In The News

Obama Backs Non-Censorship; Beijing, Apparently, Does Not

Keith B. Richburg November 17, 2009
President Obama's arrival in Shanghai featured a town hall forum with students watched by the foreign media. During the question and answer period, Obama stated his support for internet freedom of expression in response to a question on Beijing’s blocking of social media sites like Facebook. Meanwhile, Beijing did its best to make the event a non-story within China by carefully choosing the...

A New Mosque in Nicaragua Fires Up the Rumor Mill

Steve Stecklow November 16, 2009
A new mosque in Managua is sparking suspicions in the Nicaraguan capital, as citizens come to terms with the religion of the small Muslim community there. A variety of rumors are circulating about the mosque – that it was built by Iran, that all Muslims there are Taliban, and that all Muslims are actually Turks. None of these claims are true, assert leaders of the small Islamic community in...

Swiss Referendum Stirs a Debate About Islam

Deborah Ball, Anita Greil November 10, 2009
Switzerland has long been defined by its neutrality, a quality that has allowed its diverse population (of which one-fifth are immigrants) to avoid serious strife along ethnic or religious lines. Now, however, the rightist Swiss People's Party has initiated a referendum on the banning of minaret construction on mosques, raising questions about the status of Muslims in Switzerland. The issue...

South Koreans Struggle With Race

Choe Sang-Hun November 3, 2009
South Korea's development in the past half-century is a testament to the opportunities for prosperity globalization affords. Yet, despite South Korea’s export-led growth and its populace's near-obsession with learning English (particularly from foreign-born, white speakers), many South Korean’s are hostile to foreigners living and seeking work among them. Such reactions are likely...

The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English

John McWhorter November 2, 2009
Today, languages are becoming extinct faster than species. One estimate predicts 90% of the 6,000 languages will cease to be spoken in the next century. Though lamenting such a loss, linguist and Columbia University Professor John McWhorter challenges the notion that language death equates to cultural loss. Languages show the diverse ways humans conceptualize the world. But, McWhorter notes, the...

Economics Versus Extremism

Vali Nasr October 30, 2009
The failure of post-9/11 Western policies in the Muslim world has led many to misunderstand extremism as a byproduct of the Muslim faith rather than a result of the desolate economic situation that plagues many such nations. Tuft’s University professor Vali Nasr argues that beneath stories of growing terrorist groups lies a small-but-emerging group of middle-class capitalists who are integrated...

Ancient Greeks Introduced Wine to France, Cambridge Study Reveals

Andrew Hough October 29, 2009
Recent discoveries by Cambridge Professor Paul Cartledge support the theory that it was the Ancient Greeks, and not the Romans or a local group, that first popularized wine in France. Backed by archaeological evidence, Cartledge explains that Greeks intermarried with locals to ensure the survival of their settlement at modern-day Marseilles, and in doing so established trade networks in France...