In The News

At Mecca Meeting, Cartoon Outrage Crystallized

Hassan M. Fattah February 9, 2006
Recent violence in response to the infamous cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed may have not been as spontaneous as initially thought. At a December meeting in Mecca of Muslim leaders, Saudi, Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese officials thumbed through a dossier of the Danish cartoons. Ahmed Akkari, a Danish immigrant leader, brought the folder to the Middle East after appeals for redress to the...

Bonfire of the Pieties

Amir Taheri February 8, 2006
Many commentators have framed the recent furor over Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a harbinger of a clash of civilizations, a sign that Islam and Western secular and religious traditions are incompatible. But, as author Amir Taheri writes, the violent protests over the cartoons do not reflect true Islamic theology or practice. The rioting is largely the result of...

The Mural Maze

Robert Tait February 8, 2006
For decades, large-scale public art in Tehran has praised the acts of suicide bombers and urged boycotts of Israeli products. But traditional painted murals took time to produce. So the government relies on new high-tech murals, such as those adorning the World Without Zionism conference where President Ahmadinejad made his first call for wiping out the Jewish state. Ironically, experts have...

Cartoon Jihad

Sadanand Dhume February 7, 2006
The forces of globalization are responsible not only for spread of capitalism, but the growing influence of radical Islam. Enraged Muslim protesters rely on the tools produced by modern capitalism: mobile text messaging, the internet, satellite television, and desktop publishing. Such technology is contributing to a united community of believers, or “ummah,” a long-held Islamic goal. Analyzing...

Iran the Great Unifier? The Arab World Is Wary

Michael Slackman February 7, 2006
With a confrontational foreign policy, the world’s only Shiite Islamic government is striving to fill a power void in the Middle East resulting from the fall of Arab nationalism and the absence of any dominant nation. Yet other leaders in the region are wary. Drawing popular support for its hardline stance towards the US and Israel, Iran maintains connections to militant groups such as Hezbollah...

Free Speech and Civic Responsibility

Tariq Ramadan February 6, 2006
The controversy over the recent Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed should be cast as an issue of free speech versus civic responsibility. The cartoons fly in the face of a Muslim prohibition against making an image of Mohammed or other prophets. They also portray religion as subject for humor – an alien concept in Muslim culture. Scholar Tariq Ramadan calls for restraint and civic...

Luxury Industry Goes Global, Knock-Offs Follow

Alessandra Galloni February 3, 2006
When Giuseppe Festa, an Italian man who owned a small store in Naples became involved in counterfeiting, he also became a global businessman. Mr. Festa imported watches from Hong Kong through Georgian and Egyptian contacts, paid for the goods through New York and Swiss bank accounts, and distributed them throughout Europe in what amounted to one of the continent’s most successful luxury-goods...