In The News

Iranians Turn Off State TV After Soap Is Dropped

Najmeh Bozorgmehr October 20, 2010
Iran’s state television network refused to air a television program with a political theme – about an incompetent regime that refuses to admit its errors and bans them from history books. The show starred one of the country’s beloved actors, and the leading director effectively created a “private channel,” by aggressively promoting a DVD version with banners and word of mouth. State television,...

Why Do Terrorists Blow Themselves Up?

Riaz Hassan September 9, 2010
Nine years after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the world shares a perception that suicide attacks are unusual acts committed by the poor, the psychologically impaired, the morally deficient, the uneducated or the religious fanatics. Yet analysis of more than 1500 suicide attacks between 1981 and 2008 by author Riaz Hassan reveals far more complex motivations...

New Dissent in Japan Is Loudly Anti-Foreign

Martin Fackler August 31, 2010
As Japan’s economy stagnates, young men stuck in menial jobs use the internet to plan demonstrations against foreign influences. Their “main purpose seems to be venting frustration, both about Japan’s diminished stature and in their own personal economic difficulties,” explains Martin Fackler for the New York Times. The discontents resent rising unemployment and lack of global respect for Japan...

Shariah in Aceh: Eroding Indonesia’s Secular Freedoms

Dewi Kurniawati August 26, 2010
Indonesia has a secular constitution, but in 2003 gave a nod to the Aceh province adopting partial sharia law, supposedly an attempt to stem recruiting by a rebel movement. This separate set of laws, often targeting the poor and women, discourages tourism and economic development. Hard-line groups intent on gaining power in other provinces press for similar laws. Though scholars still debate what...

Facebook Deletes Accounts Purporting to Be From North Korea

Jun Yang August 25, 2010
It’s unclear if Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts claiming to represent North Korea are truly from the isolated nation. Facebook, insisting that the social networking site is for real people aiming for real connections with real identities, deleted two suspect accounts. “The move comes as South Korea, which bans its citizens from communicating with the North, clamps down on Twitter Inc....

Manhattan Project: The Great Mosque Divide

Sadanand Dhume August 24, 2010
A proposal to build an Islamic center two blocks away from the target of the 9/11 attacks steadily moved through New York City’s planning process, meeting regulations and winning approval each step of the way. The World Trade Center attacks united the United States for a short while, whereas almost nine years later, the center and plan to “build bridges” raise another in a long line of issues...

Advertisers Seek to Speak to Muslim Consumers

Liz Gooch August 20, 2010
Demographics of the global Muslim market are an advertiser’s dream – huge with growing affluence and large proportions of young adults and teens. For decades, advertisers overlooked Muslim audiences, explains Liz Gooch for the New York Times, and many Muslims became accustomed to ignoring ads for products that might violate Islamic religious codes. But companies intent on conquering international...