by Heather Hastie | Sep 14, 2016 | International Politics, Religion
The fifteenth anniversary of Al Qaeda’s attacks on New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and the attempted attack that resulted in a plane crash in Pennsylvania has just passed. Almost 3,000 people were murdered that day by Islamist...
by Heather Hastie | Oct 4, 2015 | Middle East, Russia, Winners and Worries
In reality, Syria has been a worry for years. Bashar al-Assad took over the presidency, the role of commander-in-chief of the Syrian armed forces, and the leadership of the ruling Ba’ath party on his father’s death in 2000. For several reasons, including...
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 | Feb 7, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, International Politics, Religion, Terrorism, US Politics, USA
In the United States there is a growing rift between Democrats and Republicans on how to describe the terrorism in the Middle East and northern Nigeria. (As if politics in America needed any more rifts!) The Obama administration will not use the word...
