Wouldn’t it be ironic if the popular awakening sweeping the Middle East had the unintended effect of undermining the one established Arab democracy?

Dexter Filkins on how Syria’s War brought down Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, who resigned on Friday: http://nyr.kr/YAb5YA

Photograph by Moises Saman/Magnum.

An Unusual Heavy-Metal Love Story…

Beth Winegarner talks to Sherine Amr of the band Massive Scar Era, and looks at the growing number of female heavy-metal musicians in the West: http://nyr.kr/Z0cKm2

Photograph: Courtesy Massive Scar Era.

Photographer Moises Saman has been covering the Arab Spring and its repercussions since the revolution’s inception in Tunisia, 2010. Of the Egyptian Revolution, Saman says, “The past two years in Egyptian politics have been like a turbulent soap opera, playing out on the streets of Cairo for all the world to see… the next act in this political theatre might be the hardest to predict.” Click-through for a slideshow of his photographs: http://nyr.kr/WTesFr

(Source: newyorker.com)

It is the sometimes impossibly difficult political and moral work of Rushdie and the rest of us to go on defending freedom of expression even when the object at the center of things is as indefensibly offensive as “Innocence of Muslims” and its countless kin.

David Remnick on Salman Rushdie, “The Innocence of Muslims,” and freedom of expression: http://nyr.kr/O8zfHf

Photograph by Richard Avedon.

(Source: newyorker.com)

This weekend, a runoff election will determine which of two candidates will become the first-ever freely elected President of Egypt: Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, or Ahmed Shafik, who was the last Prime Minister under Hosni Mubarak’s regime. In the current issue, Peter Hessler writes about the campaign that brought these controversial candidates to the fore, and what the vote means for the future of this country that has been roiled by the revolutions of the Arab Spring.

To capture Egypt’s election season, we sent the veteran photographer Alex Majoli to Cairo. Majoli takes a long view, having covered every major global conflict and revolution since the early nineties. Click-through for a slideshow of images capturing his portrait of one country’s preamble to democracy: http://nyr.kr/Lt56yx

Jon Lee Anderson on Syria’s spiral: 

There are often points in conflicts when the clock can either be reset or run out. The warring parties can step back from the brink, and engage in dialogue to reach a peaceful settlement; or, if not, bloodshed—the combustive element in all civil wars—acquires a power that is exponential. And there was a time when, instead of using violence to quell peaceful demonstrations, Assad’s regime may have still been able to save Syria from being engulfed by civil war. That moment passed months ago.

Click-through to read the full post: http://nyr.kr/NBbHGg