Middle East

At the pulpit of an inner-city Chicago mosque, the tall blond imam begins preaching in his customary fashion, touching on the Los Angeles Lakers victory the night before, his own gang involvement as a teenager, a TV soap opera and then the Day of Judgment. "Yesterday we watched the best of seven.... Unfortunately we forget the big final; it's like that show 'One Life to Live,' " Imam Suhaib Webb says as sleepy boys and young men come to attention in the back rows. "There's no overtime, bro. " The sermon is typical of Webb, a charismatic Oklahoma-born convert to Islam with a growing following among American Muslims, especially the young.

Security in the Forbidden City across the street from the Great Hall of the People was tight last month when Li Keqiang was installed as premier of China. But the uniformed guards weren't armed with automatic weapons. Instead, they were equipped with fire extinguishers to prevent would-be protesters from self-immolating. China these days is consumed with concerns about domestic stability. Notwithstanding this internal preoccupation, the Middle Kingdom's increasing appetite for Persian Gulf oil has sparked unprecedented Chinese interest in the Middle East.

Viken Najarian is betting that he can do for the oud what Leo Fender did for the guitar. Najarian, working alone in his dusty garage workshop, has produced an electric version of the oud, a traditional pear-shaped instrument that has been an integral part of Middle Eastern folk music for more than 2,000 years.

Two years ago, the "Arab Spring" that deposed dictators and demagogues was an inspiration to hundreds of millions of repressed souls across the Middle East who yearned for a say in how they were governed. Today, with the Egyptian economy in ruins, tribal clashes convulsing Libya and at least 70,000 dead in Syria's crushed uprising, those still chafing under authoritarian rule in the region are curbing their revolutionary impulses. The sweep of democracy in 2011 has stalled as post-overthrow chaos has become a cautionary tale for those in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.

Security in the Forbidden City across the street from the Great Hall of the People was tight last month when Li Keqiang was installed as premier of China. But the uniformed guards weren't armed with automatic weapons. Instead, they were equipped with fire extinguishers to prevent would-be protesters from self-immolating. China these days is consumed with concerns about domestic stability. Notwithstanding this internal preoccupation, the Middle Kingdom's increasing appetite for Persian Gulf oil has sparked unprecedented Chinese interest in the Middle East.

Mitt Romney's criticism of President Obama for taking what he called an "apology tour" of the Middle East is a signature line that the GOP nominee began using in 2010 and continues to repeat, despite wide criticism. Independent fact-checking groups, including PolitiFact and FactCheck, that have examined Obama's speeches on his visits to the region haven't found them to be especially critical of American actions, and found them generally consistent with statements of past presidents.

“The Daily Show” was in reruns last week as violent protests erupted across the Muslim world, but back on the air Monday night, Jon Stewart addressed the turmoil in the Middle East - and particularly what he sees as the hypocritical conservative response to it. It's always awkward for such a topical show to respond to big news several days after it's broken, but on the bright side, the downtime gave “The Daily Show's” research team...

The announcement of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's exit Friday was too much for Amr Nassef, an Egyptian who anchors the news on Al Manar TV, which is operated by Hezbollah in Lebanon. "Allahu akbar, the pharaoh is dead," Nassef said on the air, his voice rising with emotion. "Am I dreaming? I'm afraid to be dreaming. " Across the Middle East, the euphoria was contagious. Young men waved flags through the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank, spontaneous rallies broke out at the Egyptian Embassy in Jordan, and people across the region ripped through the contact lists on their cellphones to share an empowering sense of incredulity, followed by possibility, that accompanied the news.

Disney plans to introduce the Avengers, X-Men,  Spider-Man and other Marvel characters in a theme-park setting for the first time since acquiring the comic book company in 2009. PHOTOS: Marvel characters coming to Middle East theme park The Marvel Adventure family entertainment center is expected to open in late 2013 in the United Arab Emirates with superhero-themed attractions, restaurants and shops. The eight-acre indoor mini theme park will be part of the $5-billion City of Arabia entertainment, commercial and residential development in Dubailand.

Pope Benedict XVI told about 20,000 followers in an open air Mass on Sunday that Christians in the Middle East are "deeply touched by difficulties and uncertainties" but that they must be strong in their faith to counter religious extremism. The pope's message on the final day of his pilgrimage to Jordan was for Christians to persevere as their populations decline in a Middle East that offers limited economic opportunity and is torn by violence and radicalism.

