When “tolerance becomes a term of abuse in a place like the Netherlands, you know that something has gone seriously wrong. The Dutch always took pride in being the most tolerant people on earth. In less feverish times than these, no one could possibly have taken exception to Queen Beatrix’s speech last Christmas, when she …

After he scored a goal in a recent match against Sudan in the African Nations Cup, Egyptian soccer star Abou Trika lifted his jersey to show an undershirt inscribed with the message “Sympathize with Gaza . His message earned him a yellow card for violating a no-politics rule but promptly crowned him the latest hero …

I have just returned from an extended trip to the Middle East, hoping that I would come back feeling recharged by the progress made in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, especially in the wake of the Annapolis peace conference. To my dismay, not in Israel or in Jordan or in talking to Palestinian and Egyptian officials, have …

The 2008 Islamic Finance Festival (FES) was held in Jakarta from Jan. 16 to 20. Hosted by the Bank of Indonesia, this year’s theme was Islamic finance and banking for a prosperous Indonesia. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened the event by describing how a system of Islamic banking had helped reduce the impact of the …

Why do good, ordinary people sometimes become perpetrators of evil? The most extreme transformation of this kind is, of course, the story of God’s favorite angel, Lucifer – a story that has set the context for my psychological investigations into lesser human transformations in response to the corrosive influence of powerful situational forces. Such forces …

The taxi driver had skin the color of the Nile bed – a cross between earthy brown and the brick red of henna which grows in abundance in southern Egypt. His features too seemed to hail from the south; resembling those of the dogs of Armant, that historical city located in the deepest recesses of …

This time in Middle East relations, it is crucial to get it right . and fast. Why? Because the stakes are so high. Failure to have comprehensive peace between Arabs and Israelis is going to have consequences and repercussions of a magnitude we have never seen before. In other words, failure, at the risk of …

For the 25 years, the so-called “Washington Consensus – comprising measures aimed at expanding the role of markets and constraining the role of the state – has dominated economic development policy. As John Williamson, who coined the term, put it in 2002, these measures “are motherhood and apple pie, which is why they commanded a …

Pakistan’s near political chaos, the result of President Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of martial law last year and the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has had a tsunami-like impact across Southeast Asia. Should Musharraf’s government backslide even more on its commitments to restore parliamentary democracy, Pakistan’s crisis would not only be exacerbated, but it …

It is probably true that the political situation in Egypt is not what it used to be four years ago – specifically since 2004. One cannot overlook the changes that have taken place in the relationship between the state and society, in addition to transformation of public awareness. The question is: Will the changes Egypt …

A month ago, Kenya fell prey to a sudden burst of post-electoral violence that has left over 1000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. The intensity and scale of the violence have stunned the world. Of course, Kenya had lived through tense electoral periods before, and few people who know Africa were blind to the …

I have often made the statement that the destinies of the Israeli and Palestinian people are inextricably linked and that there is no military solution to the conflict. My recent acceptance of Palestinian nationality has given me the opportunity to demonstrate this more tangibly. When my family moved to Israel from Argentina in the 1950s, …

It seems that the storming of the Egypt-Gaza border by hundreds of thousands of Gazans wasn’t enough to end the stagnation hovering over Egyptian politics, despite the fact that Cairo managed the crisis with considerable efficiency. It did not, however, absorb the core lesson to be learned from it. This was not simply a political …

Not surprisingly, the atmosphere at this year’s World Economic Forum was grim. Those who think that globalization, technology, and the market economy will solve the world’s problems seemed subdued. Most chastened of all were the bankers. Against the backdrop of the sub-prime crisis, the disasters at many financial institutions, and the weakening of the stock …

During a session at the first conference for the UN s Alliance of Civilizations held in Madrid on January 15-16, 2008, I presented a new dimension of human rights, namely the right of human beings to be understood. The conference was an initiative of the Spanish Prime Minister and represents an attempt to explore possible …

