In The News

Less Sheep for Sharing

Injy El-Kashef February 13, 2003
The sacrifice of sheep traditionally marks the Islamic celebration of Eid Al-Adha. For Muslims, the sacrifice is a non-obligatory act of charity, with those of all classes donating a share of their sheep to the less fortunate. In Egypt, however, recent economic troubles have interfered with the celebration. The floatation of the Egyptian pound and its subsequent decline in value in relation to...

No-Smoking Signs Spread Slowly Across Africa

Marc Lacey February 2, 2003
In the United States and Canada, restrictions on smoking and tobacco advertisements have been commonplace for years, but not so in Africa. In Uganda, British American Tobacco, a multinational corporation, provides thousands of jobs and is an important source of revenue in a struggling economy. Smoking is popular among Africans, but a few anti-smoking activists and lawyers are trying to change...

Thousands Trapped in Kenyan Camp

Rachel L. Swarns January 29, 2003
America's heightened security in response to September 11 is holding up the flow of refugees into the US. People fleeing from war-torn Sudan and Somalia wait in camps in Kenya for immigration approval and security clearance. A process that once took six months now takes at least a year as officials from the CIA or the FBI compare names and details of refugees with huge databases of...

Kenya's Muslims: Resentments Both Local and International

Dexter Filkins December 1, 2002
Close-knit global communication is helping to spread information and arouse passions about developments in far-away places. This New York Times report finds widespread resentment among Kenya’s Muslim community about their condition at home and abroad. Much of that resentment is born of a widespread belief among Kenya's Muslim minority that they have long been the victims of discrimination...

Beyond salvation

Gamal Nkrumah November 28, 2002
Nigeria hosted the Miss World pageant hoping this would help clear its anti-secular image. But the plan backfired when Muslim fundamentalists in the country’s north responded violently to an article in a daily which they thought insulted the Prophet Mohamed. Instead of an international reputation as a democratic and secular country, Nigeria is now beset with more internal strife. –YaleGlobal.

Tragic Mistake

November 24, 2002
The globalization of television and bigger opportunities for commercial gain by promoters of beauty contests have in recent years expanded the number of countries who want to host such international contests. But that commercial drive has run up against tradition and religious beliefs in many countries. A Saudi Arabian English-language paper blames the Nigerian government for the violence by...

100 Die in Nigerian Riot over Miss World Article

November 22, 2002
International television programs are not yet universally accepted in Nigeria. Conservative Muslims have shown serious misgivings about the upcoming world beauty pageant soon to be hosted in their capital city. The nation’s leading newspaper struck a discordant note when it published an article suggesting that Prophet Mohammed desired to marry a Miss World beauty queen. Subsequently, Muslim...