Religion

Ethiopian Government Choking Muslim Unrest

By Ed McKenna
The refusal by the Ethiopian government to redress grievances harboured by the Muslim community here, which comprises about 34 percent of the country’s 91 million people makes this Horn of African nation vulnerable to extremism.

Somalis Caught Between Terrorism and a Border Dispute

By Miriam Gathigah
Somali militia groups are beginning to operate in Kenya’s remote and arid North Eastern Province, an area that borders southern Somalia – a former stronghold of the extremist group Al-Shabaab.

Egyptians Clash on Streets and over Constitution

By Hisham Allam
Bloody clashes erupted in Cairo on Sunday Oct. 6 between supporters of the military and followers of ousted elected president Mohamed Morsi as the latter protested against the July military coup that deposed their leader. But as clashes occurred on the streets, a clash of ideologies has been occurring on the country’s 50-member committee as it amends Egypt’s constitution.

Turkey’s Reform Package Gets Tepid Reception

By Alexander Christie-Miller
Turkey’s new democratisation reform package may mark a step forward for civil rights, but it does not go far enough to ease social tension and feelings of mistrust that are afflicting the country, analysts say.

OP-ED: Bahrain Repression Continues Amid Sham Trials and Imprisonment

By Emile Nakhleh
The lengthy prison sentences handed down to 50 Shia activists last week and the refusal of Bahraini courts to hear their allegations of torture once again confirm the regime’s continued repression of the opposition.

Egyptian Revolution Brings an IVF Rush

By Rachel Williamson
The young couple inspecting Dr Bassem Elhelw’s Cairo Fertility Clinic knew what they wanted from him: a baby boy. They also knew they wanted the child by in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Q&A: “This Is Not Huntington’s World”

By Rousbeh Legatis
While a fine wine might get better with age, the same is not true for flawed political theories.

‘Interrogating’ an Assad Militiaman

By Shelly Kittleson
The prisoner is led, handcuffed and dirty, into what until last year served as a school. “A shabiha,” said one of the anti-regime rebels in the room. “We found him two days ago at a checkpoint.”

More Egyptian Unrest Rises in Social Media

By Emad Mekay
Gory social media images that fueled the global Jihadist influx into Syria 18 months ago are back. But this time the outpouring is coming from Egypt.

Weakening Al-Shabaab Finds New Aggression

By William Lloyd-George
Strong action now expected against the al-Shabaab group may well end up strengthening the group rather than weakening it, local people fear. The extremist group is suspected of involvement in the attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi.

Extremism Beckons Kenya’s Young

By Miriam Gathigah
Ali Hassan Gitonga, 33, a recent convert to Islam from the Meru community in Kenya’s Eastern Province, is said to have travelled to Somalia for training with Al-Shabaab in 2011. He is under arrest for alleged involvement in the Sep. 21 Westgate Mall terror attack in Nairobi.

Cracks Widen Among Syrian Rebels

By Shelly Kittleson
Scorching flames from a makeshift oil refinery sting eyes and the fumes choke throats near the top of a hill in northwestern Syria, where Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters gather for fuel, coffee and phone calls as darkness falls.

Philippines Struggles With Muslim Rebels

By Richard Heydarian
With the administration of Philippines President Benigno Aquino III devoting much of its political capital to resolving the conflict in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, which has claimed around 150,000 lives over decades, many came to believe in the genuine possibility of a new era of stability and economic prosperity in the region.

It’s Afghanistan Again in a Turkish Town

By Karlos Zurutuza
People run back home at dusk, just when the shooting intensifies. To Sha Mehmed the experience is familiar. He was 11 when he left his native Afghan village to settle in this small Turkish town on the border with Syria.

Q&A: Faith Groups as Partners in Development

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations is considered one of the world's most secular institutions, with 193 member states representing peoples of different faiths and cultures and professing religious and agnostic beliefs.

Executions on Hold ‘for the Wrong Reasons’

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
The execution of three Taliban men ordered by the courts has been kept on hold - not because the Pakistani government opposes the death penalty but because it fears the Taliban, political leaders say.

Hopeful but Homesick in Peshawar Schools

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
“I miss my mother and cry every night,” eight-year-old Afaq Ali tells IPS. He is a Class 5 student at the University Public School in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the administrative centre for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to its west.

Where a Moustache Can Mean Life or Death

By Karlos Zurutuza
"The soul needs to reincarnate a thousand times before becoming one with god," says Rajab Assy Karim from Ali Saray, 190 kilometres north of Baghdad. Iraq is full of "shortcuts" to the ultimate, and several seem to pass through this tiny desert village.

Poor Picked for ‘Paradise’

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
“I consider myself lucky after finding my son,” says Muhammad Jabeen, a juice vendor in Bannu, one of the 25 districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northern Pakistan. The Taliban had taken his son, Mateen Shah, away from a madrassa to join their ranks.

Migrant Rights Defenders in Mexico Face Growing Pressure

By Emilio Godoy
"No one can stop me from working for migrants' rights, because no one is above my own conscience," said Mexican Catholic priest Alejandro Solalinde.

Brotherhood Cornered, Not Crushed

By Sam Kimball
With the sun inching closer to the horizon on Friday afternoon in the Mohandiseen neighbourhood of Cairo, the call to prayer from Mostafa Mahmood mosque goes out over a street empty of all but a few soldiers lingering beside their tanks.
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