In this post I explore the case of Bangladesh: the state of secularism there and the tensions and polemics that…
Secularism and the freedom to transform lives
Islam
Alawites, Alevis, and Assad
n a recent article in The New Republic, Soner Cagaptay discusses how Syria's sectarian divisions could exacerbate current divisions in Turkey.
Sacred space in Sri Lanka
BBC news reports the ordered removal of a mosque in the central town of Dambulla, Sri Lanka.
Contradictions of religious freedom and religious repression
The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of seventy years of anti-religious policies---of a period in which religious…
Muslims and the Republican party
Nona Willis Aronowitz, at GOOD, discusses the impact that Republican, anti-Islamic rhetoric has had on Muslim voters.
Change over time: A conversation with Robert W. Hefner
In this installment of the Rites and Responsibilities dialogue series, I met with the Boston University anthropologist and scholar of…
On the secularist-Islamist divide
At Al Jazeera English, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd gives an abridged history of the past half-century of Tunisian politics, and relays the Enahddan notion that the…
Freeing religion at the birth of South Sudan
If you had the opportunity to start from scratch, without the burden of a permanent constitution or an entrenched legal…
The year of the Islamist
David Rohde, in Reuters’ Analysis and Opinion blog, designates 2012 as the year of the Islamist and discusses the likelihood…
Human rights and the Arab Spring
The New York Review of Books' blog recently posted a debate between women's rights groups and Human Rights Watch entitled,…