In The News

Abuse Crisis Strains Vatican’s Ancient Ways of Management

Rachel Donadio April 13, 2010
The Vatican is confronting a global sexual abuse crisis that is playing out in the worldwide court of public opinion with a management structure that dates to the 16th century. Pope Benedict does not seem to have administrative gifts and neither do his aides. They are running a global church like it's a small community. The departments don't speak with one another and the whole...

Muslim Pop Culture on the Rise in Indonesia

Solenn Honorine April 8, 2010
Due to the economic crisis that hit Indonesia in the late 1990s, the government of longtime dictator Suharto fell and gave rise to democratic elections. Along with democracy came religious freedom, which for many Indonesians has meant becoming more devout Muslims. As a result, Muslim pop culture, whether manifested in books, television shows, movies, ringtones, or otherwise, has become a central...

Lady Gaga Versus Mideast Peace

Bret Stephens April 6, 2010
The conventional wisdom in recent weeks has been that Israeli settlements in Palestine inflame anti-American sentiments in the region and harm American interests. But this opinion article argues that a major source of grievance for Palestinians is global American culture, represented, in this instance, by hyper-sexualized people such as the performer Lady Gaga. Sayyid Qutb, a mid-twentieth...

Canada's Veiled Immigration Problems

Sandro Contenta March 24, 2010
As with France's decision to ban the niqab or Muslim headscarf, a recent row in Quebec over the wearing of the veil in a government French class has elicited strong reactions from the public. Despite being worn by only the smallest minority of Muslim women, the veil often represents for Westerners their uncertainty toward relations with the Islamic world. In Quebec, where identity is...

Anti-Immigration Backlash Roils Ties between Australia and India – Part I

Robin Jeffrey March 5, 2010
Despite being a nation built by immigrants, Australia faces fresh challenges in dealing with new arrivals, particularly from India. The recent spate of violent attacks on Indian immigrants has brought a spotlight on the changing nature of migration from Asian neighbors and its impact on Australian society. In part I of this two part series, South Asia scholar Robin Jeffrey explores the reason...

Gendercide: The World Wide War on Baby Girls

March 5, 2010
In ten years, China will have more boys than girls. Skewed sex ratios, a result of infanticide and sex-selective abortions, have become a huge problem not only in China, but also in India, South Korea, Singapore, and even some ex-Soviet states. Reasons for preference for boys include a desire to avoid the cost of dowries to be paid on the daughter’s wedding, a woman’s adoption into her husband’s...

Is Arabic a Dying Language?

Tom Hundley February 26, 2010
In parts of the Arab world, integration into the world economy has meant incorporating English sometimes at the expense of Arabic. As English has become the language of commerce, it has likewise dominated education. In the United Arab Emirates, both English and Arabic are taught from primary education on, yet students often master neither. At the university level, English is primarily used...