On the morning of April 8, 2009, a US-flagged cargo ship – the Maersk Alabama -carrying U.S. Government food aid destined for Africa was hijacked by Somali pirates 300 miles off its coast. Eventually, the crew and the ship escaped to safety, while Captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage by the pirates who fled in …
KUWAIT CITY: It was the first time I realized that the very bright, young and privileged can also be very foolish. In the summer of 1989, a couple of my American friends, dressed in Arab garb borrowed from me and toting water rifles, “terrorized the campus of Brown University. A day after my friends staged …
MANILA: China’s government has just announced that Premier Wen Jiabao will be the main speaker at the 2009 Boao Forum for Asia, where the roster of leaders expected to participate is a virtual Who’s Who of the continent: President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, Prime …
President Barack Hussein Obama swooped into Turkey on April 6 for two days of fence-mending bilateral relations with erstwhile, if sometimes prickly, ally Turkey while disseminating a message of friendship to the wider Muslim world. Obama cut a dashing figure, mesmerizing the normally skeptical Turkish public with self-deprecating references to his inspirational life story of …
ISTANBUL: The trip to Turkey by US President Barack Hussein Obama, as people loved to emphasize here, was a big success. Except for a few hundred “anti-imperialist , lefty protestors who hit the streets chanting, “Yankee go home , most Turks welcomed him calmly and some even fondly. Some nationalists, including Nationalist Action Party, or …
PRINCETON: Last month, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning “defamation of religion as a human rights violation. According to the text of the resolution, “Defamation of religion is a serious affront to human dignity that leads to “a restriction on the freedom of [religions’] adherents. The resolution was originally proposed by …
BEIRUT: In 2007, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood stated that its vision was based on “complete equality between men and women while preserving their different social roles. The Brotherhood also stressed the need to empower women so they might acquire rights in the public sphere that do not conflict with society’s basic values. The statement also …
COPENHAGEN: According to conventional wisdom, we are voraciously using the world’s resources and living way beyond Earth’s means. This narrative of decline and pessimism underlies much of today’s environmental discourse, and is often formulated in a simple fashion: by 2030, we will need two planets to sustain us, owing to higher living standards and population …
An editorial titled “The Death of Youth Activism in Egypt? , which ran in Daily News Egypt on April 11, said: “The April 6 Youth Movement was born from the events of April 6 last year when, using Facebook, blogs, text messaging, independent media and word-of-mouth, activists and workers called for a countrywide general strike. …
KERALA, INDIA: Beginning this month, the largest exercise of the democratic franchise in history will take place, as Indian voters head to the polls to elect a new national parliament. They have done this 14 times since India gained its independence. Each time India has voted has been the world’s largest exercise in electoral democracy. …
PRAGUE: On April 8, two Tibetans, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, were sentenced to death by the Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in Lhasa. Both men were convicted of committing arson that caused death against Chinese owned businesses. Another two Tibetan activists, Tenzin Phuntsok and Kangtsuk, received a suspended death sentence, and a third, Dawa Sangpo was …
NEW YORK: All peoples and religions want to survive destruction. That is a given. But the question is “At what cost? The Jewish people are celebrating Passover this week. Reading the relevant sections of the bible, it’s possible to interpret them as commanding the Children of Israel to survive at all costs. Although Abraham is …
BOSTON, Massachusetts: As a Muslim American, I realize that my diploma from the Hebrew Academy of Toledo is an unusual credential. But in the context of my family and our identity, it makes perfect sense. My mother emigrated from India to the United States in 1963, settling in northwest Ohio two years before the quota …
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel s new foreign minister, is perhaps most notorious for his policy demands regarding the Arab citizens of Israel. He wants Israeli Arabs to prove their loyalty to the state by taking oaths and doing national service, otherwise he would deny them Israeli citizenship. And he wants to move the green line (1967 …
There s no doubt that the new right-wing Israeli government under Binyamin Netanyahu with Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister is seen as a bit of a headache by many concerned parties in the international community, including among the friends of Israel in the US and Europe. The radical composition of the government poses a challenge …
