Broken Bangles: Life, Stories, Thoughts

Omari Mosque and the Philistine Temple Omari mosque was the oldest mosque in Gaza and the largest. On December 9, 2023, news came out of Gaza that the mosque was destroyed in the Israeli bombing. As a place of worship, this mosque and the land on which it stands have a deep and layered history. This mosque symbolises change and the transitory nature of all belief systems. It reminds us that what we believe as absolute truth could change with the ebb and flow of time. The story of this place dates back to the Iron Age, the 2nd millennium BCE, and to the people, the Philistines, who lived on this land. The Philistines are one of the first aliens in written human history. In the Old Testament, they are the outsiders who were unlike and hated by the Semitic people, the Canaanites, Hebrews, Aramaeans, Assyrians, and Babylonians. They were the enemies of the “children of light,” the Israelites. Dagon was a Philistine god, rather, the head god of the Philistines. Dagon had a temple in the lan...

  A Case For Refugees We have been witnessing a right-wing surge against accepting refugees. The latest in a series of refugee-related decisions, and the gravest of all rather, Donald Trump and his team have begun random deportations of "illegal" migrants in the name of his 'America first' policy. Yet, the reality constantly signals that all countries must revise their refugee policies generously and prepare to take in as many refugees as possible if we still claim our share of humanity. Understandably, people are afraid of their country taking in refugees in hundreds and thousands. The fear that a huge influx of people outside their cultures into a country might destroy its financial security, reduce their job opportunities, and change the familiar social fabric is real.  This fear fails to consider our long cultural history of accepting people from outside cultures.  Our ancestors, wherever their homeland was, shifted from one place and settled in another for many r...

Abu Mohammed al-Julani is a former Al Qaida leader with USD 10 million designated as a reward by the US for information on him. He is the leader of the organisation, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Organisation for the Liberation of the Levant, which works for freedom for the entire Levant. He has been declared a terrorist by the US, the UN, and many countries.  If we look closer, we will realise that his personality as a Middle Eastern leader has been transforming as he has walked a path of fire his entire life as a foot soldier of Islam and the Middle East’s self-determination. Despite checking all the boxes for being a terrorist as defined by the West, his life reflects the complex socio-political situation that every citizen of a Middle Eastern country faces. Hence, it demands better understanding from those who believe in freedom and democracy.  In so many words, he has often claimed to have changed himself from an extremist to a moderate in his journey through the tumult...

  Record! I am an Arab And my identity card is fifty thousand I have eight children And the ninth is coming after a summer Will you be angry? -From the poem, Identity Card, by Mahmoud Darwish, the national poet of Palestine We are a civilisation camouflaged in modernity and democratic virtues, yet ancient emotions reign underneath. The Israel-Gaza war offers a sinister peek into them. The violence of this war is such that both sides kill indiscriminately, even civilians, in huge numbers. There is an unfathomable absurdity to this and every conflict.  The lives of young Gazan and Israeli soldiers are cut short in acts of intergenerational hostilities over disputes about stretches of fertile and barren lands and cultural memories. We begin to see a pattern emerging, signifying ancient fears and hopes. This article is about one such fear and the hope originating from it.   The news from Israel indicates that many parents and widows of the young Israeli soldiers killed i...