Yassin al-Haj Saleh, dissects the functioning, motivations, funding and ideology of the Syrian 'shabiha', from their appearance in the 1970s until their reemmergence during the revolution. Saleh shows their central role in maintaining a regime in power that has long lost touch with people’s interests, morality and reality.

Moving beyond the various flaws that plague the opposition, it seeks to sketch out possible alternatives that could allow these political forces to elevate their discourse and performance to levels that benefit the revolution.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of censorship in Lebanon which will hopefully allow the many local artistic and cultural actors the opportunity to lobby for the most appropriate legislative amendments to the current censorship regulations which are currently not conducive to their work.

On Thursday,  23 February 2012, in the context of monitoring the legislative activity in Lebanon, the ‘Legal Agenda’ organized a seminar to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the legislation issued in 2011.

21 June 2011 6pm to 9pm at Hangar/Umam, Beirut, Lebanon. Holy Ghost services which feel like pop concerts; cinemas and theatres converted into churches; the Koran and the Bible as rap songs. New religious movements have arrived on the urban scene across the world – be it in Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Mumbai, Berlin, London, or Beirut.

Lebanese Politics is characterized by the social and political hegemony of its sectarian elites. The latest political crisis in Lebanon, the fall of Hariris government on January 12th, 2011 and the appointment of Najib Mikati as designated Prime Minister, was somehow a defeat for Saad Hariri. However, by constantly upholding the ‘martyrdom’ of his father’s death, he still manages to secure his power within the community. Through interviews with the youth section members of his Future Movement, this study sheds light on the latest developments in Lebanese politics from the perspective of young Sunni activists.

In the first edition of Perspectives Middle East, activists and decision-makers from the Arab world and Europe critically discuss the transfer and use of civilian nuclear energy in the region.

In April and May 2011, the Independent Film & Television College (Baghdad) organized a traveling film festival in Iraq where it screened 16 short documentaries made by its students.

These films, made by young Iraqis at the beginning of their filmmaking experience, all reflect upon the life of ordinary Iraqis in these extraordinary times, through which the country and its people have been living since the fall of the former regime.

8-9 July 2011 at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. The emergence of a multi-polar science world with many emerging and strong science communities in East-Asia, India and Latin America and, last but not least, in the Arab countries, indicate the end of the exclusive reign of Western social sciences and the beginning of a new era of international social science collaborations.

بقلم حبيب معلوف - جريدة السفير 30/11/2010

With contributions by Layla Al Zubaidi, Bülent Aras, Megan Chabalowski, Richard Gowan, Faleh Jabar, Daniel Korski, Sami Moubayed, Daniel Serwer, and Heiko Wimmen

The situation in Lebanon is not as dangerous as in other countries in the Arab world for those individuals whose sexual orientation does not comply with that of the majority, but it is not less serious. Threats of death, humiliations, blackmails, attacks, marginalization, discriminations, rejections, depressions, suicide attempts, shame, guilt, emotional life ruined, isolation, are in great majority the load of the openly or clandestinely homosexual persons living in homophobic  societies.

Published by MEEM and with the support of the Heinrich Boll Foundation-Middle East Office

Heinrich Böll Foundation, represented by its offices in Istanbul, Ramallah and Beirut, has hosted a Regional Summer School on “Climate Change, Intelligent Energy Policies and Nuclear Energy” in Istanbul, Turkey from July 3 – 8, 2010.

Participants from Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey had been selected to attend the Regional Summer School.

This conference held in Beirut, October 24-25, 2008 looked at the Middle East as a focal point of overlapping and competing interests of established and emerging powers, bringing together Chinese, Indian, Russian, Western and Middle Eastern specialists on international relations, who were encouraged to merge their perspectives into a comprehensive vision.

Ashkal Alwan - The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, initiates and promotes critical artistic practices and continuously works to document and build an archival record of contemporary intellectual and creative activity. Ashkal Alwan organizes the Home Works Forum, which is a multidisciplinary project that brings together artists, writers and intellectuals to present their works over a 10-day period through a calendar of events open to the public.

Published by DISCURSIVE FORMATIONS with the support of Heinrich Böll Stiftung – Middle East Office