accuses Misrata of employing political Islam, turning to takfiri groups for help, embracing the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh), and supporting Ansar al-Sharia. Read More
Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous forces confirmed it thwarted, on Friday, an attack by what it described as “Haftar militias” at gate 17, east of Sirte, saying that the attack coincided with another attack from Daesh militias south of Sirte, according to the media bureau. Read More
By Christopher M Davidson
The underlying Saudi and Emirati grievances with Qatar have been lingering for a while, but the real catalyst of this week’s crisis is the new US administration. Read More
By Jason Pack and Rhiannon Smith
The suicide bombing has had significant repercussions in Libya, with different factions attempting to use it to undermine their rivals. Read More
The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) has reported that it had made returns of US $ 331 million in 2016. The claim came from the Media Department representing Ali Mahmoud, the Head of the Steering Committee of the LIA appointed in August 2016 by Faiez Serraj, head of the internationally-recognized Presidency Council and Government of National Accord. Read More
By Nathan Brown
The official Muslim religious establishments in Arab countries give governments a major role in religious life, but these institutions are rarely mere regime mouthpieces and can be difficult to steer in a particular direction. Read More
By Jonas Ecke
We’re living in a new era of proxy warfare, where multiple powers fund local proxies with disastrous consequences. We need to break the cycle. Read More
By Adel Abdel Ghafar and Mattia Toaldo
Libya has been in the news over the past week, for grim reasons. The Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi, was a Brit of Libyan descent. Read More
A UK Foreign Office minister has admitted that the UK “could have done more” to prevent Libya’s descent into chaos after NATO’s intervention in 2011 that brought the end to ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s rule. Read More
By Dominic Green
In the week following Salman Abedi’s suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on May 22, a great deal was revealed about the perpetrator, most of it deeply unsettling. Read More
By Jason Ditz
Airstrikes Against Derna Are a Popular Diversion.Last week, gunmen attacked a busload of Coptic Christians heading to a monastery in southern Egypt. Read More
People smugglers make about $35 billion a year worldwide and they are driving the tragedy of migrants who die trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told Reuters on Wednesday. Read More
By LH reporters
A Dutch woman who disappeared in Tripoli on Friday may have been kidnapped as she staged a lone protest at the fighting in the city. Read More
By Zineb Abdessadok
A chronology of Libya’s path from a transitional government to a failed state – Part 2: Read More
In the aftermath of a new attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt, the Egyptian army retaliated. This Monday the Egyptian air force has flown a series of air strikes against the Shura Council of Derna in Libya – whom they hold accountable for the attack that cost the lives of 29 copts last week. So far no nation, nor group, have claimed the attack. Read More
By Nadine Dahan
City surrounded and under attack by forces hunting an enemy that no longer exists, resident tells MEE. Read More
By Zineb Abdessadok
A chronology of Libya’s path from a transitional government to a failed state – Part 1: Read More
By Hani Shennib
On May 18, militias belonging to the Misratan Third Force and its affiliates launched an attack on the Libyan National Army (LNA) in Brak al-Shati, an airport base in the Libyan province of Fezzan, and killed 141 Libyan army personnel and civilians, according to LNA sources. Read More
By Giorgio Cafiero and Theodore Karasik
The overthrow of Libya’s longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 plunged Libya into chaos almost three years before the North African country’s ongoing civil war erupted. Read More
By Belal Younis
You cannot compare Islamic State’s aims to ours. They’re fighting for chaos – we fought for peace. Read More
By Rohit Kachroo
The Scout Association, the Eurovision Song Contest and the English Premier League should be promoted in Libya to help fight terrorism, a UK government report leaked to ITV News concluded. Read More
By Alia Brahimi
After the Manchester attack, fingers are being pointed at the state whose collapse after the fall of Gaddafi has allowed radicalisation to become entrenched. Read More
By Jack Moore
The investigation into the Manchester bombing on Monday that left 22 people dead and dozens injured outside the Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert continued on Thursday. Read More
By Philip Leech
It seems that we’re never short on references to the “Arab World” in today’s headlines. Read More
A horrific suicide bombing in Manchester has put a spotlight on Libya—the North African nation where the chaos that has prevailed for the better part of the past six years has become a fertile breeding ground for a mélange of terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Read More
With multiple governments, a collapsing economy and local militias competing for power, is Libya a failed state? Read More
By Fathi Benessa
The question baffles most, if not all, Libya observers and continues to baffle Libyans themselves. Even the governed do not know who governs them. Read More
When U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders of the world’s seven major industrialized nations gather in Sicily on Friday, they will enjoy a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea, but won’t get any glimpse of boats full of migrants. Read More
Given how Dr Shennib’s opening statement called for a new level of thinking, it may have surprised some when he raised a timely and contentious issue, Libya’s path to a viable constitution, and posited what might be considered revisionist thinking by some: a return to the Constitution of 1963. Read More
By Dr Alia Brahimi and Jason Pack
In December 2016, ISIS was ejected from Sirte by a coalition of forces allied to the UN-backed government. US airstrikes and special operations by western forces were integral to the campaign and, combined, provided the tipping point. Read More