Do we have the right, in light of our contemporary sensibilities, to change history books and literary works and essays? Is it appropriate, for example, to replace the racist adjectives that Al-Mutabnabbi had attributed to Abu al-Misk Kafur with different ones, or to remove Shakespeare’s character,…

During World War II, Albert Camus and the “Combat” newspaper he edited, which spoke for the French resistance, were among the hardliners calling for a “purge,” that is, handing those who collaborated with the Nazi occupation the most severe sentences possible. On the other end of the spectrum was…

As some Lebanese were busy publicly outbidding one another: There are two million Syrians in Lebanon, even three million, and in some popular talk, there are four... We saw the emergence of figures that aroused envy put forward by some Turks: There are ten million Syrians in Türkiye, Erdogan’s…

Those who see “the Enlightenment” as the stringent and dry dictatorship of reason should read David Hume (1711-1776). The Scottish philosopher, alongside his friend Adam Smith, is the largest fruit of the “Scottish Enlightenment,” the roots of which go back to the sixteenth century. That is when,…

Some Western intellectuals have voiced their frustration with certain ideas about artificial intelligence and robots as a threat that could “invade our territory, displace us from our homes, consume our resources, and even marry our women.” Such fantastical notions were initially spread by science…

The saying about books that many cite and only few read is true for Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle). The book saw the light of day in 1925, from the luxurious prison cell Hitler had been detained in for his failed Munich Putsch. There are many conflicting stories about it. Some claim…

The modern history of Sudan could perhaps be summed up as a struggle between revolutions and coups: - Revolutions that bring the citizens down to the streets, leaving the public sphere to them and their voice, and spontaneously giving rise to democratic structures that later take the form of…

While Hamlet is William Shakespeare’s longest play, as well as his most important, Macbeth is his shortest and second most important. It has been called many things, as it is the greatest story of hatred ever written, a tale of ambition and bloodshed, or the tragedy of a noble and courageous man…

Armies and security services doubtlessly bear primary responsibility for the military coups in Sudan, as they do in the other Arab countries that have been subjected to military coups. They are also primarily responsible for the dictatorial regimes created by these coups. With that, they had…

Few religious figures allow their sacred texts to be reconciled with others from different traditions. Even if the latter were religious texts, being associated with another religion or sect is enough reason to disregard them. Nevertheless, it is difficult to think about contemporary questions like…