Islam

SANA'A

Yemeni Women Struggle to Step Forward

Yemeni women have played an integral role in the protests against ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year regime last year. But despite the country’s upcoming political ‘National Dialogue’ - brokered by Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and intended to bring together a cross-section of Yemeni constituencies - females still face a wall of discriminatory laws and practices, and a status quo willing to enforce them.

New Poll Finds Shifts in U.S. Public Opinion Towards Middle East

By Sarah McHaney

The attacks on U.S. embassies in Libya and Egypt last month shocked and scared Americans, but the majority of Americans nevertheless recognise that the violence was the work of extremist minorities and not the majority of the population, according to a new poll.

Polygamy Throttles Women in Senegal

By Issa Sikiti da Silva

Fatou (40), Awa (32) and Aissatou Gaye (24) sit in a meditative mood on the tiled floor outside their matrimonial home in Keur Massar, a township in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

OP-ED: Radical Salafis Overrunning the Syrian Revolution

By Emile Nakhleh

The recent visit by Abd al-Halim Murad, head of the Bahraini Salafi al-Asalah movement, to Syria to meet with Syrian rebels is an attempt by him and other Gulf Salafis to hijack the Syrian revolution.

U.S.: Political Leadership Critical to Fighting Rising Islamophobia

By Zoha Arshad

The attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in early August on the heels of the shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado signals the rise of right-wing domestic terrorism in the United States, experts say.

Donors Turn Their Backs on Taliban

By Ashfaq Yusufzai

For the past five years Sharifullah Shah, a local doctor from the conflict-ridden North Waziristan province in Pakistan, has handed over 500 dollars to the Taliban during the month of Ramadan. But this year, he is putting his money straight into the Edhi Welfare Centre, where he knows it will reach those in need.

Equal Parts Tolerance and Extremism in Indonesian Islam

By Alexandra Di Stefano Pironti

Scattered across 17,000 islands on the Indian and Pacific oceans, the world's largest Muslim country has found its own blend of Islam: equal parts religion, secularism and contradictions.