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Alex Rowell

Alex Rowell

Online Editor

Alex Rowell is New Lines magazine’s online editor. He is the author of “We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World” and “Vintage Humour: The Islamic Wine Poetry of Abu Nuwas.”

Latest from Alex Rowell

Hamas Attacks on Israel From Lebanon Stoke Fears of a Repeat of History

Hamas Attacks on Israel From Lebanon Stoke Fears of a Repeat of History

The Cairo Agreement, signed on this day 54 years ago, serves as a byword for the diplomatic folly that set Lebanon on a path to doom. It is so notorious that when one analyst described a recent proposal as “another Cairo Agreement in the making” their Lebanese audience fully understood the danger.

Alex Rowell
A Talk With the Dean of Arab Liberalism

A Talk With the Dean of Arab Liberalism

If Saghieh is branded today by fans and detractors alike as the dean, or grand old man, of Arab liberalism, he certainly did not begin his intellectual journey in that vein. It was only after 30 years of espousing every stripe of radicalism that he met with an insurmountable crisis of faith and “recovered,” as he puts it half-jokingly, from the “fever” of political extremism that would otherwise have killed him.

Alex Rowell
Hoping to Channel Nasser, Egypt’s Sisi Provokes a Backlash

Hoping to Channel Nasser, Egypt’s Sisi Provokes a Backlash

Egypt's President Sisi has long sought to cast himself as a second Gamal Abdel Nasser. But, as rare public protests early this week illustrated, Egyptians now appear to have lost patience with the performance.

Alex Rowell
The Wine Critics of Early Islam

The Wine Critics of Early Islam

The language used by early Arab poets to appraise wine shows striking parallels to the style of wine criticism we know today. Arab and Muslim poets writing hundreds of years ago used a vocabulary to evaluate wine that would only become current in the West in the late 20th century.

Alex Rowell