Broken Bangles: Life, Stories, Thoughts

  Is Iran a Full-fledged Nuclear State? Iran is a nuclear threshold state. It has in its possession enough enriched Uranium to make several atomic bombs. The US intelligence has warned that if Iran wants to build a nuclear bomb, it can do it at some point in future. Iran has always maintained that its nuclear programme was meant for peaceful purposes alone. According to a 2024 US Congressional Research Service Report, Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons programme and did not have all the technologies necessary to develop nuclear weapons. Iran’s Uranium enrichment programme has been running since 2000. These facilities, in theory, could generate highly enriched Uranium used in nuclear weapons. In nuclear reactors used for generating energy, low enriched Uranium is used, and Iran has always said that the enrichment programme is solely for that purpose. Which International Treaties restrict Iran from Developing Nuclear Weapons? In 2015, a nuclear agreement was signed between Iran and...

  Hezbollah is an intriguing phenomenon, a nation inside a nation that is volatile and out of control beyond the reach of Lebanese state machinery. Still, it has a huge presence socially, politically, and militarily.   Hezbollah is basically a Shiʿah Muslim political party and a militant group. The role of Hezbollah in Lebanon is one legitimate yet without responsibility. Curiously, Hezbollah is assessed as having the military prowess to take over Lebanon if it wants to. Yet, the organisation seems not inclined to do so. However, it commands its own armed force.  Hezbollah operates inside and outside Lebanon and is not accountable to the Lebanese government. The Lebanese democratic system has many cracks, which Hezbollah takes advantage of and grows roots in. The group also has informal agreements with the country's elite groups. Yet, it is not as if this organisation is holding hostage the Lebanese government with military might. The reality is much more complex....

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...