And Then God Created the Middle East and Said "Let There Be Breaking News"

by Karl reMarks

Overview

“A Muslim, a Christian and a Jew walk into a bar. According to new guidelines on religious tolerance, they enjoy a mutually respectful time.”

“We’re very proud of God in the Middle East. He’s the local guy who went on to acquire international fame.”

“The US exported so much democracy to the Middle East, it ran out of it.”

Bringing together over one hundred of the wildly wry observations and sketches of online sensation Karl reMarks, this is the perfect book for anyone looking to understand the mysterious land of dervishes, falafels, and despotic leaders.

Karl reMarks is the alias of Karl Sharro, whose popular satirical blog receives over 50,000 hits daily. His opinion on matters relating to the Middle East is regularly sought by media outlets, including CNN, The Guardian and The Economist, among others. In 2016 his video, “The simple one-sentence explanation for what caused Isis,” went viral, with 1.6 million views on Facebook alone. Alongside his role as a satirist and commentator on the Middle East, Karl Sharro is also an architect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780863569029
Publisher:	Saqi Books
Publication date:	10/23/2018
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 5.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Karl reMarks is a Middle East political and cultural online commentary with frequent forays into satire. It is written by Karl Sharro, whose work has been featured in the BBC, Al-Jazeera, The Economist, Ted-X Talks, Wall Street Journal and Guardian among others. In 2016 Karl’s video, ‘the simple one-sentence explanation for what caused Isis,’ went viral, with 1.6 million views on Facebook alone. Alongside his role as a satirist and commentator on the Middle East, Karl has practised architecture in London and Beirut.

Read an Excerpt

‘Under communism you buy everything from a single state outlet; under fully-mature capitalism you buy everything from Amazon.’

‘I disagreed with the idea that reality has become too strange to satirise. Then I read that bin Laden was radicalised by Shakespeare.’

‘When God put Europe near the Middle East, it was an Occident waiting to happen.’

‘Meanwhile, Iraq seems to be invading itself for the oil.’

‘If you remove the US, UK, France, Russia, Iran, Saudi, Syria, Israel, Qatar, Turkey, Kuwait and Egypt, Lebanese politics is very simple.’

‘If we ever did a Yes/No referendum in an Arab country, most people would reply “inshallah” anyway.’

‘Three Arab commentators walk into a bar. They get funding from the EU and call it “A Panel Discussion on the Arab Spring”.’

‘Three Iranian presidential candidates walk into a bar. We’re waiting for the Supreme Leader to issue the punchline.’

‘Three conspiracy theorists walk into a bar. Do you think it’s a coincidence?’

‘Gaddafi, Mubarak and Ben-Ali walk into a bar. After they left, the Muslim Brotherhood won the elections, banned alcohol and closed the bar.’

‘A minimalist walks into a bar.’