Magda Fahsi

Magda Fahsi is a Mint Press Europe correspondent and investigative reporter based in Brussels, Belgium, specializing in human rights. She is also a cross-cultural coach lecturing about intercultural management at the Vatel International Business School, and holds a postgraduate degree in Human Rights and a Ph.D. in International Relations and Diplomacy. She has published articles on a variety of topics including European affairs, the Arab world, human rights and migration and diversity issues. You can visit her website, www.magdafahsi.eu.

Why Europeans Are Outraged About PRISM: The US Constitution Doesn’t Protect Them

While Americans squabble over whether U.S. citizens’ rights were violated by the NSA, EU citizens have it much worse.

Magda Fahsi
Par Magda Fahsi

BRUSSELS -- “It looks to me like it could become one of the biggest data privacy scandals ever,” Renate Künast, a German politician, recently said. Europeans were shocked to hear that, after having their banking data and air passenger data transferred to the U.S. authorities without their knowledge, they now also have their personal online data

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Turkey’s Protests Reflect A Broad Crisis Of Governance Across The West

Taksim Square is more Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, less Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Magda Fahsi
Par Magda Fahsi

It is tempting to see in the Turkish protests a struggle between an Islamic government and a secular opposition, or between Islam and democracy, or maybe even between conservatives and progressives. It is all the more tempting considering the media’s tendency to reduce any confrontation that happens almost anywhere in the world to a struggle

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As Embargo’s End Threatens To Turn Syria Into World Battlefield, New Voices Call For Peace

The war in Syria is starting to seem not so much a civil war as a proxy war led by foreign actors.

Magda Fahsi
Par Magda Fahsi

On May 31, the EU arms embargo on Syria expired: during their meeting a few days earlier, the 27 EU member states could not agree to renew it for another year because of France and the United Kingdom’s fierce opposition. The lack of unanimity meant the embargo lapsed automatically. The deal not to renew the arms embargo comes with an ambiguous

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INTERVIEW: “We Should Respect Each Other’s Culture,” Chinese Official Xiang Yu Says

The economic and commercial attaché at the China’s delegation to the EU spoke to MPN about the possibilities of economic and cultural exchange.

Magda Fahsi
Par Magda Fahsi

China and the European Union have been trying to negotiate a trade agreement for two years, but talks haven’t seemed to get off the ground. Xiang Yu is the economic and commercial attaché at the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union. He identifies cultural differences in the way the two parties approach these negotiations

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Stockholm’s Riots Reveal The Illusion Of Sweden’s Tolerance Model

Events in Sweden show that what politicians call ‘multiculturalism’ is just outdated, discriminatory assimilationism in disguise.

Magda Fahsi
Par Magda Fahsi

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Last week, young people in several Stockholm suburbs rioted for six consecutive nights, throwing stones, breaking windows, torching cars, clashing with police and setting building ablaze, in Sweden’s worst scenes of disorder in years. Were they the result of social exclusion? Growing disparities? Unemployment? Or a reaction to

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Can Big Oil-Funded University Departments Remain Objective In Their Research?

Oxford University students, staff and alumni have published a letter rejecting a new partnership between the university and Shell Oil Company.

Magda Fahsi
Par Magda Fahsi

“As Oxford alumni, staff and students, we are united in our opposition to this new partnership and the growing trend of oil companies funding, and thus influencing, the research agenda of our universities.” The letter published in The Guardian was crystal clear: Oxford University’s students and staff do not want Shell to fund a new laboratory in

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Did The Arab Spring Really Turn Into An Islamist Winter?

Many in the West seem to hope that, in the end, Islamist parties will fail and Arab people will then vote for Western-oriented liberals.

Magda Fahsi
Par Magda Fahsi

Two years ago the Arab Spring began with the self-immolation of a young street seller in Tunisia who was protesting the arbitrary injustice and lack of opportunity: It led to the downfall of the Tunisian president. The western world had hoped that this downfall, and the subsequent unrest in other Arab states, would lead to liberal and secular

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