• Number of Syrian Refugees Climbs to More Than 4 Million
• Quick Thoughts: Nathan Thrall on the Gaza Strip One Year After Israel’s Operation Protective Edge
• Facts and footballers | Inanities
  Nice vignette of Egyptian media vulgarity
• Egypt Wants To Jail Journalists For Not Falling In Line. It's Been Trained By A US Nonprofit.
• Exclusif. Forces armées/ Plusieurs changements au DRS et mécontentement du général Toufik
  Exclusif. Plusieurs changements au sein du DRS/Et le général Toufik boycotte la remise de la médaille de Bravoure
• A Detailed Look at Hacking Team's Emails About Its Repressive Clients - The Intercept
• Small Arms Survey - 2015 YB released
  "Business as usual for small arms exports to ‘Arab Spring’ states"
• Egypt anti-terror bill speeds trials, tightens hand on media
  This ought to end terrorism in Sinai
• Egypt Warns Journalists Over Coverage of Militant Attacks
  Sisi compares report to a “fourth generation of warfare, and even fifth.”
• Egypt’s Coming Chaos Steve Cook
• Egypt's Brotherhood calls for uprising after killings
  It has been calling for an uprising for a while, mind.
• Assault in Sheikh Zuweid: A turning point in Egypt's fight against terrorism
• Widespread Graft Benefited Tunisian Leader’s Family, Study Says - NYT
• BREAKING: Egypt's top prosecutor killed in bomb attack
• In Morocco, It’s Jennifer Lopez Versus Jihad
  Worst article I've read on Morocco in a long time. Full of errors and clichés. Reporter was flown to Morocco by PR firm. 
• Alexandria's iftar event breaks world record despite the mayhem
  "Scuffles broke out among attendees of the event, who smashed chairs and tables and threw them at each other."
• Senussi “claims” US offered pardon and job in new government
  Claims that in 2011 US offered to drop ICC charges (improbable...)
• ‘He’s Jesus Christ’
  Kristof on the Nuba Mountains conflict.
• The Massacre of Druze Villagers in Qalb Lawza, Idlib Province
  By "moderate jihadi" Jubha an-Nusra

The Arabist's editors have been on the move lately, traveling and showing visiting friends around Morocco. Hence, a few pictures and a very late, large set of links.

A detail from a work by the early modern  Moroccan painter Ben Ali Rbati (held at the Musée de la Fondation Slaoui in Casablanca), one of the earliest artists to use perspective and to depict more casual and domestic scenes. This is of a Coranic school. 

• The Algerian Exception by Kamel Daoud - NYT
• Battle to write constitution for a Libya at war with itself - FT
• Missed this interview with Tarhouni
• Egypt: 2,600 Killed After Ouster of Islamist President
• Entangled | The Economist
  America and the the Middle East.
• Syria’s Sunnis and the Regime’s Resilience | Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
  On Sunni support for Assad.
• Yemeni officials under ex-president Saleh 'worked with al-Qaeda' | Middle East Eye
• CIA duped.
• Matariyya, Egypt's New Theater of Dissent | MERIP
• Good reporting by Amira Howeidy
• Saudi Arabia Shoots Down Missile Fired From Yemen - NYT
• Surprising Saudi Rises as a Prince Among Princes - NYT
  On Muhammad bin Salman
• Why Jihadists Write Poetry - The New Yorker
• The Administration Should Not Meet With the Muslim Brotherhood in Washington - WINEP
  Because if you ignore it all will be well?
• Mohamed Morsi is no Nelson Mandela
  @belalfadl on MB: "All they have left now is empty threats of revenge against everyone, if their deluded fantasy of returning to power ever comes true"
• Illegally detained activists summoned by prosecutor amid wave of forced disappearances | Mada Masr
• Orwellian Times in Egypt: A Conversation with Emad Shahin - YouTube
• Saudi Arabia's Widening War - Gary Sick - POLITICO Magazine
• Rethinking nations in the Middle East - The Washington Post
  POMEPS collection of essays on nationalism.
• Defense Minister exempts 574 military installations from real estate tax | Egypt Independent
  Geish Inc.
• Moroccan Film About Prostitution Creates Uproar - NYT

