by Hugh Eakin, Alisa Roth Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East by Deborah Amos An Iraqi agricultural engineer holding a…
Browsing: Society & Culture
Nationalism is a disease that has infected mankind ever since it gathered in tribes, color and races. And when mankind invented monotheism, the situation became even…
Nationalism is a disease that has infected mankind ever since it gathered in tribes, color and races. And when mankind invented monotheism, the situation became even…
With election results showing a close race between PM Maliki’s list and the Iraqi National Alliance list headed by Iyad Allawi, many in Iraq are floating…
LAHORE: Investigations into the February 21, 2010 beheading of an abducted Skih citizen of Pakistan in the Khyber Agency tribal area of the country shows that…
On November 6. 1990, 40 brave Saudi women drove their cars publicly in the capitol of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, to demand their right to drive. They…
Dears, I do believe free people around the world can help a lot to make women’s lives in Saudi Arabia better. We, as free individuals are…
In a SPIEGEL interview, Iranian theologian and philosopher Mohsen Kadivar discusses Tehran’s path towards a military dictatorship, how the country’s religious leaders abuse Islam and opportunities…
Dozens of Tehran University students were beaten and severely wounded, requiring hospitalization, following an attack by plain-clothed vigilantes and the state security forces on the university’s…
Saman Rasoulpour Rooz spoke with the leader of the Sunni minority faction in Iran’s national assembly, the Majlis, Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, the representative from Mahabad. He declared…
VANCOUVER – Protests have erupted this week in three Iranian cities after former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami made degrading comments about the Azerbaijani minority in Iran.…
June 2 (Bloomberg) — Deep in the Arabian desert, hundreds of guests celebrate the birth of a city. The Saudi government has flown them in on…
“Islam and Dissent: Abdolkarim Soroush, Religious Politics and Democratic Reform” by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi Ian Chesley May 27th, 2009 Islam and Dissent is a truly excellent critical…
It is a sign of the confusion in Lebanon’s Christian community today, particularly the Maronite community, that the outcome of the parliamentary elections will probably not…
Abdolkarim Soroush is one of the most influential religious thinkers to emerge from post-revolutionary Iran. He is an influential proponent of kalam-e no or “new theology,”…
In the southern Iraqi city, poetry and music have returned since Iraqi forces wrested control from Shiite extremists last year. By Jane Arraf | Correspondent of…
By Amir Mir: Mashal Books, Lahore 2008, Pp306; Price Rs 700 Amir Mir has developed into an informed commentator on the state of jihad with an…
In 2007, Marcel Ghanem hosted a program commemorating the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, the late Lebanese Forces leader who in 1982 was…
The value of a woman’s life is one half of the life of a man. The testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of…
Lahore– Pakistan’s enormous madrassa (religious seminaries) sector has been at the centre of debates on extremism and radicalization of society ever since the Musharraf regime had…
LAHORE: Having moved against the educational network of Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaatul Daawa, recently declared a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council for its involvement…
One of the most difficult problems facing the Islam-based Arab societies is the absence of a culture of reckoning of conscience. In other societies reckoning of…
‘They all think I’m a spy’Once a revolutionary who helped bring down Iran’s monarchy in 1979, Akbar Ganji is now the country’s most outspoken reformist It’s…
Translated from the Chinese by Perry Link The following text of Charter 08, signed by hundreds of Chinese intellectuals and translated and introduced by Perry Link,…
For two days, from November 4-6, Islamic and Catholic experts are meeting at the Vatican, after years of chilly relations due to the growth of fundamentalism.…
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An American school in Damascus closed its doors and told students to go home Monday after the Syrian…
On 26/10/2008, the Syrian security agencies prevented the Syrian worldly-known director Muhammad Malas from travelling outside the country. Mr. Malas was surprised at Damascus airport by…
The Saudi king takes more steps to show openness towards Christians, Jews and other religions. The most urgent reason is to rectify Islam’s violent image but…
CAIRO — In a Muslim country where the numbers of women wearing the veil are rising, and so — by most accounts — are incidents of…
By Farah al-Sweel RIYADH (Reuters) – When Saudi Arabia’s Olympic team appears in Beijing next month, it will be conspicuous for the absence of women. Rashed…
How would Arab Christians, Muslims (Sunnis, Shias, Druze, Alawites, etc) and Jews respond to a similar survey if it were to take place in the Middle…
** From DEMOCRATIYA Unholy Terror: Bosnia, al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad by John R. Schindler Zenith Press, 2008, 368. pp. Marko Attila Hoare Also…
(New York, May 21, 2008) – The Saudi Interior Ministry should immediately and unconditionally release Matrook al-Faleh, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading human rights activists, Human…
Osama bin Laden flew to London in 1986 to help negotiate the purchase of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles to be used by Arab fighters then battling the…
The Catholic baptism of the well known journalist, Magdi Allam, Egyptian and non practising Muslim, has been criticised and despised by the Islamic world. Added to…
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has adopted a new charter that calls for a “jihad of peace” to spark off an Islamic renaissance. Muslim…
A UN expert on women’s rights said on Wednesday she had heard accounts of serious discrimination against women and abuses by religious police during a visit…
BERLIN — Death came for Hatun Surucu at a cold bus stop here three years ago. The 23-year-old was the sixth Muslim woman murdered by a…
A new study commissioned by Germany’s Interior Ministry warns of a growing threat from the radicalization of Muslims in the country. Six percent of Muslims in…
LONDON, England — Born into one of the most famous political families on the Asian sub-continent, Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, was raised…
There is a lot of good in the document sent to Benedict XVI and Christian leaders: greater convergence between Muslim currents; attention to Christian vocabulary; the…
Maybe someone might convincingly explain why, whenever Western journalists and publicists talk about Lebanon’s Christians, particularly the Maronites, they invariably resort to the word “fascism” in…
The nation of Saudi Arabia is 77 years old – richer and more internationally prominent than ever. But there are still many rights denied to women.…
Translation By Amira Kashgary Saudi Poet and dissidetn Ali Al-Dumaini dedicated this poem: To Fatima and Mansour who have been forcibly divorced against their wills on…
The Iranian photographer and writer Haleh Anvari is fed up with being fought over by the combatants of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’. In the red corner…
St Joseph University Faculty of Religious Sciences Center for Study, Documentation and Research on Arab Christians The role of Arab Christians in the modernization of contemporary…
Professor ALAN JOHNSON’s DEMOKRATIYA (based at Edge Hill University)is a must for readers of Middle East Transparent. Add it to your favorites list. We would have…
It is sometimes forgotten that the content of history, the business of the historian, is the past, not the future. I remember being at an international…
Secretary / Special Rapporteur on violence against women Higher Commissionaire of Human Rights Geneva, Switzerland 25 June 2007 Kindest regards from Bahrain, We would like to…
Last month, US-based Afghan physician Khaled Hosseini released his second novel, A Thousnd Splendid Suns. Like in his first novel, The Kite Runner, which has been…