Worldcrunch
ISTANBUL — When it was time to make a victory speech, all the cities of the Muslim world were being cited, “Not just Turkey, but also Baghdad, Islamabad, Kabul, Beirut, Sarajevo, and Skopje won today,” declared Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after being elected the Republic of Turkey“s 12th president back in August 2014. “Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, […]
-Essay- There must be an infinity of good stories to tell about the bus from Jerusalem to Ramallah. At its starting point, the streets are well kept, like in a first-world country, and the white stone buildings standardized. At sunset, they give the Israeli city a golden yellow hue. When you reach Ramallah, the dusty […]
Inflammatory speech, whether you’re the Republican candidate for the White House or a Turkish professor of theology, should be held directly responsible for ensuing violence.
Among the Berber slaves of Mauritania, property of Arab masters despite their shared Muslim faith.
Competing Muslim groups are vying for official recognition from the Italian state — and a share of the country’s “8 per 1,000” taxpayer pie.
Too many Muslims keep to themselves, speak poor German and pass on their problems to the next generation. They harm themselves and therefore the rest of society.
Ennahda’s founder Rached Ghannouchi calls for an end to ‘political Islam,’ a groundbreaking shift for a key Tunisian leader and intellectual long identified as Islamist.
La Croix, May 17, 2016 VATICAN CITY — In a rare interview, Pope Francis told French Catholic daily La Croix that there is no “fear of Islam” in Europe, and that the freedom to practice religion must be protected “not outside, but inside society.” The wide-ranging interview, published Tuesday, covered the Pope’s views on the […]
SAO PAULO — João left Brazil to study abroad and expand his horizons thanks to the national program Science Without Borders. He intended to return home afterwards, but something unexpected changed the script: While he was studying in Europe, his dreams, his ambitions and his beliefs changed as Islamic militants tried to recruit him for […]
-OpEd- ISTANBUL — Parliament leader Ismail Kahraman said Turkey’s new constitution should be based on religion, not ideals of secularism. Needless to say, this created a fuss. And yet, it is no secret what Mr. Kahraman thinks. The Unity Foundation, of which the parliament head is a founder, had a committee that proposed a draft […]
A recently inaugurated mega-mosque near Washington D.C. is one of many the Turkish government has built in an effort to extend its influence and tout a moderate model of Islam.
Ahmad Derwish, an ISIS soldier imprisoned in Syria, offers a rare glimpse into the realities on the ground for the jihadist organization.
PARIS — This is a new kind of police investigation. It is a terrorist affair that touches the edges of childhood, psychological manipulation and social discontent. The protagonists of this story are a group of girls torn between their teenage troubles and the traps of a tormented time. Aged between 14 and 19, they come […]
A woman’s movement challenging a centuries-old practice of denying women entry into the most sacred areas of worship in Hindu temples and Muslim shrines is generating a heated debate across India.
LUNEL — Tac trimmed his beard and cut his hair short. He also stopped wearing his long prayer shirt. After the Paris attacks in November, he thought, the police were bound to come looking for him. Even his family had gotten into the habit of calling him “Daesh” (acronym for ISIS) as a joke about […]
Moroccan-born Osama Khallouf is a 20-year-old student with plans to become a full-time imam. As French mosques struggle to tamp out radicals, the likes of Khallouf are being nurtured and given on-the-job training.
Critics have lambasted the cover of Polish newsweekly wSIECI (The Network), which depicts a screaming white woman wrapped in the European Union flag being pulled at and fondled by six dark and hairy arms. “The Islamic Rape Of Europe” reads the cover line. In the lead article of the widely read magazine, writer Aleksandra Rybinska […]
FRANKFURT — It’s a Thursday morning on the No. 39 bus in Frankfurt, Germany. Suddenly, a migrant woman with an accent begins to complain loudly and aggressively about a woman wearing a niqab. “I don’t feel safe next to her,” she says to no one in particular. The other passengers remain silent, though one eventually […]
DAKAR — A cartoon of an early 20th-century Senegalese Muslim leader has sparked a nationwide uproar, with the vignette criticized by civilians and political leaders alike. The Paris-based African news magazine Jeune Afrique published a cartoon of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride Brotherhood, last week in which a passing Westerner asks why the […]
Even as Belgium has emerged as a hub of Islamic terror networks, a Belgian Muslim is the theatrical toast of the town as he tackles jihad, racism and culture wars with humor.
