In The News

Diplomacy as Afterthought Wins US Few Mideast Converts

Fawaz A. Gerges January 23, 2007
One can sympathize with the Bush administration’s desire to shift gears in the Middle East, from merely reacting to Iraq’s instability to actively pushing for peace in the region. Author and Mideast scholar Fawaz Gerges sees Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic mission, however, as a case of too little, too late. Moderate Arab governments offer hollow words of support for the US in...

Muslims “Get” Globalization, But Does It Get Them?

Mehmood Kazmi January 22, 2007
The last half-century has seen an unmistakable rise in income levels and life-expectancy in Muslim-majority countries, but their citizens have a negative impression of globalization. International business consultant Mehmood Kazmi attributes this antagonism to the widening chasm of misunderstanding in Muslim-Western relations. With a history of cultural domination over the West followed by...

Music Marches to Globalization’s Drum

Richard Boursy January 18, 2007
Music is an integral part of human history and culture, and it’s no surprise that cultural globalization has shaped the evolution of music. Neither is this phenomenon new: For centuries, musicians have sought to evoke distant and exotic locales and adapted musical instruments and notes from afar. European colonialists entertained themselves with adaptations of music from Africa and Asia and the...

Let's Burn the Burqa

Taslima Nasrin January 17, 2007
Women wear burqas to conceal their faces and bodies from public view. Writer Taslima Nasrin reviews the history and many theories offered about the personal and social motives behind the concealment: The burqa may constrain sexual reactions from other people, or women may simply want privacy, refusing to endure any stares. Some opponents argue that the burqa reduces women to the status of sexual...

Israeli, Syrian Representatives Reach Secret Understandings

Akiva Eldar January 16, 2007
Despite adamant denials from top officials in Syria and Israel, the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" reports that an unofficial series of meetings set the groundwork for a peace agreement between the two nations from 2004 to July 2006, with the last meeting held just after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Representing Israel, according to the report, were officials from the government of...

Celebrate Koran Oath as an All-American Moment

James Zogby January 5, 2007
Critics lashed out at one US congressman’s decision to use the Koran rather than a Bible for taking his oath for office. Some critics said Keith Ellison’s decision to use the Koran “undermines American civilization.” Indeed, most members of Congress don’t use any book at all. Ellison’s decision to use a Koran that belonged to Thomas Jefferson – author of the Declaration of Independence, the third...

Tajikistan's Iron Man

December 26, 2006
Imomali Rahmonov has been reelected president of Tajikistan, but only after amending his nation’s constitution to allow his run for a third term. Though his margin of victory was low by the standards of the strongmen of the world – he received only 79.3 percent of the vote – the nod to democratic process cannot disguise the administration’s control over the outcome. Official observers from...