In The News

Generation Jihad

Bill Powell September 27, 2005
Since 1990, the Muslim population in Europe has expanded from around 10 million to 14 million. This spike in numbers has been accompanied by a growing restless dissatisfaction in the quality of life available to Muslims, either European-born or immigrant. High unemployment and a low glass ceiling have increased the sense of marginalization felt among the younger generation of followers of Islam....

Workers' Protest Spurs Arab Emirates to Act

Hassan M. Fattah September 25, 2005
More than half of Dubai's one million people are poor immigrants from South Asia and the Philippines. Eight hundred of those residents, dissatisfied workers who have not been paid in five months, recently marched on the emirate's Ministry of Labor. It was a rare show of labor unrest in a city-state that tolerates much in the name of business and little in the way of dissent. Even more...

French Lesson: Taunts on Race Can Boomerang

John Tagliabue September 22, 2005
Its egalitarian principles do not allow France to officially acknowledge the existence of its minorities, but those minorities do indeed exist – and their story is not a happy one. No one knows exactly how many blacks live in France, but hardly any of them hold positions of economic or political power. Hemmed in by a "low glass ceiling," the lucky among them escape corporate...

Europe's Angry Muslims

Robert S. Leiken July 12, 2005
While Americans worry about terrorists crossing the Mexican border, the newest mujahideen can take an easier route: armed with European passports, they are able to pass through US Customs unchallenged. Radical Islam is gaining in popularity among the disenfranchised and underprivileged second-generation European Muslims. According to writer Robert S. Leiken, Western Europe "never learned...

The End of Europe

Robert J. Samuelson June 15, 2005
While the rejection of the EU constitution has attracted attention to discontent in Europe, it has distracted the world from more serious European problems: low birthrates and a stagnant economy. In this article, Robert J. Samuelson labels Europe "history's has-been." Declining birthrates and an aging population are further straining an economy already beset with high...

Prison Scandal Touches Raw Nerve of a Key US Ally

Paula R. Newberg June 7, 2005
Recent allegations of US forces' mishandling of the Quran have further inflamed Muslims worldwide. Pakistani reaction in this regard is of particular concern – in view of the country's nuclear arsenal and centrality to the US war on terror. As Paula R. Newberg explains, while the country remains a reluctant but cooperative US ally, the scandal renders the vacuum at the heart of...

Getting Greyer – and Poorer Too?

May 31, 2005
The world population is aging, due to the plummeting birthrates and increasing lifespans in both rich and poor countries – and retirement systems have been slow to adjust. In the US and Europe, pay-as-you-go pension plans are at risk, as the ratio of workers to retirees worsens: In Italy, for example, retirees will outnumber workers before 2030. And as the economy sours, private savings look...