For culture vultures, it borders on the banal to say that Iran deserves attention for a number of things that have nothing to do with nuclear programmes or the controversial attitudes of its head of state.
High-profile filmmakers; a vibrant modern literary scene that has produced works as diverse

"Where are the moderate voices from the Arab world?"
This common lament often leads to nostalgic evocations of the Golden Age of Islam. US President Barack Obama recently harked back to this period of Islamic enlightenment, innovation and tolerance in his June 2009 Cairo speech, in which he attempt

In the years since the terrorist attacks that shook Casablanca on 16 May 2003, a number of observers posited a causal relationship between the existence of slums and the unleashing of terrorist violence based on a warped interpretation of the Qur'an. According to them, social deprivation is the idea

I attended my first Reading Abrahamic Scriptures Together (RAST) session in September 2008, during the first month of my doctoral studies in Islamic religion. RAST is a group that meets twice a month to read and discuss a theme or figure in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Qur'an. A frien

US President Barack Obama is currently being attacked by friend and foe alike for his willingness to seek common ground on issues ranging from healthcare to North Korea.
"The common ground is not always the high ground", writes Leon Wieseltier in the New Republic. "It informs the other side that w

My generation grew up at a time when colonial hang up was at its peak. Our older generation had been slaves and had a huge inferiority complex of the British. The school I went to was similar to all elite schools in Pakistan. Despite gaining independent, they were, and still are, producing replicas

The timing for the screening of an environment documentary - 'Negotiating Justice' - could not have been more appropriate. The film, which talks about India's negotiating position in crucial Copenhagen meet, has been nominated for Fifth CMS Vatavaran Wildlife and Environment Award - popular as India

Access to justice is a major concern in Pakistan. Pakistan was ranked 134 in the world, lower than Rwanda and Libya, in the 2008 annual Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International. In fact, one reason some communities in the North West Frontier Province cautiously welcomed the

Al-Azhar University in Cairo is one of the oldest and most respected Sunni religious institutions in the world. It works hard to uphold the image of Islam by supporting tolerance, urging Muslims to avoid extremism and rendering edicts on the proper behaviour for Muslims—such as respect for one’s nei

Educating children in a conflict zone is no simple matter. More often than not, those responsible for the curricula succumb to the masters of war and adopt a pedagogical approach that exacerbates rather than diffuses strife. Israel, unfortunately, is no exception.
Consider the way Jewish and Pales

Egypt has a long-standing history of feminism, but gender-related problems in the country are far from resolved. Issues affecting society as a whole, including corruption, poverty and illiteracy, affect women in particular.
Egyptian women suffer in different ways. Marriage is sometimes imposed on

This month saw the launch of a report authored by a theologically diverse group of leading British Muslims entitled "Contextualising Islam in Britain". The scholars and practitioners who contributed to the report, published by Cambridge University, sought to answer a deceptively simple question: Wha

One of the most pressing dilemmas facing Afghanistan today is the gap between Afghan and Western views on what constitutes an effective political system and a functional nation-state. For the majority of Afghans, life revolves around their immediate community. Authority is exercised by local leaders

In mid-August, just prior to the start of Ramadan, the Yemeni government launched an all-out offensive on rebel positions in the northern governorate of Sa'ada. Leaving no doubt as to its intentions, the government dubbed the campaign “Operation Scorched Earth”. The fighting between the government a

Every Friday, Muslims, especially men, gather in their local mosques for the noon prayer and a sermon known as the khutba. When attending these prayers in different mosques around Jakarta—the capital of a diverse and largely tolerant country—I sometimes hear preachers deliver sermons expressing hatr