The recent events in Tibet and adjoining provinces are causes for deep concern. Indeed, the dispersal of a peaceful protest march organized by Tibetan monks, which led to a wave of unrest that was brutally suppressed by the Chinese military and police, has caused indignation all over the democratic world. The reaction of the Chinese …

American objectives in Lebanon are clear, reasonable and honorable. The United States wants an independent, democratic Lebanon free from foreign interference, particularly from Syria and Iran. It also wants a prosperous Lebanon at peace with its neighbors, including Israel. The question is why have these goals been so difficult to attain? There is no single …

“Haram! That was the first word the bawab on Mecca Street said after asking my nationality. When he heard the word “Denmark he smiled and lifted his index finger in a teasing, yet serious way. Even he knew that the small Scandinavian country, with a population that could easily fit in Shoubra, had marked itself …

Reaching a peace agreement by the end of the year seems almost impossible. The violence and the rage on the streets of both Israel and Palestine is once again in full gear. Israel killed more than 100 Palestinians in the last operation in Gaza – more than half of them civilians. Palestinian celebrations in Gaza …

It’s absurd to speak of an unprecedented 7 percent economic growth rate in Egypt at a time when Egyptians are killing each other for a loaf of bread.The government is trying to appear composed in the face of the escalating bread crisis, which has reached unprecedented levels reminiscent of what happened on January 18-19, 1977, …

Muslims in the West are increasingly finding themselves in a dilemma. While some are still searching for an identity and a sense of belonging, almost all are confronted at one time or another with the growing mass of competing trends that claim to represent true and authentic Islam. As we approach the birthday of the …

Ian Buruma s most recent book is Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance. He is a professor of democracy, human rights and journalism at Bard College. NEW YORK – North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is one of the world’s most oppressive, …

The approval of fresh sanctions on Iran marks the third time that the United Nations Security Council has been galvanized to stem the Islamic Republic’s feared uranium enrichment efforts. Unfortunately, the new sanctions are unlikely to be any more effective than the first two rounds. Consider the two earlier Security Council resolutions. The December 2006 …

The Middle East conflict has shaped a significant part of my writing over the past six years. This is so even though as a poet I see myself as lost in the forest of language: even though it is the voice of the poem that is heard in one s texts, not the voice of …

At the United Nations, March 22 is World Water Day. We don’t expect people to stop what they are doing and observe a moment of silence – but maybe they should. Every 20 seconds, a child dies from diseases associated with a lack of clean water. That adds up to an unconscionable 1.5 million young …

What happened during the registration period for the local council elections last week confirms that changing the way we choose the president of the Republic was a step backward not a leap forward. The authorities have imposed enormous restrictions on the nomination of whoever does not belong to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), for …

Barack Obama reminds me of Howard Dean. Of course, Obama speaks like a prophet and Howard Dean is most famous for his scream. As a presidential candidate, Dean was blunt and almost oblivious to political calculations, while Obama is politically astute and very much attuned to all sorts of political sensibilities. So what is it …

A rather excited report two weeks ago on the BBC s Today program hailed a development that could signal the start of a reformation in Islam. The possibility of an Islamic Reformation of the kind that launched Protestantism in Christianity sounds attractive – at least superficially – and it has been promoted with enthusiasm by …

How does globalization reshape wealth and opportunity around the world? Is it mainly a force for good, enabling poor nations to lift themselves up from poverty by taking part in global markets? Or does it create vast opportunities only for a small minority? To answer these questions, look no farther than soccer. Ever since European …

These days literary circles in the US and Europe are preoccupied with the acclaimed book by Belgian-born Jewish author Misha Defonseca, who had written about her childhood in the Nazi era. Titled “Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years , the novel, depicting in extraordinary detail, the horror of the Nazi persecution of the Jews, …

The clean sweep by opposition parties in the recently held national elections has uprooted President Musharraf´s party, putting his future at risk. Asif Zardari, leader of the Pakistan People´s Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), surprised everyone by joining together to form a new government in Islamabad. This new …

In Malaysia’s recent elections, opposition parties managed their strongest showing since the country gained its independence from Britain in 1957, cutting the ruling coalition’s parliamentary majority to below two-thirds. Where the country’s newly invigorated democracy goes from here rests with one man, Anwar Ibrahim, the deputy prime minister sacked by former premier Mahathir Mohamad and …

It was a tense week for the Turkish parliament during the headscarf amendment debates. Despite massive demonstrations organized by secular Kemalist institutions, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) took action to resolve the deep-rooted headscarf dilemma in Turkey by ending the headscarf ban in universities. However, the AKP needs to balance the demands of …

The American presidential race commands attention around the world. The fact that the final three contenders included a woman, an African-American, and an older man who often challenged his own party suggests that the United States, after a decline in popularity during the Bush years, retains a capacity to reinvent itself. But the next president …

Today, there seems to be no coherent alternative to capitalism, yet anti-market feelings are alive and well, expressed for example in the moralistic backlash against globalization. Because no social system can survive for long without a moral basis, the issues posed by anti-globalization campaigners are urgent – all the more so in the midst of …

Over the past few weeks the Higher Civil Court surprised Egypt’s Copts twice. The first surprise was in the court ruling obliging the Ministry of Interior to change the official papers, including national ID cards, for those who had re-converted to Christianity after a short-lived conversion to Islam. The court ruled that government agencies had …

In the West, A mufti, a Christian and a rabbi … is often how a good interfaith joke begins. But I live inside this reality. I am a rabbi and my Syrian colleague, Hind Kabawat, is a Christian Arab. We have worked for four years with the Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, in …

The Indonesian political magazine Tempo recently published a satirical version of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Instead of Jesus it showed ex-President Suharto, who died late January, having dinner with his six children. Catholic groups protested and asked the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs to look at Blasphemy charges under the Indonesian Criminal …

Fraught with intractable violence, interminable disease and abject poverty, Africa is traditionally observed by policymakers through a humanitarian lens. However, Africa’s emerging geo-strategic importance transcends such condescending colonial overtones of the continents inescapable realities to command US attention beyond the moral, humanitarian and security imperatives. Distracted by long winded plans to end the War in …

With March 20 marking the fifth anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq, it’s time to take stock of what has happened. In our new book The Three Trillion Dollar War, Harvard’s Linda Bilmes and I conservatively estimate the economic cost of the war to the US to be $3 trillion, and the costs …

In the winter of 1991, Saddam Hussein bombed Tel Aviv. For a month and a half, long-range missiles landed on the city. People panicked and many fled to Jerusalem, while the leaders issued pompous statements about the terrible blow the Iraqi dictator was about to receive. But nothing happened. We did nothing. In February and …

We had nearly finished getting our gear off the stage when someone from the audience came up to congratulate us on our show. After telling us how much he enjoyed the music and video projection, he added, with a slightly troubled look on his face: …but I have a problem. Isn’t it somehow wrong to …

Who will change Egypt? Will it be the National Democratic Party (NDP), which has been ruling the country for more than three decades and controls everything, or the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest political group in Egypt, which suffers intellectually and politically? The fact is, it will be neither this nor that. Egypt will be changed …

One merit of the Berlin Wall was that it made obvious where Europe ended. But now the question of Europe’s borders has become a staple of debate in the European Union. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent threat to aim missiles at Ukraine highlights what is at stake in that debate’s outcome. The Wall’s collapse in …

Over the past few days Israelis, Palestinians, and the world have witnessed the unfolding of a serious and dangerous military escalation between Israel and Hamas. This crisis is a symptom of failed policies, irresponsible actions, and a lack of strategic thinking. Further escalating the violence in Gaza may deal a fatal blow to the credibility …