Islamism is gaining ground on the island historically dominated by Christianity and traditional religions by offering free Koranic education in exchange for conversion.
Tag: islam
Rohingya. Outside of Myanmar, it’s a simple word, though not necessarily easy to pronounce. Largely unknown until recently, its utterance now unmistakably evokes persecution, humanitarian tragedy, and what the UN said was “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” at the hands of government authorities and local militias. But inside the Buddhist-majority country, it’s a politically-charged […]
-Analysis- BEIRUT — Since its independence in 1943, Lebanon has been exposed to the vicissitudes of the Middle East’s complicated geopolitics, from the creation of Israel, which led to a massive influx of Palestinian refugees on Lebanese soil, to the recent war in Syria, not to mention Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. Since 2005 and […]
All was calm around the recent inauguration of the northern city of Pavia’s new Islamic Center for Dialogue, bucking a trend of protests around Italy when new mosques are proposed.
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Islamic School Break
These veiled girls enjoying recess greeted us as we passed by their Islamic boarding school in the capital of the world’s biggest Muslim nation.
The carnage in Las Vegas is evil and tragic, but is it terrorism?
What connects the violence in Barcelona and Charlottesville? Where have Western democracies gone wrong since the turn of the century?
-Analysis- PARIS — The Islamic State (ISIS) is like the Hydra, the multi-headed monster of mythology that Hercules alone was able to slay. Whenever he managed to cut off one its heads, two new ones grew back instantly. Likewise, the jihadists — having recently lost Mosul, in Iraq — are already making headlines again, this […]
In Indonesia, the heavy metal band Voice of Baceprot is turning and banging heads. But critics say this is not what Muslim girls should be doing.
PRISTINA — In front of socialist era high-rise blocks, Bill Clinton waves to the Kosovars. Kosovo Albanians built the statue in the capital, Pristina, in gratitude for the bombing of then Yugoslavia by NATO in 1999, which a few years later led to independence. U.S. and Albanian flags flutter alongside each other on the rooftops. […]
-Analysis- The recapture of Mosul by the Iraqi armed forces, with the support of the international coalition led by the United States, is a real achievement. ISIS has seen its biggest military conquest reversed, and its dream of an Islamic caliphate destroyed. But none of this means that the biggest terror organization the world has […]
-OpEd- PARIS — It’s taken years for acts of violence carried out against French Jews to be recognized not as ordinary crime, but as the violent expression of a new form of anti-Semitism. By describing perpetrators as standard criminals, lone wolves or psychiatric patients, every possible effort was made to avoid acknowledging that in France, […]
Analyzing letters and testimony of ISIS terrorists shows how eye-for-an-eye arguments in defense of Muslim victims meld with monotheistic guilt and a mystic sense of destiny to become offensive weapons in the jihadist strategy.
Seyran Ates, a German-Turkish lawyer, has opened the first “liberal” mosque in Berlin, where she herself is the imam. The goal is nothing less that the worldwide reformation of Islam.
The pro-democracy Jasmine Revolution of 2011 has been followed by more, not less, religious policing in the North African country once known as a bastion of secularism.
The two deadly suicide attacks in Tehran, at the Parliament and inside the mausoleum of Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, appeared as the latest in the litany of woes terrorists have brought to the Middle East. It may also mark a whole new chapter in the region. Iranians, in spite of the political and […]
-OpEd- PARIS — At first, there is that horrific sensation like something pushing on your chest with the tears that swell as we imagine the parents trying to reach their children and nobody answering on the other end of the line where a massacre has been committed. Then, there is the anger that becomes a […]
Cuba’s small but growing Muslim community is getting a boost from Havana’s diplomatic opening. Riyadh, meanwhile, is trying to exert control.
Just as terrorism in the name of other religions has existed throughout history. We must call evil things by their name if we want to overcome them.
A Tunisian doctoral student has joined several poorly informed American celebrities in reopening the question of whether the Earth is flat or round.
