Religion

OP-ED: Bahrain Declares War on the Opposition

By Emile Nakhleh
The special session of the Bahraini National Assembly held on Sunday Jul. 28 was a spectacle of venom, a display of vulgarity, and an unabashed nod to increased dictatorship.

Egypt-Like Disputes Stir Tunisia

By Louise Sherwood
As political divisions threaten to destabilise the national transition process in Tunisia, Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh has set deadlines for finalising the new constitution and holding elections. Not everyone is convinced these will be met.

Kirkuk Plays Dice With Violence

By Karlos Zurutuza
Two teams struggle to find an olive under one of the 11 cups displayed on a tray. The traditional game sin-u-serf  (tray and cup in Kurdish) is only played during the Muslim fasting month. In one of Iraq’s most violent cities, it is nothing less than a challenge to death.

Pope Opens Unprecedented Dialogue with Afro-Brazilian Religions

By Fabiana Frayssinet
At odds since colonial times, Catholicism and Afro-Brazilian religions have embarked on a process of mutual acceptance. Pope Francis added words and gestures to this reconciliation of two groups that share a common interest: confronting the growth of evangelical and neo-Pentecostal churches.

Pope Runs into Logistical Chaos in Rio

By Fabíola Ortiz
Pope Francis' first overseas trip, to Brazil, the country with the largest number of Catholics in the world, was marked with setbacks, disorganisation and lack of infrastructure for an event that brought half a million pilgrims to the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Bands Play Across Political Discord

By Pierre Klochendler
Two heavy metal bands, the Israeli-Arab Khalas (‘enough,’ in Arabic) and the Orphaned Land, a Jewish band, performed simultaneously this week under the roof of Club Hangar 13 in the refurbished port of Tel Aviv. The bands are slated to play together this fall in a series of 18 gigs across Europe.

Activists Demand Justice for Victims of Clerical Sex Abuse in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy
Human rights groups are calling for the Committee on the Rights of the Child to bring the Mexican state to account, as it has done in other countries, for failing to investigate widespread reports of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic institutions.

Egypt Army Chief Calls for Nationwide Rallies

By AJ Correspondents
Egypt's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for nationwide rallies to give the military a mandate to confront what he termed violence and terrorism following the removal of President Mohamed Morsi.

OP-ED: Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood: Exclusion Breeds Radicalism

By Emile Nakhleh
The Egyptian military’s removal of the democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power upended the MB’s 20-year old political participation programme. If the new regime aims to achieve genuine reconciliation and political consensus, the MB and its supporters must be included in the restructuring of Egyptian politics.

Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse Press Vatican for Answers

By Lydia Lim
Mary Caplan was just 14 years old, and her father was dying of cancer. When she went to the local priest in her hometown of Jersey City to ask for prayers and help, he sexually abused her, and went on to do so for the next two and a half years.

Egypt May Not go the Algeria Way

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
The ouster of Egypt's first freely elected president by the military has led some to warn of a possible Algeria-style civil war. Local analysts, however, dismiss the likelihood of the "Algeria scenario" occurring in Egypt.

Hamas Strikes Just the Wrong Note

By Mohammed Omer
Mohammed Assaf is on to a winning track with recordings in Dubai and performances scheduled across Arab countries after winning the Arab Idol contest. But the 23-year-old who has become Gaza’s pride is virtually disowned by the government in Gaza.

Taliban Ban Has Crippling Effects on Children

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Four-year-old Muhammad Jihad is handicapped, and his parents know who to blame: the Taliban.

Judge Urges Obama to Halt “Degrading” Guantanamo Force-Feeding

By Carey L. Biron
A federal judge here has taken the unusual step of formally calling on President Barack Obama to halt the forcible feeding of dozens of hunger-striking detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, warning that the practice appears to contravene international law.

OP-ED: Islam Is Not the Solution to What Ails the Middle East

By Barbara Slavin
During the decades when Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was a barely tolerated opposition party, it campaigned against the reigning secular autocrats under the banner “Islam is the solution.”

Israel May Even Miss Morsi

By Pierre Klochendler
For Israel, what must be exercised in the volatile struggle for power and democracy in Egypt are, above everything else, three follow-on principles: stability within its institutions, particularly the armed forces; security in the Sinai Peninsula and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which both border Israel; and peace with Israel itself.

Civil Society Fears Taliban Return

By Giuliano Battiston
While United States President Barack Obama and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai scramble to solidify a peace process ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, fears that the Taliban will use the drawdown to seize power hang like a dark cloud over civil society.

Could Georgia’s Orthodox Church Become a Font of Intolerance?

By Molly Corso
In the two-plus decades since the Soviet collapse, the Georgian Orthodox Church has emerged as one of the South Caucasus country’s most respected and influential institutions. But some observers and theologians now worry that ultra-conservative clerics within the Church are gaining too much power.

Obama Calls for Compromise in Egyptian Crisis

By Jim Lobe
U.S. President Barack Obama Monday called for both the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and opposition forces to compromise in the fast-developing political crisis.

Return of Old Guard Marks a New Stage in Iran’s Politics

By Yasaman Baji
The victory of Hassan Rouhani in Iran’s Jun. 14 election marked a significant shift in Iranian politics, occasioned by the forceful return of the two most important political factions of the Islamic Republic – traditional conservatives and reformists.

Tunisia Tiring of Transition

By Louise Sherwood
In the third year after the revolution that toppled former dictator Ben Ali, true democracy is still work in progress in Tunisia.
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