Qifa Nabki
Archive for
The Rolling Stones of Morocco: Nass el-Ghiwane
A million years ago, I spent some time living in Morocco hanging out with Nass el-Ghiwane, the great shaabi ensemble that more or less invented the modern Moroccan popular song. I wrote about the experience in an article for Transition magazine: Nass el Ghiwane debuted in 1971, when Omar Sayyed was twenty-four years old. All five members sang, … Continue reading
Exclusive: NOW Lebanon Opinion Piece Taken Down Because of Editorial Line Violation
As we noted yesterday, a NOW Lebanon editorial surprisingly critical of Saad al-Hariri (“The Baby and the Bathwater”) was taken down without a word of explanation by the editors. After Beirut Spring and I pointed this out, the article was restored with the following disclaimer: NOW Lebanon has intentionally removed this article from the site. It was not … Continue reading
NOW Lebanon Editorial Critical of Saad Hariri Mysteriously Disappears…
Mustapha over at Beirut Spring alerted me to a good editorial over at NOW Lebanon this morning, which criticized Saad Hariri’s lackluster leadership and praised Najib Mikati. Because of the unusual editorial line expressed by the piece, I joked that it was only a matter of time before “NOW Lebanon” became “WAS Lebanon”. It didn’t … Continue reading
Was Michel Samaha Set Up by Wissam al-Hassan?
There are several conspiracy theories swirling around about the reasons for Wissam al-Hassan’s assassination (and even about whether or not he was even killed in the explosion on Friday…Some are apparently claiming that he was actually killed on the border between Turkey and Syria, and that the explosion last week was a false flag operation … Continue reading
Muhanna Commentary on Wissam al-Hassan for NYT, Guardian
I’ve written a piece about the complicated legacy of Wissam al-Hassan for the NY Times global opinion page. I had written an alternative ending for the piece that didn’t make it in because of time constraints, but I’ll work it up into a new post and maybe publish it tomorrow. Also, here’s something I taped for The … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…