LUCKNOW — It’s Friday afternoon at the Ambar mosque in the northern Indian city of Lucknow. The call to prayer, or Azan, rings out in the afternoon heat. Women start to gather. They wash their hands, face and feet as part of a ritual purification. In India, women aren’t typically encouraged at mosques. But Ambar mosque is doing quite the opposite — the second floor of the mosque is reserved for women to offer Namaaz or prayer. Rabia, a local resident, says she visits the mosque most Fridays. For her, the Ambar mosque is more than a place to pray. […]
Islam making major inroads in the east African nation. China pumping millions into infrastructure and industry. An Italian reporter gauges changes in the former colony.
MOSUL — Leila Khaled hadn’t felt well that morning. It was the end of August, when the Iraqi summer sun had hit the walls and windows hard, like the wind in the middle of a powerful storm. Mosul was still in the clutches of ISIS. The war was still far away; it was being raged […]
-Analysis- WARSAW — In Poland, hatred is clearly fueling violence. But after six racist attacks were registered in a four-day period, this was the reaction from the country’s Interior Minister: “”There is no racism in Poland.”” The victims of these attacks are foreigners from the Polish cities of Wrocław, Legnica. Lublin and Ozorków. Four kebab […]
After the Christmas market attack in Berlin, the Western world would be wrong to assume it can prevent its cultural or political dissolution by merely repeating its prayers to the glory of diversity.
Up close with some of the growing numbers of Germans settling in Hungary, a country that has shut out refugees from the Middle East.
Just before this week’s attack by a Muslim student at Ohio State University, which authorities believe was inspired by ISIS, a young peace-loving Muslim-American described his faith in this essay.
KISH — The island of Kish is a far cry from the rest of Iran. Although it’s just 19 kilometers from the mainland, this Persian Gulf outpost features the kind of open hedonism that would be shocking in other parts of the country. As hard-line politicians and religious figures target so-called Western imports such as […]
BANDA ACEH — The cafe is packed with men sitting in front of their third cup of coffee. They chat and smoke kreteks — a type of local clove cigarettes. The lighthearted mood is suddenly interrupted by the sound of the café’s metal shutters being slid downward. The conversation dies, the expressions grow frightened. The […]
Many young Muslim women in the West have a modern lifestyle, yet want to be a virgin on their wedding day. But what if they aren’t? One woman’s story from Germany.
Who are we? A referendum in Hungary raises fundamental questions in the West about how the fear of otherness turns culture into a weapon in the hands of populists.
-OpEd- As I walk through central London, I see many women wearing burqas passing me by. And as I’ve always felt in that sort of situation, I was uncomfortable. Physically and morally uncomfortable. They say you’re not supposed to feel such things. Nor to write about them. What right, indeed, do I have to impose […]
-OpEd- BERLIN — The ministers of the interior of Germany’s 16 federal states have presented their plan against terrorism. Among them, the abolition of the dual citizenship and a public ban on wearing the burqa. As far as is known, no dual citizenship holder has committed a crime of a terrorist nature. The number of […]
CASABLANCA — Morocco is no stranger to the jihadist violence afflicting other Muslim countries: In 2003, a suicide bombing killed 33 people in the country’s largest city, Casablanca, while a 2011 attack killed 17 in Marrakesh. But unlike most of its neighbors, Morocco has a detailed policy to reform rather than destroy followers of Salafism, […]
For years, Muslims helped police identify radicals in Italy. But this assistance isn’t enough. Italy needs to address legislative gaps and promote cultural integration.
Can we accept cultural “sensitivities” as an excuse for undemocratic behavior? Can we accept a Muslim father not shaking the hand of his child’s teacher because she is a woman? Yes, it’s all connected to recent terror attacks in
Qawwali is Sufi devotional and mystic poetry that promotes a tolerant form of Islam. It dates back centuries, but is losing ground to popular rock and Bollywood music.
An estimated 4,500 Westerners have joined ISIS so far — leaving behind devastated parents who never saw the signs of radicalization. Here’s one story from Canada.
Can practitioners of Islam also believe in the ideals of a secular state and democracy? A Turkish academic poses the question and finds some interesting answers.
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Bloody Ramadan, China Floods, Final Hu
SPOTLIGHT: A DEADLY END TO A DEADLY RAMADAN The latest terror news bulletin flashed from one of Islam’s holiest sites, the Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in the city of Medina. Two days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the mosque was struck yesterday by a suicide bomber, killing four security guards and wounding […]