In The News

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.

Islam, Disney Style

Amina Elbendary November 28, 2002
UK-produced Muhammad (Pbuh) The Last Prophet, a story that traces the life of Mohammad and the birth and rise of Islam, arrives in theaters after overcoming impediments over Islamic law's ban on depicting the Prophet and other notable figures. The cartoon tells the story of Muhammad through the voice of Malek, the father of a little girl who, eager to sell her sheep's wool in the market...

Mexican Immigration Still Up in Air

Dane Schiller November 27, 2002
A meeting between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda ended with a $25 million pledge to help coordinate border security efforts between Mexican and US law enforcement officials. The larger issue of whether the US will permit temporary workers to enter the US from Mexico is still elusive, despite being one of Mexican president Vicente Fox's main...

Whither Arab Independence?

Basheer M Nafi November 27, 2002
What does America's effort to clamp down on Iraq mean for the Middle East as a whole? According to historian and Islamic scholar Basheer M Nafi, the US-led, UN-sanctioned weapons inspection project is simply another attack on the already brittle sovereignty of Arab nation-states. Writing in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly, Nafi argues that "Western imperialism has made a comeback in the...

No More Fanaticism as Usual

Salman Rushdie November 27, 2002
Globalization of the media allows us to hear and see almost instantly news from around the world, creating a space for global perspectives on important issues that affect people everywhere. Recounting recent events in Egypt, Iran, Nigeria, and the Netherlands involving religious violence and Islamicists, author Salman Rushdie calls on fair-minded Muslims the world over to stand up for their...

Behold the Leviathan

Kari Huus November 26, 2002
In a time of much political and economic uncertainty at the international level, MSNBC conducted a series of interviews with people around the world, asking them to comment on several aspects of American policy and culture. Democracy, equality, and freedom—fundamental virtues and values—received much admiration from those surveyed abroad. When asked about America’s foreign policy, they changed...

The Axis of Irony

Strobe Talbott November 26, 2002
The Iraq crisis could have the ironic but salutary effect of reinvigorating the United Nations, revealing George W. Bush to be more of a multilateralist than the rest of the world thought (and feared), and establishing a welcome degree of continuity in American foreign policy. - YaleGlobal