91
votes
Why do Muslim refugees seek asylum in Europe and not in rich countries in the Middle East?
The premise in your question, about Muslims preferring Europe over rich Middle-Eastern countries, is false. In fact, Syrian refugees prefer neighbouring Middle-Eastern countries over rich ones.
...
- 679
58
votes
Has the Israeli supreme court ever come to a decision that can be seen as pro-Palestine or pro-Arab/anti-Israel/-Jew?
Very much so.
1.
Last year, the Israeli supreme court struck down a 2017 law having to do with legalization of illegal housing built in previously Palestinian areas (New York Times source).
Here is a ...
- 1,384
51
votes
Why do Muslim refugees seek asylum in Europe and not in rich countries in the Middle East?
Implicit in your question is the assumption that Muslims should have some kind of kindred sympathy toward their Muslim brethren in other countries. We have to dispense with that kind of thinking; it'...
- 12k
50
votes
Accepted
Why did Arab spring and Iranian green revolution fail, but the European revolutions didn't?
History and Politics rarely accommodate with clear binary outcome. So, as much I would not say that the Arab Spring revolutions weren't a failure as a whole, I would also not say that the European ...
- 1,748
50
votes
Accepted
Why does the U.S. send foreign aid to Palestine at all?
Probably several things:
Money brings influence. Without influence on the Palestinians, the US has even less leverage to shape Palestinian policy in a way that is acceptable to Israel.
Palestine is ...
47
votes
What explains the durability of Arab monarchies?
Several points. Not all of them (especially the first) are equally applicable in each case. But, most of the points apply to all of them.
1. Monarchies work well when the economy is dominated by rents ...
- 73.2k
43
votes
Accepted
What's up with the vacant U.S. ambassador positions in the Middle East?
The Senator Rand Paul is blocking the nominations because of a long standing request that he has made. As early as July 17th the Biden administration has made requests to get the nominations with ...
- 15.4k
36
votes
Has the Palestinian Authority issued some official statement on the situation in May 2021?
The nominal leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has consistently opposed the rocket campaign of Hamas, since at least 2005, and continues to do so. This conflict underlines the extent ...
- 115k
31
votes
Accepted
What reason would the Obama Administration have for releasing $221M to Palestine, right before leaving office?
Basically, it's related to the US abstinent on UN Vote on Israeli Settlements (United Nations Security Council 2334).
As quoted, then Secretary of State John Kerry said on the reason for abstaining:
“...
- 46.5k
31
votes
Accepted
What role does China play in Afghanistan today?
Between 2000-2017, China was not very active in Afghanistan. China did not contribute troops to fight the Taliban, though it did provide several hundred million dollars of foreign aid to the Afghan ...
- 1,077
29
votes
Why do Muslim refugees seek asylum in Europe and not in rich countries in the Middle East?
There were apparently no laws for asylum seekers in any Gulf countries until autumn 2018.
Qatar: Gulf’s First Refugee Asylum Law [...]
Qatar passed Law No. 11/2018 on Organizing Political Asylum on ...
- 145k
28
votes
Has the Israeli supreme court ever come to a decision that can be seen as pro-Palestine or pro-Arab/anti-Israel/-Jew?
As the comments rightfully note, there's always a political force by whose opinion various decisions "can be seen" differently.
For instance, there's a long-lasting political debate over ...
- 17.2k
26
votes
Why is redrawing the artificial borders not a viable solution to conflicted states?
Because trying to redraw the border would just start the next round of wars.
Most ethnic groups overlap their neighbors -- especially when countries have large capitals or ports that attract people ...
- 6,812
26
votes
Why are there never-ending wars in the Middle East?
This is both a pretty broad question and the answers (even from experts) are going to be opinion based to a good extent, so my answer is going to be a rather trite listicle of reasons that have been ...
- 145k
25
votes
Why was Saddam Hussein captured but Assad is still spared by America?
