Theodore Karasik
Giorgio Cafiero
Author: Estonian Centre fot Islamic and Middle-Eastern Studies
Islamophobes
Have you been branded an Islamophobe – a slur word invented by Muslim leaders and clerics against non-Muslims?
Then join the ranks of the world’s greatest political leaders, military leaders, writers, philosophers, historians, researchers and intellectuals; the movers and shakers of history. Read more about Islamophobes …
Diagnosing the Arab Muslim Mentality as a Precursor to Reform
Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari
Attempts to diagnose the factors contributing to paralysis and obstacles to Arab reform date back more than two centuries. They began at the end of the 18th century on the heels of the cultural clash with a triumphant West that overran the region with its developed weaponry and modern technologies, with its sciences, expertise and advanced systems.
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Educating Syrian Refugees in Turkey
Kinana Qaddour
Turkey’s Turn Toward Russia
Pinar Tank
Middle East crises and conflicts – the way ahead
On October 5, the Foreign Policy program at Brookings hosted an event examining the crises across the Middle East and North Africa.
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Erdoğan: A New Caliph and Sultan?
V. Sazonov
U.Asi
Turkey Aims to Restore the Ottoman Empire
Introduction: Kemalism and Atatürk
By the time World War I broke out, the Ottoman Empire had lost all the territories it had held in North Africa and almost all its territories in Europe, earning the nickname “sick man of Europe”. Turkey had been in the throes of a long-term crisis. Entering the conflict made the situation several times worse—the war completely ravaged the Ottoman Empire, dealing it a final blow. The empire lost the war and was in deep crisis. The Treaty of Sèvres, signed in 1920, decided the essential partitioning of Turkey. Under its terms, Greece would receive almost all of Turkey’s territories in Europe and some in Asia Minor; Syria and Lebanon would fall under the mandate of France; Iraq would be controlled by Great Britain; Turkey had to recognise Armenia as an independent state; and an independent Kurdish state was to be created. The treaty included many other conditions shameful to Turkish pride, and much that Turkey had to give up (including money and control over the Bosphorus straits).
Atheism and apostasy in Islamist discourse
Babikir Faysal Babikir
In the newspapers in Sudan not long ago it was reported that the imam and preacher of the Al-Nur mosque in Khartoum, Dr ‘Isām Ahmad al-Bashīr, issued a warning in his Friday sermon concerning the peril of the appearance of a group of ‘Sudanese agnostics’ and considered their emergence to constitute a danger threatening the faith of Sudanese society. The press that week also reported other news on the ‘apostasy’ of a young girl in the Al-Hāj Yūsuf district who had embraced Christianity. Read more about Atheism and apostasy in Islamist discourse …
Babikir Faysal Babikir: Cultural Coma
All nations and peoples in the world, without exception, pass through phases of cultural regression caused by specific historical factors and conditions. In some societies these phases may continue for a number of centuries, whilst other societies are able to shake off their stumbling and keep up with the train of progress within shorter periods of time. Read more about Babikir Faysal Babikir: Cultural Coma …
Arab Muslim societies and the lack of social stability
Mohammed al-Sanduk
Most contemporary Arab and Islamic societies have been living in a state of instability since political institutions began to form in the twentieth century. This instability began to intensify after the first half of the twentieth century so that it now constitutes a threat to social and political entities. Two distinct periods govern the present in Arab and Islamic societies and these, taken generally, are: the period of cultural interruption extending close on ten centuries, and the period of initial opening up to contemporary human civilization – extending to almost a century and beginning after the First World War. In this sense the First World War constitutes the dividing line between the two eras in the contemporary history of these societies. Read more about Arab Muslim societies and the lack of social stability …