Tag Archives: Muslims

Evicted: about 750,000 Palestinians were killed or expelled from their land during the Nakba which began on May 15 1948. Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock Marwan Darweish, Coventry University Until 1948, Lajjun was a small village about ten miles south of Nazareth in one of the most fertile valleys in Palestine. Since 1949, the area has been occupied by Jewish settlers who established Kibbutz …

Dream of a caliphate as an Islamist homeland is receding. Mohammad Bash via Shutterstock Elisa Orofino, Anglia Ruskin University A “proto-state”, a “socio-political movement, the ”beast“ – all names given to a single group that, at its height, seemed to embody the west’s worst nightmare. You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, here. Islamic State …

Armed and Security Forces of Mali servicemen stand guard on a military vehicle. Stephane De Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images Folahanmi Aina, King’s College London The political instability and insecurity in some Sahelian states in West Africa has led to the capture of political power by their military in recent times. Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali have all experienced coups. One …

Fotokon/Shutterstock Janric van Rookhuijzen, Utrecht University The Acropolis of Athens counts among the world’s greatest architectural and artistic monuments. Visitors come to admire the marble buildings that testify to the glory of Ancient Greece more than two millennia ago. Typically, only little attention is paid to the site’s rich medieval and Ottoman history. But one of the few stories commonly …

Michael Clarke, Australian National University China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies their existence. But extensive reporting by international media and human rights groups indicates that upwards of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs – a Muslim-minority ethnic group – have been detained in sprawling “re-education” centres in the far-western Xinjiang region of China. The camps are not only massive, with some …

Enze Han, SOAS, University of London As the Islamic holy month of Ramadan ended, lethal violence flared up in China’s Xinjiang province – the latest grim entry in the saga of terrorism and repression that surrounds the region’s Uighur Muslim minority. Every year during Ramadan, China’s religious policies in Xinjiang come under international scrutiny – particularly with regard to the …

David Tobin, University of Sheffield After 18 months of deliberations and three hearings of evidence from witnesses and experts – including anthropologists, political scientists and international lawyers – the London-based Uyghur Tribunal has ruled that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide, by coercive birth control. The Uyghur Tribunal is an independent people’s …

Rachel Rinaldo, University of Colorado Boulder Recent terrorist attacks such as the one in London inevitably lead to coverage of Islamist ideology, Muslim culture and Muslim women’s rights. What is often missing, however, in my view is the fact that within Islam there are many diverse views – change is afoot and not least among women. Indonesia recently hosted an …

Ali Mohamed Gedi (left), then Somali prime minister, speaks during a meeting with clan elders to discuss the surrender of weapons from the Mogadishu community in 2006. Peter Delarue/AFP via Getty Images Mohammed Ibrahim Shire, University of Portsmouth The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab insurgent group and the Somali government have remained locked in a violent stalemate for years. Other than lives lost, …

Muslim women and children in Lamu in north east Kenya. Al-Shabaab’s recruitment of female members is most evident in coastal and north eastern counties. Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, Technical University of Mombasa The direct involvement of women and girls in terrorism has attracted increased interest as the nature of recruitment …