CAIRO: I’m not at all among those who denounce the aggressive statements of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is incidentally implicated in some corruption cases, and those who urge to boycott him because of his racism. Rather I call for dialogue with him, provided that it’s a real “dialogue , meaning that it should …
BRUSSELS: Although the Israeli-Palestinian media battlefield is bitter and deeply entrenched, journalists have a responsibility to venture into the no-man’s-land between the two sides, even if it means getting caught in the crossfire. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most protracted and bitter in the world. The acrimony and polarization associated with the conflict …
CAMBRIDGE: The world economy will shrink this year for the first time since 1945, and some economists worry that the current crisis could spell the beginning of the end of globalization. Hard economic times are correlated with protectionism, as each country blames others and protects its domestic jobs. In the 1930s, such “beggar-thy-neighbor policies worsened …
CAIRO: Ironically touted as “the day of anger , April 6 this year didn’t seem to trigger much beyond the usual oppressed frustration induced by a regular dose of Cairo traffic. The April 6 Youth Movement was born from the events of April 6 last year when, using Facebook, blogs, text messaging, independent media and …
JERUSALEM: Almost every violent national conflict is retained in the public consciousness through an emblematic image which captures the essence of the story. The first Gulf war brought us the pictures of the poor oil-coated cormorants trapped in a slick in the waters of the Persian Gulf. In the second Intifada it was the boy, …
CAMBRIDGE: What a difference the crisis has made for the International Monetary Fund. It was just a few months ago that this important but unloved institution, a landmark of post-war global economic arrangements, seemed destined to irrelevance. The IMF has long been a whipping boy for both left and right – the former because of …
JERUSALEM: Is the new [Israeli] government on a collision course with the United States? It would seem so. President Barack Obama and his secretary of state have let Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu know in no uncertain terms that the two-states-for-two-peoples solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the only plan on the table. In a statement …
WASHINGTON DC: To be of one side in a conflict and to report it is to be perpetually stuck in that awkward moment at a dinner party when a childhood friend starts singing a familiar song that marked a perhaps silly yet definitely memorable event in the history of your friendship. You know the song. …
CAIRO: The relationship between the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood will always remain a complex one. This is not only because of the mistrust between the two parties that has increased during the Bush era, which has dealt with the Islamic world with haughtiness, but also because neither party is willing to engage in …
BOSTON, Massachusetts: I am the only Muslim to whom Huntington granted a formal interview during his lifetime. My interactions with him led me to believe that what many people thought of him and his ideas – especially many people in the Muslim world – probably misrepresented what he actually believed. The late Samuel Huntington will …
NEW YORK: This year is likely to be the worst for the global economy since World War II, with the World Bank estimating a decline of up to 2 percent. Even developing countries that did everything right – and had far better macroeconomic and regulatory policies than the United States did – are feeling the …
NEW YORK: The new Israeli government led by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has raised many conflicting feelings among those concerned about the fate of the Arab-Israeli peace process. Will Netanyahu scuttle the little progress that was made under his predecessor Olmert, or will he engage the Palestinians anew? Questions about whether he will resume negotiations …
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: Prior to the advent of Islam, women were widely regarded as non-entities in many societies around the world. Indeed, it has taken centuries for women to gain rights equal to those of men, at least in theory, if not in practice. But the struggle for complete gender equality has not ended. Within this …
BONN, Germany: Mullah Omar has given the green light to talks , Abdullah Anas, a Taliban mediator, explained recently to The Sunday Times. A big, big step has happened. For the first time, there is a language of peace on both sides. Everything seems to point to the fact that those involved in the secret …
CAIRO: Sociologists consider Egyptian society a “shame culture, in which the status of people as perceived by others counts for almost everything. In contrast to a “guilt society, where people feel guilty about their wrongdoings even if they are undetected by the society, in the “shame culture, the opinion of the group is very relevant. …
