Dr. James M. Dorsey

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast. James is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book with the same title as well as Comparative Political Transitions between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, co-authored with Dr. Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario, Shifting Sands, Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa, and the forthcoming China and the Middle East: Venturing into the Maelstrom.

Is Saudi Arabia’s Ruling Family Ready to Say Goodbye to Wahhabism?

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has called into question the degree to which the rule of the Al Sauds remains dependent on the religious legitimization of the Wahhabi establishment.

Dr. James M. Dorsey
By Dr. James M. Dorsey
Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, the Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi grand mufti, prays at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 9, 2010. Hassan Ammar | AP

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could well dash expectations that he is gunning for a break with Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism rather than a shaving off of the rough edges of Wahhabi ideology that has been woven into the kingdom’s fabric since its founding more than eighty years ago. Prince Mohammed has fuelled expectations by fostering

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The Battle for Iran: Separatist Groups on Iran’s Borders See a Sudden Surge

Pakistani militants have claimed that Saudi Arabia in the last year stepped up funding of militant madrassas or religious seminaries in Balochistan that allegedly serve as havens for anti-Iranian fighters.

Dr. James M. Dorsey
By Dr. James M. Dorsey
Members of the anti-Iranian Sunni extremist group Jaish al-Adl pose for a photo posted to Twitter.

Iran, in the latest of a series of incidents on its western and south-eastern borders, said it had disbanded a Pakistan-based cell of ant-Shiite militants in a clash this week on the Iranian side of the border. The clash, shrouded in mystery like similar past incidents in the ethnic Baloch province of Sistan and Baluchistan and Kurdish areas in

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Saudi Arabia’s Religious Diplomacy Targets Jerusalem

A UAE-backed Saudi effort to wrest control from Jordan of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem signals a sharper, more overt edge to Saudi religious diplomacy and the kingdom’s quest for regional hegemony.

Dr. James M. Dorsey
By Dr. James M. Dorsey
A money exchanger sits next to mock a Saudi rial featuring a depiction of Jerusalem rial bill advertising his business at a bazaar in the southwest Pakistan. Enric Marti | AP

A United Arab Emirates-backed Saudi effort to wrest control from Jordan of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem signals a sharper, more overt edge to Saudi religious diplomacy and the kingdom’s quest for regional hegemony that risks deepening divides in the Muslim world. The effort also serves to support Donald J. Trump’s plan for a resolution of the

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With Pence and Netanyahu Meetings, Indonesia Signals Shift to Saudi-Israeli Fold

By design or by default, Indonesia’s support of US and Saudi efforts to impose their will on the Palestinians and the larger Middle East could potentially produce as many problems as could it offer solutions.

Dr. James M. Dorsey
By Dr. James M. Dorsey
Indonesia Yahya Staquf Pence

Yahya Staquf, a diminutive, soft-spoken leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim movement, and Indonesian president Joko Widodo’s advisor on religious affairs, has held a series of meetings in recent weeks that reflect the Muslim world’s shifting attitudes towards Israel and the Palestinians and a re-alignment of socially conservative

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Things Get Messi After Argentina Cancels Soccer Match with Israel

Argentina’s cancellation of a match with Israel due to Israeli attempts to exploit it politically is likely to reverberate well beyond the world of soccer.

Dr. James M. Dorsey
By Dr. James M. Dorsey
Argentina's Lionel Messi walks on the pitch during a friendly soccer match between Argentina and Haiti in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 29, 2018. Victor R. Caivano | AP

Argentina’s cancellation of a friendly against Israel because of Israeli attempts to exploit the match politically is likely to reverberate far beyond the world of soccer and spotlights the risks of Israeli efforts to persuade the international community to recognize Jerusalem as its capital. The Argentinian decision suggests that despite the fact

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Hummus Wars: The Middle East’s Battle of the Palates

This is cultural genocide. It’s not Israeli food. It’s Arab (Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian). First, the Israelis take the land and ethnically cleanse it of Arabs. Now they take their food and culture and claim it’s theirs too! Shame,

– James Zogby

Dr. James M. Dorsey
By Dr. James M. Dorsey
Lebanese chefs prepare hummus, during a bid to break a record previously held by Israel and reclaim ownership over the popular Middle Eastern dish, in Fanar, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday May 8, 2010. Some 300 Lebanese chefs prepared the huge hummus plate weighing 22,046 pounds or 10,452 kilograms _ the size of Lebanon in square kilometers and doubled the record achieved by cooks in an Arab town near Jerusalem in January that weighed around four metric tons and broke a previous record held by Lebanon. A Guinness World Records adjudicator confirmed that Lebanon now holds the record. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Nothing in a swath of land stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to China is undisputed. Food is often emblematic of disputes over identity, history and political claims that underlie an arc of crisis wracked by ethnic and religious conflict; clamour for political, economic, social, national and minority rights; efforts by states and ethnic

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