Building Bridges: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed of the Emirates at the Vatican

As the rise of religious racism and Islamophobia sweeps across Europe, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) is increasing their emphasis on the message for peaceful tolerance across all nations.

Brexit’s Pandora’s Box

Now that the dust has settled on the EU referendum results, we can take stock of the full extent of the damage. Not only has Brexit had political and economic repercussions, it has had social implications with frightening consequences, namely a sudden increase in xenophobic and racist attacks. The most recent being the assault in the small town of Harlow on 40-year-old Polish Arkadiusz Jóźwik, by a group of British youths, resulting in his death. The police are treating this attack as a hate crime.

A Government of Law, Not of Men

The rule of law, at its most basic, means that the law applies to everyone equally. It means that no one is above the law. It is also popularly understood as “a government of law, not of men.” And, while the law may be harsh, it is the law. Dura lex, sed lex.

Fifteen Years after 9/11: Is America Any Safer?

Is America Any Safer” is the cover story of this September's Atlantic magazine. CNN and other media outlets are also commemorating the catastrophic terror attacks on the morning of September 11, 2001. Reflecting their collective paranoia or delusions of persecution, and exaggerated self-importance, Americans in general are perplexed about certain things with regard to 9/11: a) what went wrong with their intelligence; b) why some people hate them so much; c) America is no longer invincible; and d) theirs being “The land of the free and the home of the brave” will always remain “Number One”. However, the politics of fear- and hate-mongering has impaired a large number of American minds, which only think Islamist terrorists are the sole security threat to their nation.

Today’s Malnourished Kids Are Tomorrow’s Drug Addicts

This is an interesting question. Whatever happened to the five-year-old kids who were on the “wasted and stunted” list 15 years ago due to malnutrition? I will throw in one answer: many of them may have gone into hopeless lives, then into illegal drugs. And some of them may be part of the rising statistics on the drug users and pushers killed in the current campaign against illegal drugs.

Man-Made Disasters Intensify Vulnerability

As sea levels continue to rise, coastal communities in the province of Sindh, Pakistan, must now move further inland. Whereas uncontaminated, fresh water could be found in abundance up to 20 years before , the villagers must now dig up to 18ft in search of the few sources of clean water. When the cyclone hit District Thatta in 1999, mass destruction followed in its wake. Today, villagers still feel the grave consequence of its aftermath.

The Politics of Seclusion

Discussions on the veil in Bangladesh should not ignore the writings of Begum Rokeya. She is one of the most prominent Bengali Muslim women's rights activists in the Indian subcontinent who spoke vehemently against seclusion of Muslim women in India. Readers should keep in mind that she was against seclusion not veil or parda. She wrote a book called “Oborodhbashini” which means women who live within confinement. With her tongue in cheek writing style she portrayed the ridiculousness and horrors of seclusion women were subjected to. In support of her argument many women's rights activists argued that the type of seclusion system practiced in India was not prevalent in any other Islamic countries. Hence the practice is not authentic Islamic practice as it was deemed at that time.

In His Let-bygones-be-bygones Tour, Why Did Obama Skip the Philippines?

First read In “The Interpreter” op-ed column in the New York Times, Max Fisher reported that President Obama, during his final year in office, spent time in acknowledging United States’ misdeeds in various countries that he has visited.

Rain as a Source of Fear

In the province of Sindh, Pakistan, rain is no longer a source of happiness, it is rather, a source of fear. "In the past, the climate was not so cruel", Haji Qasim, a local villager explains. As ongoing drought threatens the future of land cultivation and livestock in rural villages in the region, survival is no longer guaranteed to these victims of harsh climate change.

WATCH: Tongi Inferno

At least 24 people were killed and 74 injured, many critically, in a huge fire triggered by a boiler explosion at plastic packaging factory Tampaco Foils Limited in Tongi industrial area of Gazipur today.

View from Abroad: Terror and Trauma in the West

As the term implies, the object of terrorism is to spread fear. And in this, jihadi outfits like Al Qaeda and the militant Islamic State group have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The use of random violence against innocent civilians was first employed by young radicals in the 19th century when groups of idealists ranging from nihilists to anarchists set off bombs in European capitals. Their aim was to bring bourgeois governments down and replace them with their own utopian models. In fact, it was an act of terror in Sarajevo in 1914 that triggered the First World War.

Millions at Risk from Rising Water Pollution: UN

PARIS, AFP - Increasingly polluted rivers in Africa, Asia and Latin America pose a disease risk to more than 300 million people and threaten fisheries and farming in many countries, a UN report warned Tuesday.

Mother Nature’s Right to Live

In 2008, Ecuador codified the principle of Rights of Nature in its Constitution, recognising that ecosystems have an inalienable right to exist and flourish. “Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes,” reads Article 71 of the Constitution. Not only does the Constitution set out in detail the rights of nature, it states that “persons, communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature.”

Liberated Men

He world is dominated by men. It has not always been this way — throughout recorded history there have been societies in which women have exercised significant power over both their own lives and those of men. In the modern world, however, patriarchy is very much the rule. While it is possible to identify pockets in which men and women are relatively more equal, they remain the exceptions which make the rule.

United Nations and the “i” Word

Shashi Tharoor, my former boss at the United Nations, was - and perhaps still is - a fiery defender of the United Nations. He was once asked by a BBC interviewer how did the UN feel about the “i” word, i for irrelevant? Mr. Tharoor, without missing a heartbeat, replied, “Oh, I think the 'i' word for us is actually 'indispensable.'”