When British authorities the other day denied an export license for a 15th-century Flemish manuscript acquired last December by the J. Paul Getty Museum at a London auction, few could have been surprised. Stopping the export of exceptional works of art from the United Kingdom is business as usual for the government's catch-all Department for Culture, Media and Sport . Why? Often, as in this particular case, for no defensible reason. ART: Can you guess the high price?

President Obama's recent Middle East trip showed what good things can result from thoughtful, direct presidential involvement. The president addressed young Israelis, reassured allies in the region and brokered an Israeli apology to Turkey for a deadly raid on a flotilla attempting to take supplies to Gaza. The president should employ that same sort of diplomacy toward North Korea. An increasingly dangerous confrontation is building between the United States and North Korea. The outrageous rhetoric pouring out of Pyongyang makes it difficult to do anything more than dismiss North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un. But abandoning diplomacy would be extremely dangerous.

Re "Palestinian politics do matter," Opinion, March 24 Khaled Elgindy, a former advisor to Palestinian leadership, is right when he says, "The United States does not have to like Palestinian politics or endorse its themes or outcomes - any more than it needs to embrace the appointment of pro-settlement and anti-peace figures to Israel's Cabinet - but it does need to acknowledge them. " Israelis are fond of saying, "How can you expect us to negotiate with organizations that want to destroy our state?"

Military intervention in the Muslim world seems to bring the United States nothing but grief. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya: None looks much like a success story now. Yet the Obama administration is edging reluctantly into a civil war in Syria, aiding rebels who are fighting to overthrow the brutal regime of Bashar Assad. And it should: The longer this war goes on, the worse it will be for the U.S. and the Syrians. Already, more than 70,000 Syrians have died; perhaps 4 million have lost their homes.

Israel, I fear, is on a suicidal path: It could cease to be the democratic home of the Jewish people. This is why I greatly appreciate President Obama's decision to come to Israel despite all the serious issues he faces in America. His visit could mark the beginning of a new era in the struggle to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Because it is crucial to make the most of it, I am taking the liberty of offering four suggestions to the president as he prepares for his trip.

WASHINGTON - John Kerry opened his diplomatic mission to Syria in 2009 with a decidedly undiplomatic question for President Bashar Assad: Why did so few Arab leaders trust Assad? One month into President Obama's first term, the then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was in Damascus to explore the possibility of Syrian-Israeli peace talks. But minutes into their meeting, Kerry pressed the Syrian autocrat to explain why other Middle Eastern rulers said Assad always "says one thing and does another ... or he says he will do something then doesn't do it. " Assad, clearly startled by the question, demanded examples.

The Middle East will undoubtedly continue to be unstable. Its legacy of colonialist exploitation, badly drawn borders, decades of power struggles, the scramble for oil and, since 1948, the Arab-Israeli conflict has ensured a rocky future. For every American president, the question is not whether but when and where the next Middle East crisis will erupt. As President Obama considers his options in the region, which president should he look to as a model for effective leadership in the Middle East?

In 2002, at the height of the second Palestinian intifada, a new kind of illegal gambling sprang up in Israel: suicide-bombings roulette. The rules were simple: People placed bets on where the next attack in Israel would take place. If you got it right, you could make a killing. Naturally, Jerusalem gave the shortest odds. Betting on a bomb going off there seemed like a sure thing. Still, people ruined their lives getting this seemingly solid prediction wrong. Not as many as those whose lives were directly ruined by the bombings themselves, but there were still enough examples to teach us, yet again, that irrational rage is a tough thing to predict.

With the U.S. administration's foreign policy team shaping up and planned visits by President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East, there are renewed hopes for movement on the political process. While welcoming these developments, we believe the effectiveness of the U.S. role in the region hinges on a robust and sustained policy pushing toward the resolution of the conflict as opposed to just managing it. Although the recent Israeli elections showed how passive and indifferent Israelis have become about resolving the conflict with the Palestinians, I believe many outside observers are misreading the situation.

The president of Caltech, Jean-Lou Chameau, announced Tuesday that he would step down from the leadership of the prestigious science- and math-oriented campus in Pasadena at the end of the current school year and become head of a new and well-endowed university in Saudi Arabia. Chameau, a French-born civil engineer, has been president of Caltech since 2006 and helped the school maintain its high international academic rankings and achieve greater financial stability during a recessionary period of retrenchment at many other colleges, education experts said.