Remember the old bells your teacher used to ring when class was over? How'd you run home and play "El Wawi" with your friends, or (better) Duck Hunt on Atari -- or you'd gather around the TV on a hot summer afternoon and watch telenovelas like "Rosalinda" or "Kassandra"? (We already know how much Arab girls just love foreign soap operas .) It's time to indulge nostalgia : if you recognize these cultural references, you definitely grew up in the Middle East in the eighties and nineties...

This post is an update of a story first published by Albawaba during Hajj 2014 Over 2 million Muslims from 183 countries have arrived in Mecca for Hajj 2015, the annual pilgrimage commanded by the Koran. The Saudi royal family are increasingly turning to technology to keep visitors safe from punishing heat, overstressed infrastructure, and the fatal consequences of crowd behavior. Hajj pilgrims might share an attitude that, if I die, it is God’s will, but it doesn’t relieve the kingdom of its responsibility to anticipate risks, such as this ...

With hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn nations in the Middle East and North Africa scrambling to find safe haven abroad , many have called on the US -- a nation made up largely of immigrants and refugees from all over the world -- to accept its fair share. Though the Obama administration announced this week that it would raise its quota by 15,000 in 2016 (and another 15,000 in 2017), most of the presidential candidates competing to replace Obama next year are advocating a more conservative approach. Some ...

See rows of sagging tents in compounds ringed by razor wire, “temporary” cities now in their fourth year. Watch news of 71 refugees found dead in a truck in Austria, and harrowing images of tiny bodies washing up on European shores. Witness hundreds of tired people pressed against hastily erected border fences. Technology brings brutality into your home and the palms of your hand, turning human hardship into a spectator sport. It's time to get off the bleachers and get in the game. (continue reading below) Right now, there are ...

Just when you think Islamophobia can’t get any worse in the US, it does! Texan teen Ahmad Mohamed brought a homemade alarm clock to school in an attempt to ‘wow’ his engineering teacher. Other teachers were not impressed, thinking his clock to be bomb. The principal called the police, and the 14-year-old was handcuffed and arrested for having what panicked authorities labeled a “hoax bomb”. Global outrage ensued. “They interrogated me and searched through my stuff and took my tablet and my invention,” the teen told the Dallas News. “Later ...

Earlier this month, a construction crane crashed through the roof of Mecca’s Grand Mosque , killing 107 people and wounding over 200 others. The horrific accident occurred during a sandstorm that brought high winds to the Gulf nation. Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz ordered the state to pay each of the victims’ families 1 million Saudi riyals ($267,000 USD) in compensation. Meanwhile, the construction firm in charge of an expansion project at the mosque has had its projects suspended . The crane collapse -- which occurred just ten days before ...

Last week, Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her reign – coinciding with the growth of air travel – had her criss-crossing the planet for over half a century, with frequent stops in the Middle East. (Her second-ever state visit was to Libya.) Her trips were more than pomp and circumstance. A 1979 state tour to six Gulf countries drew international attention with great speculation about how Arabs might treat a female dignitary. The Middle East was still a mystery to most westerners and it was ...