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Facebook Fatwa: Saudi Clerics, Wahhabi Islam and Social Media
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has released the first-ever study of what radical Saudi Wahhabists are preaching to their followers about the United States and non-Muslims on social media sites.
Learn MoreAnalysis & Commentary - Tony Badran
News Update
Recent developments in Syria. more...
Assad’s Chemical Card
Last week, president Obama issued another warning to Syria’s embattled dictator against making the “tragic mistake” of using chemical weapons (CW). There remain a number of real scenarios in which... more...
News Update
The ongoing civil war in Syria. more...
EU Ignores Most of Hezbollah Terror in Ban Decision
The 27-member European Union has largely circled the wagons around the investigation into Hezbollah’s role in the July suicide bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Burgas and against including longstanding... more...
Hamas’ Escalation Calculation
Hamas’ decision to escalate rocket attacks on Israel leading up to the latest conflagration was deliberate. One question remains largely unanswered: What was Hamas’ calculation behind this escalation? more...
Intervention in Syria
In the run up to the elections, America’s Middle East allies were convinced that President Obama was too consumed with domestic politics to pursue a more muscular approach to Syria. more...
Israel-Hamas Fight More Risky in a Changed Mideast
When Israel launched retaliatory air and ground attacks against Palestinians in 2008, Egypt's president at the time showed no sympathy for the Palestinian cause. He closed the border with the Gaza Strip... more...
Ground to a Halt
It’s been twenty months since the Syrian people rose up against the regime of Bashar Assad. During this time, large swathes of land in northwestern Syria have fallen out of government control. more...
HuffPost Live
FDD's Tony Badran discusses renewed fighting between Hamas and Israel. more...
Sitting Out the Syria Game
In the run-up to the US presidential election, Washington’s regional allies were convinced that the Obama administration’s lack of a Syria policy was due to the US president’s preoccupation with securing... more...
Obama Runs From Iran
The Iranian challenge to US interests and allies is the most pressing strategic issue for Washington in the Middle East. With the US election less than a week away, now is as good a time as any to look... more...
Is the Syrian Eid Ceasefire Doomed?
When Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy charged with the difficult task of negotiating an end to the bloody conflict in Syria, announced a brief holiday ceasefire yesterday,... more...
Who Killed Wissam al-Hassan?
Who killed Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan? Following the assassination last Friday, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt blamed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. However, Jumblatt... more...
Helping to Hurt
Over the last two weeks, the Syrian regime has directed mortar and artillery fire at Turkish villages. The US ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, might have stated... more...
What’s Happening in Qardaha?
Last week, Mohammed Assad, a cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, was shot and critically wounded in Qardaha, hometown of the Assads in the coastal mountains of Syria. For a... more...
Egypt’s Veiled Islamic Rivalry
The Obama administration is insisting that the assault on the US Embassy in Egypt, and the subsequent riots and attacks elsewhere in the Middle East, were “absolutely” about an obscure... more...
News Update
A recent report accuses the Syrian rebels of committing human rights abuses. more...
Assad May Be Trying to Set Up Defense in Mountain Region
The regime of Bashar Assad appears to be using mass killings and intimidation to carve out a defensible mountainous region on the Mediterranean coast where it can survive and retain influence... more...
Bashar’s Cult of Personality
Last week, the daily Al-Joumhouria published the transcripts of the surveillance tapes in the case of former minister Michel Samaha, who was recently arrested and charged for plotting a campaign... more...
Analysts: Syria’s Violence Threatens Neighboring Countries
The war in Syria is spilling across the country's borders, threatening the stability of neighboring countries and the oil-rich Persian Gulf, Middle East analysts said. The violence in Syria is stoking existing... more...