Plumbers' shop in the Tangiers medina

Two Egyptian Policemen Shot Dead Near Pyramids of Giza - NYT

• Congress seeks to lift last restrictions on aid to Egypt - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
  No longer requires HR progress, free elex.
• New Left Project | The End of Empire?: Violence and US Hegemony in the Middle East
  Gilbert Achcar on Kaplan's plea for a more assertive US imperialism in the Middle East
• A League of His Own | Bloomberg Business
  Great profile of Sepp Blatter, much mention of Arab money in FIFA.
• From Belgium to ISIS
  Great, strange, sad story of one wannabe jihadi
• Partition en vue d’une succession contrôlée - Actualité - El Watan
• U.S. citizen Mohamed Soltan freed from Egyptian prison
  After such an ordeal
• Opening the black box of Egypt's slush funds | The Angaza File
  Important read.
• Egypt's military establishes multi-industry company - Ahram
  al-Geish Inc.
• Egypt's new justice minister called for hardline Sharia - Telegraph
  And considers citizens "slaves".
• Libyan Prime Minister Survives Assassination Attempt Amid Protests - NYT
  Just as likely Haftar as it is Fajr Libya
• It’s Time to Bring Imperialism Back to the Middle East | Foreign Policy
  Robert Kaplan, being a silly neocon.
• Maybe He Found Gaddafi's Billions. Or Maybe It’s All a Giant Scam
  Bizzarre con seems to have worked in Washington
• “Cairo," cityscapes by cartoonist Mohamed Wahba Elshenawy
  I want this.
• Islamic State "institutionalizes sexual violence" and sexual slavery
  Interview with head of UN sex crime investigators
• Obama to the Arabs: We don’t care - Al Arabiya
  Hisham Melhem.
• Obama Upgrades Tunisia’s Status as a U.S. Ally - NYT
• الدولة ترد على تحركات شفيق «المريبة»: إنسى - بوابة الشروق
  Sisi regime tells Shafiq to fuggedaboutit.
• Egypt Nile water pollution on the rise - Al-Monitor
• The challenged kingdom | The Economist
  Saudiland.
• World's biggest hotel to open in Mecca
  Saudis go on desecrating holy city with crassness
• Egypt’s cyber crime bill
  It's open season on all forms of online expression
• Egypt: Rape and sexual violence perpetrated by security forces 'surges' under el-Sisi's regime
  But nobody wants to know
• Egypt Tax Delay Means Rich Pay Less to Cut Deficit: IMF
• Clinton Friend’s Memos on Libya Draw Scrutiny to Politics and Business - NYT
• Elite Iraqi units abandon Ramadi in biggest Islamic State win since Mosul
• Meet the director of the BuSSy Project, Egypt's answer to the Vagina Monologues
  Good interview with Sondos Shabayek
• Egyptian court labels Ultra soccer fans as terrorists
  Why not, who's next?

Casablanca architecture reminds me of Cairo

• Diary: In Sanaa 
  The lead-up to the current war, by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
• Syria’s truth smugglers 
  Very worthwhile read on the effort to document Assad's and others' crimes
• Wadi Barada: Snapshot of a Civil War 
  #syria
• Leaks Gain Credibility and Potential to Embarrass Egypt’s Leaders 
  If they were susceptible to embarrassment
• Promises and figures from Sisi's latest speech
• To Make the World a Better Place, Teach Arabic
• Mafia in Africa 
  Interesting investigation
• Egyptian Journalist Mohamed Fahmy Sues Al Jazeera for $83 Million in Punitive Damages
• Ursula Lindsey on Correspondents Club 
  ABC Melbourne interviewed me on being a journalist in the middle east these days
• Egypt’s Megafantasies 
  Good review of David Sim's latest book on desert development
• Tunisian novel wins ‘Arabic Booker’ in Abu Dhabi despite UAE ban
  Sounds like the ban has already been lifted though
• Al Jazeera America, Its Newsroom in Turmoil, Is Now the News
  Are they extra dysfunctional or just extra scrutinized?  
• Why Peter Kennard's montages are political dynamite
  Can't believe I'd never seen his Blair "Photo Op"
• A French Freelancer in Lebanon on the ‘Slow Death’ of Foreign Correspondents
• Progress in Tunisia, but much still to be done
  Op-ed by Rached Ghannouchi.
• The Day After · LRB 4 May 2015
  Neve Gordon on the IDF’s new tactics
• Fear Makes Everything Possible
  Wael Eskandar on Egypt today
• Saudi-Led Group Said to Use Cluster Bombs in Yemen - NYT
• Aleppo’s Real-Life Soap Opera « The Majalla Magazine
• Repression in Egypt: Worse than Mubarak | The Economist

