When the Arab world was tolerant and accepting of others, it led the world: From Baghdad to Damascus to Andalusia and farther afield, we provided beacons of science, knowledge, and civilization, because humane values were the basis of our relationships with all civilizations, cultures, and religions. Even when our ancestors left Andalusia, people of other […]
The upheavals that began in the Middle East five years ago have reshuffled longstanding alliances and hostilities, created a staggering array of new actors, and left vast stretches of the region in either intermediate or total collapse—outcomes that have collectively shattered the prevailing order there. Read Here – The National Interest
Five years ago, Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vender with black curls, deep brown eyes, and chin fuzz, refused to pay a seven-dollar bribe, yet again, to a government inspector. For a man who supported his mother, five younger siblings, and an ailing uncle, seven dollars was a full day’s income—on a good day. This […]
The formal announcement that Ahmad Javed, currently the police commissioner of Mumbai, will be the next Indian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, opens up new opportunities for the promotion of India’s interests in the Kingdom and in West Asia in general, in a national and regional environment that faces extraordinary challenges in the […]
An Islamic philosopher in Karachi, an ideologue who provides violent ideas to some of Pakistan’s fiercest extremist groups, once told me that there are two kinds of history: dead and living. “Dead history is something on a shelf or in a museum,” he said. “Living history is part of your consciousness, something in your blood […]
Hillary Clinton and her allies have seized on Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the country to define the 2016 election as an existential battle between the Democratic front-runner and the dangerous forces of “prejudice and paranoia” as epitomized by Trump — but also echoed by the rest of the Republican field. […]
Muslims are the fastest-growing religious group in the world. The growth and regional migration of Muslims, combined with the ongoing impact of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other extremist groups that commit acts of violence in the name of Islam, have brought Muslims and the Islamic faith to the forefront of […]
Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to bar Muslims from traveling to the U.S. makes it harder to carry out effective diplomacy, Secretary of State John Kerry said, adding his voice to a chorus of figures in both major parties who’ve condemned the idea. Read Here – Bloomberg
François Hollande’s declaration of war against Isis (also known as Islamic State) was, perhaps, a natural reaction to the carnage in Paris but the situation is now so grave that we cannot merely react; we also need sustained, informed and objective reflection. Read Here – New Statesman
Painful as it is to admit, the West, especially the United States, bears significant responsibility for creating the conditions in which ISIS has flourished. Only a change in US and European foreign policy vis-à-vis the Middle East can reduce the risk of further terrorism. Read Here – Project Syndicate
looking beyond borders 