In The News

What Motivates the Suicide Bombers?

Riaz Hassan September 3, 2009
The heart-wrenching and horrible daily accounts of suicide bombings rarely reveal the underlying cause of the bombers’ motivations. But a comprehensive database at Australia’s Flinders University that has compiled information on these types of attacks from as early as 1981 can shed light on such motivations. And the conclusions are startling, Professor Riaz Hassan, author of a forthcoming book on...

Mass Effect of Global Downturn

Cithara Paul August 17, 2009
In 2004, news of a tiny Kerala church in India holding a Mass to pray for the renowned British soccer player David Beckham fascinated the global media. Although Beckham’s celebrity certainly contributed to the focus, “Mass intentions” – applying a Mass for a specific purpose – had been around long before the media took notice. What is perhaps new is outsourcing Mass intentions to India where...

Nigeria’s ‘Taliban’ Enigma

Joe Boyle July 29, 2009
A recent spike in violence in northern Nigeria has drawn attention to a mysterious group of radicals known variously as “Taliban,” “Maiduguri,” and “Boko Haram.” All the terms have been attributed to the group by local people; it has no name for itself and has no link to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The group aims to overthrow the Nigerian state, impose strict Islamic law and abolish what it calls...

Linguist’s Preservation Kit Has New Digital Tools

Chris Nicholson July 28, 2009
Languages have faced extinction throughout history. Often, it is the evolutionary forces of greater interconnectedness through trade and war that lead to the dominance of one spoken tongue. From Greek to Arabic to English, the language of traders has frequently become the lingua franca. This has led to a decline in the usage of other languages as individuals connect speaking a particular language...

In Dusty Turkish Village, Surfing the Web for Brides

Yigal Schleifer July 14, 2009
The arrival of the internet in Turkey’s rural southeast has had at least one surprising consequence: men in the village of Gokce have started using the web to seek second wives from abroad. Although in the past, Turkish men would travel to neighboring Syria, now they increasingly use Arabic chat websites to attract potential wives from Morocco. Moroccan women make appealing candidates because...

Muslim Nations Told To Help Uighurs

Ary Hermawan July 10, 2009
China’s Uighur population may now have a new ally in its struggle against the Chinese government; Islamic groups within Indonesia are calling upon all Muslims to set aside ethnic differences and aid the Uighurs, scores of whom have been killed in recent clashes. Several organizations within Indonesia have already called upon the Chinese government to stop the violence and have urged international...

Coping With Digital Revolution: China Offers Green Dam, Iran Faces Neda

Guobin Yang June 23, 2009
The global response to China’s filtering software Green Dam Youth Escort and the Iranian election are not only proof of the power of the internet as a democratic form of communication, but also as a lever for democracy itself. Columbia Professor Guobin Yang shows how. The Green Dam software program that the Chinese government is requiring all computers to carry starting July 1 is facing intense...