Claims that Islam is incompatible with democracy and modernity are terribly off-base, says Asghar Ali Engineer, a scholar and author at the Institute of Islamic Studies in Mumbai. The observation that science and democracy are not found in contemporary Islamic countries is fair, he says, but the...
Because of certain happenings and because there happens to be monarchy or dictatorships in most of the Muslim countries it has been concluded that Islam is not compatible with democracy and also with modernity. Some...
China has proposed that a new currency gradually replace the US dollar as the world standard, reports the Wall Street Journal. The proposal from Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of People’s Bank of China, could reflect a desire to straighten out global finances and frustration over dependence on the US –...
BEIJING – China called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world's standard, proposing a sweeping overhaul of global finance that reflects developing nations' growing unhappiness...
North Korea is among the world’s most isolated nations. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the regime lashes out at South Korea, thriving just across the border. The most recent provocation: a landmine attack that wounded two South Korean border guards. Seoul responded by switching on...
Empty threat? North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatens war against South Korea, top; South Koreans carry on with life as usual
SEOUL: The blood-curdling threats against the South emanating from North Korea are all too familiar, but ironically the...
Wal-Mart executives eventually realized that requiring employees to smile at customers or participate in the “morning Wal-Mart chant” at its German stores did not mesh well with either the staid employees or customers. Differences in corporate and national culture, combined with competition from...
Click here for the original article on The New York Times website.
Globalization comes in many forms, some more pleasing than others. As Vietnam eagerly pushes for incorporation into the WTO, it could discover that globalization becomes colonization, “Part Two.” Hanoi emerged from European influence with its dignity intact, according to author Ullrich Fichtner,...
Click here for the original article on Der Spiegel's website.
Muslim girls are the center of a debate that has been raging for 14 years in France; since 1989 (when "l'Affair de Foulard" occurred), the French government has tried to find a way to reconcile the Muslim headscarf with their conception of secularism, particularly within schools....
Muslim headscarves and other religious symbols are almost certain to be banned from French schools and public buildings after a specially appointed commission told the government yesterday that legislation was needed to...
While the US financial markets were the source behind global credit calamity and still present tremendous uncertainty, foreign investors continue to demonstrate trust in US government institutions by increasing investments in US Treasuries. That trust gives policymakers time and space to work on...
The last safe haven: Despite terrible mismanagement of US financial system,
the US Treasury remains the safest place to keep the world's savings
BERKELEY: For years before the US financial crisis hit, economists had...
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, is inherently cautious in his choice of words. In the weeks leading to the Iraq war, Annan refrained from outright criticism of the grounds for invasion, and only recently did he warn of the dangerous precedents established by preemptive action. But in a recent...
The declaration of the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, on the Iraq war was shocking in its simplicity. He described it for the first time as "illegal". No caveats. No equivocation. None of the ambiguity...