• Mauritanian film-maker gets death threats from Salafis for film about violence against women (Arabic)
• New secular party to 'challenge religious dominance'
  Interesting if probably not influential
• Egyptian Chronicles: Another Blow to Online Media in Egypt Coming on the way !!
• Souad Massi’s New Album: Interpreting Classic Arabic Poems
  Love her, can't wait.
• Conflicting reports over Tarabin ‘war’ on Sinai militants
• A Saudi Royal Shake-Up With a Goal of Stability - NYT
• Understanding the Saudi king’s succession bombshell
• Renowned U.S. Arabist Is Second Witness to Refuse to Appear With MEK Leader | Foreign Policy
• Congress Moves to Protect Israeli Settlements
  Shame.
• Egypt’s revolution will get a shot in the arm with data that shows how government spends money
  Uhmm, very skeptical.
• The human 'mules' of Morocco
  So many countries run of women's cheap suffering..
• Efforts to Fight Extremism in Education Misses the Point, by Ursula
• Invisible Atheists: The Spread of Disbelief in the Arab World
  Interesting article on atheism in the middle east

• A review of the award-winning novel The Bamboo Stalk
  Set in the Philippines and Kuwait, translated by Jonathan Wright
• In Syria's war, Alawites pay heavy price for loyalty to Bashar al-Assad
• The United States and Palestine
  Rachid Khalidi
• The Islamic State in Libya, TheMagrebiNote | Articles, Translations, Analysis, Reports on the Islamic Maghreb 
• Geoff D. Porter on the price of stability in Algeria
• Her Majesty’s Jihadists
  On British Muslim foreign fighters in Syria.
• The Authoritarian Resurgence: Saudi Arabia’s Anxious Autocrats - Carnegie Endowment
  Fred Wehrey
• Gasser Abdel Razek: Interview with prominent Egyptian human rights activist
  The first in a series by Mada Masr
• NBC Alters Account of Correspondent’s Kidnapping in Syria
  Seemingly only after other media investigates
• Egyptian court sentences American to life in prison
  Mohammed Soltan is the son of an MB leader
• 7 books to help you understand Libya
  Good list
• Police allowed to deport gay foreigners, rules Egypt court
• Confusion regarding Egypt's new capital after Sisi announces lack of funds
  Already?
• Syria: Death from Assad’s Chlorine by Annie Sparrow | The New York Review of Books
• Putting Palestine on the Map…and the Jersey
  Great long read about Palestinian-Chilean soccer team
• Understanding Kafala: An archaic law at cross purposes with modern development | Migrant Rights
• Yémen : une faillite américano-saoudienne
  Yup.
• Saudi Shiites worry about backlash from Yemen war - The Washington Post
• In Egypt, ex-military men fire up Islamist insurgency | Reuters
• Arab Peacemaker
  Cairo Review interview with Lakhdar Brahimi
• Expedited Weapons Deliveries to Saudi Arabia Signal Deepening U.S. Involvement - NYT
  Sending weapons but not bothering to help stranded Americans.
• What really happened in Tikrit after ISIL fled - Al Jazeera English
• 600 days in jail for taking pictures: A letter from an Egyptian prison
• Perfectly Reasonable Question: Did The Times ‘Self-Censor’?
  In the UAE, its partner did.
• The Unknown Man, and the Deaths at Abu Zaabal
  Excellent reporting on a massacre of Egyptian prisoners