He's Palestine's golden boy, our Arab Idol, and possibly the man with the most awards on his shelf in all of MENA. I mean, can anyone say they don't love them some Mohammed Assaf ? Pretty much, no. With musical giftedness, magnetic charm, and a heart-melting story that makes grown men cry, the world still has Assaf mania a year after he came into public eye and adoration. He snatched the winning title in season two of the talent show Arab Idol and simultaneously stole the hearts of all viewers ...

After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s (baseless) assertion that Muslim explorers found the Americas before Sheikh Columbus, AlBawaba wonders what Thanksgiving - that most American holiday of food, booze and shopping - would look like today if Erdogan was right. The Turkish president made headlines recently when he claimed that Muslim explorers crossed the Atlantic in the 12th century and pipped the much-credited Columbus to the post. Erdogan was drawing his claim from a passage in Columbus’ diary that mentions a ‘mosque’ in Cuba. But that passage is thought to ...

Nearly four years into Syria's conflict, some of the impacts are easy to quantify: more than 9 million displaced into neighboring countries; 2.8 million children out of school; more than 160,000 lives lost so far. And that's before you mention the more recent shockwaves caused by the Islamic State militant group. It's harder perhaps, to consider the real-time effects of such figures on the displaced people themselves, or what they might look like drawn out on the concrete walls of camps that many refugees now call home. Last week for ...