STANDPOINT by Atique Naqvi

Turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa will bring about accountable governments and allow citizens to have human rights enjoyed more widely, said Kenneth Roth. "There is no reason why the Middle East should be excluded from the same rights and freedoms that people around the world enjoy", he said in 2011. The interview was published in the March 2011 issue of the Dubai-based magazine TRENDS - An International Magazine on Arab Affairs. Below is the jpeg file of the TRENDS magazine.

Political and economic threat from ‘Islamic State’ By Atique Naqvi | Dubai, UAE | Uploaded on the blog recently** Establishing a democratic system is not an easy task. The fallout of such efforts could be extremely destructive – and as a result some of the Middle East and North African countries are struggling to come back to normal. Libya and Syria can easily serve as the case studies for the research experts who want to explore the devastating aftereffects of the so-called Arab Spring. Besides the perils of instability in a country undergoing changes, the rise of militant groups with extremist ideologies poses a huge political, economic and social risk. Call it Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or just Islamic State, the group has become more voracious with each passing month. Experts worldwide, who claim to have understood the phenomenon of terrorism, are left scratching their heads in bewilderment and frustration with the meteoric rise o