Q&A: 'More Women Need to Judge'

Thuraya Judi Alwazir is one of few women judges sitting on the Palestinian Authority's Judicial Authority. Alwazir speaks here to IPS about her experiences in a largely male-dominated environment, on the rights of women in regard to honour killings and domestic violence, and on the death penalty as applied in the West Bank.

POLITICS-US: Bigger, Badder Jihad Plot in 'Obsession' Rebooted

A new documentary from a shadowy non-profit, the Clarion Fund, has ties to groups widely accused of Islamophobia.

MIDEAST: Israel Expanding ‘Beautifully’ In Jerusalem

Even as Pope Benedict XVI tries his best during his current Holy Land visit to pay reverence to the attachment of all three monotheistic faiths to Jerusalem, on the ground a less lofty imprint is already furthering Israeli control over the Holy City in a way that could threaten the claims of all but Jews to Jerusalem.

RELIGION-NAMIBIA: Finding Sanctuary in Islam

Daisy Duck is the first to greet visitors to the Soweto Islamic Centre, from a television in the lounge of this former pre-primary school in Katutura, Windhoek’s oldest township. Beyond a kitchen is a humble, light-filled prayer room, the ground covered with carpets.

MIDEAST: Pope Failing the ‘Test of Pain’

Before stepping into Jerusalem's interfaith and inter-political Middle East minefields, Pope Benedict XVI had posited himself as a "pilgrim of peace". But, only hours into his spiritual mission, the Pope found himself crashing up against the walls erected by pain - Jewish pain and Muslim pain, the memory of the Holocaust, and Palestinian pain of the continued Israeli occupation.

INDONESIA: Using Religion to Strengthen Gender Equality

‘My husband rapes me repeatedly. I asked the ulama (religious leader) for help, but he sided with him, saying that according to Islam, a woman has to obey her husband. I have nowhere else to go. I have no tears left to shed. I no longer scream.’

POLITICS-US: Congress Resists Guantanamo Transfers

As lawmakers amped up the outcry against releasing Guantanamo "terrorists in our neighbourhoods", France agreed to accept a "cleared" Guantanamo prisoner and human rights groups continued to press for release of 17 Chinese Uigurs who the U.S. government has declared to be no threat to national security.

BALKANS: Religion Makes a Worrying Call

Five-year-old Admir does not come from a Muslim family, and so among the early lessons he is learning in school in Sarajevo is that he is out while most others are in.

POLITICS-US: Obama’s Uighur Problem

The probability that some Guantanamo detainees will soon be released into the U.S. will place the administration of President Barack Obama in the eye of a major political hurricane.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Damaging Forced Confessions

Iranian political refugees living in India say there is an all too familiar ring about the supposed confessions of arrested journalist Roxana Saberi, which they expect to see footage of on television soon.

MIDEAST: Pilgrim of Peace Heads for Land of Strife

Pope Benedict XVI says his visit to the Holy Land will be as a "pilgrim of peace": the pontiff's pilgrimage starts in Jordan Friday (May 8) and continues on from there to Palestine and Israel.

SINGAPORE: Evangelical Christians Take on Civil Society

For 25 years, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) has been Singapore's most important civil society campaigner for gender justice.

US-ISRAEL: Film Examines Paranoia Over Anti-Semitism

"I have never experienced anti-Semitism myself, but it’s a phrase that always seems to be in the air," begins Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir’s lively new documentary "Defamation". "Three words seem to appear over and over again: Holocaust, Nazi, anti-Semitism."

RIGHTS-US: Calls for Torture Inquiry Aren’t Going Away

A coalition of 19 human rights, faith-based and justice organisations is calling on President Barack Obama to investigate torture they charge was sanctioned by the administration of former President George W. Bush.

POLITICS-US: Momentum Builds for Tougher Hate Crimes Law

The leaders of several of the United States' largest civil rights and faith groups urged the passage of a bill to strengthen protection from hate crimes Tuesday.

Q&A: Islamophobia Alive and Well in the U.S.

In an Apr. 6 address to the Turkish Parliament on the final day of his European trip, President Barack Obama praised Muslim Americans for "enriching the United States".

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Church Pushes Draconian Abortion Law

A truck full of female police officers, dressed in black riot protection gear, pulled up in front of the General Assembly building here to confront and control the crowd of women who had gathered on Tuesday to protest a "right to life" amendment to the Dominican constitution.

RIGHTS-US: Border Policies Need Overhaul, Group Says

Getting into the United States – even for citizens, let alone immigrants and other visitors – is a notoriously difficult process. But a new report says that the questioning, detention, and oft-extended searches are going too far, especially when they are trampling on the basic rights of citizens returning home.

RIGHTS-US: No Warm Welcome for Muslim American Travelers

A Muslim legal advocacy group Tuesday charged that federal agents routinely target Muslim American travelers - or simply those perceived to be Muslim - for "deeply intrusive, personal questions and searches about their politics, faith, finances, charitable giving and associations with lawful organisations, all without any evidence or even suspicion of wrongdoing."

PARAGUAY: Second Paternity Scandal Hits President

Analysts in Paraguay expected Monday’s media coverage to focus on an announced shakeup in the cabinet. But reports that President Fernando Lugo fathered a second child while he was still a Roman Catholic bishop hijacked the news agenda and tarnished celebrations of the first anniversary of his historic victory at the polls.

POLITICS-US: As J Street Turns One, Signs of a Shift

It seems safe to say that the first year of existence for J Street, the self-described "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobbying organisation, was more eventful than anticipated.