As nationalist groups around the continent take on the Pegida brand name, a mass European-wide rally is planned in at least seven cities for Feb. 6.
Mothers in traditional Muslim families instill in both their daughters and sons the values that lead to the subordination of women, which can lead to sexual attacks like those that have made headlines in Germany.
-Op-Ed- PARIS — In the 1970s, in the aftermath of Richard Nixon’s visit to China, commentators talked about the Washington-Moscow-Beijing triangle. These days, in the Middle East, there is another triangle: between Riyadh, Tehran and Washington. The problem for the region’s stability is that this triangle is absolutely dysfunctional. Indeed, the only way to understand […]
Since the Jan. 7, 2015 killings, many humorists have been struggling to tackle the question of Islamic terrorism, security and freedom of speech. Most are undeterred.
MUNICH — The conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party in the southern state of Bavaria wants Germany to ban the burqa. But the toughest opposition to the proposal may come from what is otherwise a natural CSU ally: local business leaders. Should a ban be implemented similar to the one France approved in 2010, it […]
Tuesday’s cover of U.S. daily the Philadelphia Daily News shows a file photograph of Republican front-runner Donald Trump gesticulating with his hand in what happens to look that moment like a Nazi-like salute, together with the headline “The New Furor” — a pun with Führer, the German word for “leader” and Adolf Hitler’s infamous title. […]
Muslims are supposed to save water, Christians and Jews energy. In the past, we blamed those ideologies for ecological crises.
Ten years after the 2005 French riots, the anxious image of the country’s banlieues has changed. The fear is no longer about hooded youths armed with Molotov cocktails, but instead the suspected radical Islamist.
Church leaders believe Christian missionary work is endangering civil peace as ever more Muslims emigrate to Germany. Limiting proselytizing is a radical break from 2,000 years of practice.
Flemming Rose was the man who commissioned caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for the Jyllands Posten newspaper. He reflects on Islam, free speech and silent fear.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered a swift investigation, as well as a safety review, after Thursday’s stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage site of Mina which left at least 717 people dead and 863 hurt. On its Friday front page, Saudi daily Al Yaum quotes the king as saying that “the massive development […]
With ISIS terror reigning in Palmyra, where treasured Roman ruins are at risk, reflections on a fascinating if less ancient part of its history: the Zenobia Cham Palace Hotel.
Til Schweiger may be Germany’s most popular actor-director, but right now he’s flat in the middle of the real-life, hot-button political issue of the day: immigration.
Locals in the Syrian city of Idlib were happy when rebel forces overturned regime forces. But now the rebels are enforcing their own version of military rule.
BOGOR — The oldest Buddhist temple in Bogor, West Java, is a silent witness to religious tolerance in the area. Five men gather inside the temple, whose doors are always open for people from different religions to come inside and pray. Sitting behind statues of a Buddhist goddess, the men engage in their weekly communal Koran study group. After the evening prayer, they move to the temple’s kitchen to enjoy tonight’s dinner. “We’ve been doing this for three years now, every Thursday night. It’s a routine,” says Epul Saefullah, who leads this evening’s Koran reading. “At first people asked, “But […]
The plastered façades of the mudbrick houses in and around Luxor, in eastern Egypt, are decorated with memorable episodes in the life of their owners. On many of the houses, one can see a large space devoted to the representation of the owners’ pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, one of the most important experiences in […]
MARSEILLE — Saïd* carries the dishes to the living room table as guests arrive in dribs and drabs with more food in their arms. The atmosphere is cheerful as greetings, kisses and the latest family news are shared with smiles. Earlier in this just-concluded holy month of Ramadan, the members of the Homosexual Muslims of […]
The new series “The Jewish Alley,” set in the early 1950s, is being shown to Egyptian audiences during the Ramadan TV season. Its creator explains why it matters now.
After centuries of disagreements over the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, the split between Islam’s two main schools of thought is more apparent than ever, as the two theocratic regimes of the Middle East are increasingly hostile towards each other. “Shias, Sunnis: Why is Islam torn apart?” the French newsweekly L’Obs writes on Friday’s cover. […]
La Stampa takes on big questions in Muslim world with Sunni Islam’s highest authority, who was at a conference in Italy, his first trip to Europe since taking his post in Cairo.