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Middle East

A collection of 119 posts

MBS in Saudi dress with a checked headscarf and dark robe, seated against a blue-toned backdrop with faint architectural shapes.

Saudi Arabia’s Counter-Reformation

The Takfiris are back in business.

Aurele Tobelem 4 Feb 2026 · 11 min read

Progressive Moral Reasoning and Iran’s Revolt

Progressive Moral Reasoning and Iran’s Revolt

Progressive discourse has become highly adept at identifying oppression, exclusion, and harm. But it is far less capable of understanding the basic conditions of political order.

Roohola Ramezani 3 Feb 2026 · 11 min read

Crowd gathered on a city street at night as a person throws an object towards a burning tyre during a street protest.

The Supreme Leader’s Reckoning

The brutality the security forces are unleashing in Iran is not an improvisation. It is doctrine.

Roya Hakakian 27 Jan 2026 · 6 min read

Black-and-white portraits of two male revolutionary figures, set against a raised fist and Islamic symbols. It's Frantz Fanon and Ayatollah Khomeini.

Fanon and the Ayatollahs

The Third-Worldist roots of the Islamic Republic.

Aurele Tobelem 22 Jan 2026 · 11 min read

Portrait of a young adult man in a dark suit and red tie, smiling outdoors with the US Capitol dome blurred in the background

Inside Iran’s Deadly Protests with Shay Khatiri | Quillette Cetera Ep. 61

An Iranian-born political analyst breaks down the origins of Iran’s latest protest movement, the regime’s brutal response, and what a political transition could look like.

Zoe Sankey, Shay Khatiri 20 Jan 2026 · 26 min read

Francesca Albanese, a middle-aged woman with glasses, stands at a podium. Flags in the background.

Francesca Albanese’s Campaign Against Israel

The UN Rapporteur’s latest report channels a single-minded contempt for the Jewish state.

Brian Stewart 16 Jan 2026 · 7 min read

Crowd of masked protesters gathered at night beside burning debris and parked cars on a city street, some holding placards.

Can the Ayatollahs Fall?

Amid the darkness of a communications blackout, Iranians are fighting for their freedom and the totalitarian theocracy under which they have lived since 1979 seems more threatened than ever before.

Benny Morris 12 Jan 2026 · 9 min read

Split image: left, an illustrated booklet shows soldiers advancing into the sea as Jews are depicted drowning; right, armed men march over an Israeli flag during a public demonstration.

The Arabs’ Anti-Colonial Delusion

The Arabs still believe that they are fighting a colonial war against Israel. But they are not.

Hannes Stein 7 Jan 2026 · 6 min read

Black-and-white photograph of a crowded street confrontation, with police officers using batons against men in coats and hats.

Weimar Vibes

The fate of the Weimar Republic stands as a warning of what happens when societies and their citizens indulge extremism.

Shalom Lappin 1 Jan 2026 · 18 min read

A woman wearing a Sudanese flag face covering makes a peace gesture during the 2019 Khartoum sit-in, with script on her arm calling for the government to fall.

Sudan Between Two Middle Easts

Between the jihad of the “Hamas of Africa” and the new order of the Abraham Accords, the choice in Sudan should be clear.

Chama Mechtaly 26 Dec 2025 · 21 min read

People holding protest signs calling for a ceasefire and an end to siege and genocide in an urban setting.

The Humanitarian Mask

How activists at Médecins Sans Frontières shape Gaza disinformation.

Gerald M. Steinberg, E. Levenson 10 Dec 2025 · 9 min read

Ben Rhodes is a middle-aged white man. He is sitting a microphone labelled Pod Save the Worl

Ignorance and Indignation

Obama veterans never understood the Middle East, and they never will.

Brian Stewart 7 Dec 2025 · 16 min read

US President Donald Trump (left) receives Syrian President Ahmad al Sharaa at the White House, in Washington

The Middle East Powder Keg

Fragile ceasefires are holding for now, but the volatile region may be headed for another explosion next year.

Benny Morris 17 Nov 2025 · 14 min read

Chama Mechtaly is a young woman with olive skin, long dark hair, and glasses. She sits in front of a bookshelf.

Exposing the Qatar Lobby: Chama Mechtaly on Islamism, Censorship, and the West | Quillette Cetera Ep. 57

How Qatar's ideological reach—from think tanks to media—has stifled dissent and enabled Islamism in the West.

Zoe Sankey, Chama Mechtaly 14 Nov 2025 · 27 min read

Shadi Hamid is a middle-aged man of Middle Eastern appearance in a blue suit speaking while seated indoors with blurred bookshelves in the background.

Power and Its Malcontents

Shadi Hamid has an uneasy conscience, and he doesn’t yet know what to do with it.

Brian Stewart 9 Nov 2025 · 25 min read