The withdrawal of Britain’s Paddy Ashdown as a candidate for the post of UN envoy in Afghanistan means that the international community still has some way to go before it speaks with one voice in that country. Such a unified voice is needed, for six years of war and the biggest military operation in NATO’s …

Now that the dust has settled from the Annapolis conference, and before the effective beginning of the negotiation process it created, it might be helpful to summarize the strategic issues the Annapolis process has raised thus far. At this point there are more questions than answers. First and foremost: Was the conference an important step …

Hillary Clinton’s remark on Martin Luther King’s role in the success of the American civil rights movement triggered a firestorm in the US and world press. Clinton said that Dr King’s dream “began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights act of 1964. it took a president to get it done. Thus …

Now I can reveal this: Several months ago, I participated in a series of meetings in Europe that involved a small group of Israeli and Palestinian public figures and academicians, including senior Hamas supporters. During our talks, they made it clear to us that as far as they could see, in exchange for Israeli willingness …

As the founders of two of the world’s largest open-source media platforms – Wikipedia and Connexions – we have both been accused of being dreamers. Independently, we became infected with the idea of creating a Web platform that would enable anyone to contribute their knowledge to free and open learning resources. Jimmy started with his …

A friend of mine copied me on an email he sent to everyone he knew to boost their optimism about the state of our country, which the press – since it has become free – has depicted in the worst possible light spreading pessimism about the future of this country. In the message, my friend …

Freedom is to creativity what the soul is to the body. The Quran affirms individual freedom and underscores its relevance as it pertains to our individual decisions. Even the pivotal issue of religion, namely faith versus non-belief in God, was left to individual choice: Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve …

Russia is again on a tear. This time, the Kremlin has stuck its finger in the West’s eye over the long and painful effort to bring Kosovo to formal independence. Unlike the fracas over an American missile shield in Europe, this conflict shows no signs of blowing over, and threatens to damage further the rocky …

Poor Lahore. This jeweled city of the Raj was recently hit by a suicide bomber aimed at lawyers protesting President Pervez Musharraf s imprisonment of his top judiciary. As body parts scattered the tree-lined Mall, Rudyard Kipling s city of dreadful night became the city of dreadful day. The outrage could not have happened in …

Ever since their reinvention by Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic Games have always been politicized. The first took place in 1896 in Athens in order to embarrass the Turks still occupying Northern Greece. The Berlin Games in 1936 celebrated the triumph of Nazi ideology. The Seoul Games in 1988 opened the door to South Korea’s …

We are American Muslim women, who strongly identify with our faith. We are Georgetown University seniors who remain active and involved with the American Muslim community. One of us wears a headscarf, known in Arabic as the hijab. The other does not. Yet the right to wear the headscarf – without censure, condemnation or patronizing …

The giant eucalyptus tree in front of the spacious yard of the Centre Culturel Français (CCF) – or French Cultural Center – in Gaza is symbolic enough. One of the last such trees that remain in the city, it stands in living memory of Palestinian appreciation of foreign cultures and in testimony to 19 years …

Deeply frustrated by the Bush administration’s policies, many people and governments in Europe hope for a fundamental change in American foreign policy after the upcoming presidential election. But it would take a medium-sized political miracle for these hopes not to be disappointed, and such a miracle will not happen – whoever is elected. The Bush …

The violent clashes, political turmoil and mayhem that have gripped Kenya over the past few weeks, following the seriously flawed presidential elections on Dec. 27 2007, which were marred by egregious irregularities, dispel any Western-backed notions regarding the country as a model democracy to be replicated elsewhere on the continent. Once the envy of its …

Military rule and the “war on terror are the two main culprits for the rise of militancy in Pakistan. A third factor, a dictator-foreign nexus – whereby a Western power covertly or overtly supports dictators or military rulers – adds fuel to the fire. Militancy surges under military rule. By putting restrictions on genuine political …