In The News

An Alliance of Values

Tony Blair December 24, 2008
"To work effectively, globalization needs values like trust, confidence, openness and justice," explains former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in an opinion essay for the International Herald Tribune. It’s one of ten lessons Blair relayed as a visiting professor at Yale University, citing the need to "find a way to reconcile faith and globalization." If religion acts as a...

Doctor Freed After Court Forbids Forced Marriage

Ian Johnston December 17, 2008
A judge in Bangladesh intervened on behalf of a National Health Service physician held by her parents in Bangladesh and expected her to marry a man of their choosing. “Her lawyers said the case set a precedent in Bangladesh and it is also one of the first cases where legal action was taken in the UK since the Forced Marriages Act became law last month,” reports Ian Johnston for the Independent....

Islamic Challenge to Indonesia’s Democracy

Sadanand Dhume October 15, 2008
Gains by radical parties around the globe highlight democracy’s ongoing vulnerability to anti-democratic movements. Indonesia – with its free press, stable economy, free elections, tolerant and inclusive policy – is no exception. But in local Indonesian politics, the radical Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has made dramatic gains, with extremists pressing for dress codes, Koran reading...

Generation Faithful

Michael Slackman October 6, 2008
The city of Dubai is has been in a storm of transformation in recent years, going from oil- and gas-based growth to a real estate, trade and financial hub in the Middle East, meshing a population consisting of 80 percent emigrants from more than 200 ethnicities. Such tremendous growth and diversity have led to a "socially freewheeling yet unmistakably Muslim state" that raises...

Turkish Soap Star Sparks Divorces in Arab World

October 2, 2008
A male lead in a Turkish television show, “Noor,” has demonstrated that husbands can be good looking, charming and attentive to the ambitions of their wives. Muslim clerics criticize the show, but female viewers in Palestine, Saudia Arabia and other Muslim nations are fascinated by an idealized relationship, albeit an arranged marriage, with both man and woman striving for equality and...

A Muslim Creationism Debate: Taking on Darwin in Turkey

Daniel Steinvorth September 26, 2008
Fundamentalist Muslims join forces with fundamentalist Christians in protesting the work of British naturalist Charles Darwin, who offered the theory on natural selection as a mechanism to evolution. Darwin theorized that offspring inherit traits from their parents, some traits allow for better survival rates and over time species adapt to changes in the environment – all well documented by...

Will Kashmir Protests and Terrorism Thwart India’s Global Ambitions?

Harsh V. Pant September 15, 2008
Before summer of 2008, India and Pakistan were gradually normalizing relations and edging toward agreement on territorial claims in Kashmir. But the longstanding dispute, in play since Pakistan separated from India, remains a live issue for politicians and extremists in India and abroad, to exploit and throw a spanner in the works for the country’s global ambition, suggests Harsh V. Pant,...