In 1990, a friend of mine, a writer and an intellectual, went to visit his son in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His son worked for a Multinational corporation. The writer had been there for about three days when, in the early morning, he received a phone call from a Palestinian friend. The friend asked him to [...]

I have been following and keeping track of the Middle East conflict for many, many years. But it was only about two and a half years ago that I actually got an opportunity to visit Israel and Palestine. I spent about three weeks traveling around Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah and Tel Aviv. What amazed me [...]

(In continuation to The Dangerous Student as a Young Man)
It was 424 AH (or 1034 AD) and the scholars and students had gathered at the home of the Grand Shaykh in Isphahan. As they sipped mint tea, a student leaned forward and began to speak. ‘Master, there are certain things that are bothering [...]

(In continuation to A Tale of a Dangerous Student)
The year was AH 390 (or AD 1000) when the emir of Bukhara, Nuh Ibn Mansur summoned his young and famous court physician.
‘Tell me Ali Husain’ said the emir, ‘how did you learn so much about medicine and the cures for so many diseases?’
‘Why do you ask, [...]

It was in the year 380AH (or 990 AD according to the Christian calendar) that the student lifted his eyes from the book he was reading and asked his teacher.
‘Master’ he said, ‘there is this scholar who says that the world we live in is in constant motion. Could it be true?’
The teacher looked at [...]

The first are the other cities, small towns and urban settlements spread mostly in the western, central and northern parts of the country. It is here that a strange phenomenon has occurred: the emergence of armies of angst-ridden youth who seem to be just hanging out. You can see them in public squares and [...]

How can one understand a country that has attempted to leap into the future by unshackling itself from its past, from most of its own people, and placed all its hopes on the genius of private enterprise and the drive of the free market to eliminate poverty, deprivation and despair? Behind this leap, I also [...]