by Heather Hastie | Sep 21, 2015 | Democracy, International Politics, Middle East
Just when you thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse in Syria, they have. Putin is going to speak at the United Nations in a few days, and political commentators such as the Guardian’s Natalie Nougayrède are predicting that his speech will be a...
by Heather Hastie | Sep 14, 2015 | Middle East, Religion, Terrorism, Winners and Worries
My Winner of the Week this week was The Free World, an entity that is growing every day as freedom and democracy continue to spread. Long-term, as I said, I have no doubt that it is the values of secularism and humanism that will take hold. The behaviour of many...
by Heather Hastie | Aug 20, 2015 | Middle East, Religion, Terrorism
Renowned antiquities scholar, Khaled al-Asaad (82), is dead. On Tuesday (18 August 2015) a member of DAESH chopped his head off then hung his body from a column in the town square in Palmyra, Syria. Why? Because he wouldn’t tell them where some Syrian...
by Heather Hastie | Jul 28, 2015 | International Politics, Middle East, US Politics
This morning (9am Tuesday NZ time, 5pm Monday EST) I watched GOP presidential contender and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on Fox New’s The Five trying to defend his recent comments about the Iran Nuclear Deal. I’ve always struggled to watch...
by Heather Hastie | Mar 7, 2015 | Democracy, Human Rights, Middle East, Religion, Women
Most of you have probably see the video below of Maajid Nawaz trying to get some of his fellow Muslims admit that some of the punishments in Sharia are inhumane. For whatever reason, they simply won’t say that punishments like stoning to death are wrong....
by Heather Hastie | Oct 24, 2014 | Health, Human Rights, Middle East, Religion
Orla Guerin of the BBC, a reporter I admire greatly, today presented this report about FGM in Egypt. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to embed it into this article, but I urge you to go to the link and watch it. It’s only 2:49 long. In the...