Here are a couple easy ones.
Iraq occurred first, and the war in Iraq turned out to be, at the very least, quite unpopular. When the situation in Syria came up, many people were fed up with the idea ...
25
votes
Accepted
Do Sunnis support monarchy and Shias support republic?
If anything it is the other way round. The key political difference between Sunni and Shia Islam is the status of the family of the prophet.
In Shia Islam, God chose Ali, who was Muhammad's cousin ...
- 115k
25
votes
Why are most US news programs silent about Iran-Saudi deal announced at Beijing on March 10th?
I think this gets a bit more oversold in China, relative to the US, that's why you're so surprised. Coverage does exist, at least in [digital] "print", sometimes actually quite laudatory of ...
- 145k
24
votes
Why is Hizb ut-Tahrir outlawed in Muslim countries but allowed in Western Countries?
Most Muslim countries are governed by authoritarian regimes. An authoritarian regime usually outlaws any organizations which threaten their authority.
Most Western countries, on the other hand, are ...
- 74.8k
20
votes
Why did Arab spring and Iranian green revolution fail, but the European revolutions didn't?
Revolutions tend to fail rather often. Depending on your idea of what a success is, you could even say that no revolution ever achieved its goals in full - it's kind of hard when most revolutions were ...
- 727
20
votes
Why are most US news programs silent about Iran-Saudi deal announced at Beijing on March 10th?
In addition to my comments that suggest part of this is American News Media has a historically poor record for covering international stories unless it is a tragedy OR involves U.S. interests in some ...
- 16.1k
18
votes
Why would US NOT sanction Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's possible killing?
I found this comment to be insightful
But the House of Saud always had an almost literal killer counterargument, that they were probably better than any regime that would replace them. Often the ...
- 45.9k
18
votes
Why do Muslim refugees seek asylum in Europe and not in rich countries in the Middle East?
There are several rich "Muslim" states in Middle East: Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and so on. It seems that none of them want to receive Syrian, Iraqi, North African and other Muslim refugees.
...
- 181
18
votes
Accepted
Is Iran missile strike the first unanswered strike to the US after Cuban crisis?
It depends how you define "strike", but the North Korean capture of USS Pueblo came after the Cuban crisis. And during the capture Pueblo came under fire, resulting in the death of one crew:
The ...
- 145k
18
votes
Why does the U.S. send foreign aid to Palestine at all?
From the comments:
[...] They're humans, enduring constant tragedies, and we have the capability to help them [sic]
- TylerH 2021-05-17
At any rate, you can read about why in the US government's ...
18
votes
What's up with the vacant U.S. ambassador positions in the Middle East?
It's worth questioning one of the statements in the question: "It seems like this would be a big issue given the current troubles in Israel which is threatening to expand."
Before the ...
- 1,537
17
votes
Accepted
Why are most Islamic countries less democratic/more corrupt than most Western countries?
First, let's get some insider information from the man on the ground:
I live in Algeria, a North African country. I don't know about the Middle East, but there's no North African islamic government. ...
- 444
17
votes
Have any Western governments officially conceded that becoming involved in the Arab Spring was a mistake?
The most important flaw in the premise is that Western invention had a significant impact on the "Arab Spring". This is not the case.
The civil war in Syria was neither started nor mainly influenced ...
- 3,814
16
votes
Why do Iran and Saudi Arabia share the same "age of majority"?
Some remarks:
First: It is not "8 for girls, 14 for boys"; It is 9 for girls and 15 for boys (Lunar year).
Second: It is not true that "only Iran and Saudi Arabia use this law", ...
- 6,247
16
votes
Has the Israeli supreme court ever come to a decision that can be seen as pro-Palestine or pro-Arab/anti-Israel/-Jew?
Israel's supreme court has ruled several times against Jewish settlements in Judea & Samaria. Such rulings have lead to destruction of these settlements by the IDF. One example is Amona:
"In ...
- 3,641
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