What is Salafi Islam? Are all Salafi Muslims global Jihadis? Is Salafism an insurmountable problem that keeps the Muslim world down, or is it part of a solution to the difficult questions arising from Islamic identity and its intertwinement with modernity?  And, is there a way to make Salafi Muslims accept peaceful coexistence and equality with non-Muslims (and with Muslims who rejected Salafism)? Or, does their creed itself lock them into conflict - immediate or delayed - with others? I took this and other questions about Salafi movements, Arab liberals and democracy to Bernard Haykal ..read more

We hear conflicting reports about the status of women in Saudi Arabia. On one hand, MBS, its de facto ruler, has introduced reforms that seemed impossible a decade ago. On the other hand, he is harshly repressing women's rights advocates. What sense should we make of these contradictory trends? And what would be the best strategy to improve women's conditions in such a conservative society? I took these and other questions to Hala Dosary, a prominent Saudi activist, a writer and a scholar. She has worked for a long time on advancing women's issues inside and outside Saudi Arabia.  ..read more

Palestinians today seem stuck . Their struggle for statehood led nowhere. If anyone maintained hope that a two-state solution could actually materialize, the latest Israeli election results disabuse them from that notion. Palestinian President is 87 and there is no mechanism to ensure democratic or smooth transition after him. The division between Fateh and Hamas is deep and all attempts to reconcile them have failed.  Is the Palestinian national dream disintegrating? and what would it leave behind?  I invited Omar Dajani to help me make sense of all that. He is a professor of law ..read more

What is MBS after? Is he, as he once said, a new Alexander the Great? Is his brutal repression the price of reforming this old kingdom? Has he really defeated the royal family, the religious authorities and the business community and secured his rule, or is this another case of fake stability?   I take these questions to Khalid Aljabri, the Saudi cardiologist and writer whose family is at the heart of all this ..read more

The UAE has puzzling policies. It has a strong alliance with the US but often challenges it – including by aligning its oil policy with that of Russia. It is a traditional Arab country and yet violates Arab taboos - including by building a security alliance with Israel. It antagonizes Iran but tries its best to avoid conflict with it. It has a modernizing profile in the Arab World but fights its democratization. What is the UAE up to exactly? I take these and other questions to Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati commentator and a visiting professor at Harvard University. Here is our conv ..read more

A conversation with Bernard Avishai, visiting professor at Dartmouth College, writer at The New Yorker, and author of The Tragedy of Zionism ..read more