From nuns in London to Sufi shaykhas in Damascus, Farrah Akbik recalls the women who shaped her childhood—and the dear friend who helped her escape them.

Using videos of Western-style parties in Syria, the Assad regime has sought to portray itself as a defender of liberal modernity against benighted “terrorist” opponents. Yet these crude and dishonest propaganda efforts only underscore the oppression at the heart of Assad’s state, writes Robin Jones.

Islam, culture, nationalism, revolution, exile, and the West’s anti-democratic Middle East policies are just part of the ground covered in this in-depth interview, to be published in the upcoming book, Dissidents of the International Left.

At the stroke of a royal pen, the Saudi clergy dropped the principles of a lifetime. All religion is equally subservient to politics.

Can Islam be criticized as a centralized system or is the mere generalization of the religion a misunderstanding of its structure?