Honor killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and political violence are just some of the words used to describe the police in Pakistan. These murders were not executed by some enraged mob but by the police—those responsible with enforcing the law and protecting the citizens of their country. The case is part of a broader pattern […]
Tag: religion
The Mahatma & The Politics of Pakistan
Clinging onto hope is a core tenet of the Quranic scripture, a book that Ulemas (Islamic Jurists)—who, as everybody knows, represent 100% of Pakistan’s population— believe form the basis of all institutional & civilian structures in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. But latching onto false hope for the coming of a Mahatma (Great Soul) like […]
France’s Ban on Religious Symbols Violates Free Expression
France, a nation with a history entangled with the church and fraught with religious conflict, has become staunchly secularist in modern politics, prompting a decades-long political controversy over the existence of Islamic symbols in public schools. On September 4, 67 girls were sent home from French public schools after refusing to remove their abayas, a […]
The Untaxed Business of Religion
Each year, religion contributes $1.2 trillion dollars to the country’s economy. However, a large portion of that goes untaxed due to the belief that churches are providing for the community, as any charity or non-profit does. In the past, religion had played a major role in providing a good for society, but that is seen […]
Ethiopia’s Tigray Crisis: Famine, Humanitarian Tragedy and Tribal Politics
The year-long conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray has ushered in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Through it all—killings, looting, sexual violence, and displacement—civilians continue to pay the high price for the descent of the second-most populous country in Africa into ethnopolitical confrontations and mass starvation. In November 2020, tensions […]
Everybody’s Zion: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Resolution
Driving by car, the entire State of Israel is less than six hours tip to tip. The world outside the window changes from barren desert to sudden, massive artificial forests, erected through donations by millions abroad who have “planted a tree in Israel” for fun, as a birthday gift, or for some other celebration; and […]
One Size Does Not Fit All: The Rise of Diverse Fashion Models
The 2019 New York Fashion Week runways were said to be the most diverse ones yet, with an estimated 48 percent of the featured models being from minority groups. This statistic is shocking, considering the history of the industry as a whole. For decades, the fashion industry has established the standards of beauty for society […]
Nigerian Elections: a Divergent Violent Pattern and Future Uncertainty
Nigeria just re-elected Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for his second four-year term. His opposition in the election, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), lost in his fifth bid for president. In Nigerian history, the election of incumbents is common, as only one failed reelection bid has occurred since the […]
China’s Uighur Muslim Camps: The Face of Non-Western Islamophobia
You can stop saying “assalamu alaikum” to your neighbor, shave your beard, tell your children not to speak of their prayers, even try to fake tickets for an international flight, but you can never truly escape the terror. The psychological trauma remains of knowing that every move you make, every word you utter can lead […]
Love No Border: The Significance of Faith-Based Resistance to Trump Immigration Policy
In an era of xenophobia, nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment, faith-based sanctuary movements are fighting back. The Trump administration’s efforts to stop what it calls illegal immigration and chain migration, alongside the ending of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and President Trump’s controversial language around undocumented persons, have galvanized nationwide movements to protect immigrants […]