Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant give a joint press conference in Tel Aviv on Dec. 18, 2023.   Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images State terrorism and industrial killing won’t defeat the armed insurgency

Sir John Saunders, the chair of the inquiry, said the mosque had displayed "weak leadership" in failing t  address what an expert witness to the inquiry described as a "very toxic political environment" fuelled by conflict and unrest in Libya. Tracey Pook, the Didsbury Mosque's community engagement coordinator, has been monitoring the number of threats the centre has received and said they had been growing by the hour.  "Having compiled the threats and attacks, I've seen people say the mosque should be demolished, that extremists live here, and that the centre is somehow responsible for the murder of children," Pook told Middle East Eye . Words like ‘extremism’, ‘radicalism’ and ‘terrorism’ apply only to describe violence committed by individuals or organisations. Those who monopolise definitions - when they exist – and concepts throughout history are crucial in manufacturing ‘public opinion’ and producing emotive reaction, and therefore, opinions

This piece is still one of most sober analysis of violence by non-state actors. And it is by a liberal magazine. There is a major inaccuracy in a statement though . “ The history  of the West is every bit as violent  as the modern Middle East, with brief periods of relative peace punctuated by periods of bloody conflict.” As violent as? The violence of Nazi Germany, the Belgian Genocide in Congo or the American war on the Vietnamese, just to cite three events, had no comparable examples in the history of the Middle East. The Threat is Already Inside