But all the crusading and invading simply plays into al-Qa'ida's hands – just ask the French

"If you believe in free speech," said the email, "please cancel Robert Fisk's tour." Now, where have I seen these ruthless tactics before...

The staple demand of all Arab revolutions – “the people want the fall of the regime” - could be heard in Tunis after a leading member of the opposition was shot

For the Salafists, a Muslim shrine is a rival to God as surely as Henry VIII saw the monasteries as a Papal rival

Our Middle East Correspondent on the Bouteflika regime, Pentagon folly, the many faces of Assad, and precious lessons from and old handbook in his Beirut briefcase

Robert Fisk on what he really means in the 'war on terror'

There are no shortage of oddities in this Oscar-nominated movie, but our Middle East Correspondent is moved by a brilliant depiction of Iran after the 1979 upheaval

We are outraged not by the massacre of the innocents, but because the hostages killed were largely white, blue-eyed chaps rather than darker, brown-eyed chaps

The real rulers in this country are a military who were "blooded" in a civil war that taught them to care as little for the innocent as they do for the guilty

The problem is that Algeria's vicious 1990-99 conflict never really ended