Laura Farooq Sani, a Research Associate at the Ayaan Institute examines the word conflict, its different meanings between Islam and the West, and considers similarities and differences which might advance an understanding of how to deal with conflict resolution/management. What’s in a word? Words have a dictionary translation and meaning. However, words can also convey...
The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the debt crisis for Muslim countries argues Hanaa Hasan, a Research Associate at the Ayaan Institute. The world economy is fast approaching a global debt crisis warned Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and UN global economic monitoring chief Hamid Rashid last year. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, global debt...
The U.S. and Western governments have evacuated their employees from Afghanistan ready to leave the country by August 31, after 20 years of occupation. The UK government evacuated some 15,000 employees (including Afghans) and left around 1,000 employees behind, with some estimates putting the figure at 9,000. Yet the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which foreign forces...
Dangerous Times for Pakistan As Pakistan celebrates another Independence Day anniversary, it faces perhaps one of the most dangerous periods in its history. The Pakistani state has always been caught between superpower rivalry. Pakistan and India were twin states born out of the womb of a dying British superpower. At birth the Pakistani state ended...
As a 9-year-old girl, I remember vividly during one of my summer vacations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sitting in front of the television whose language was still unintelligible to me, and watching scenes whose substance needed no explanation. The clips contained images of old women hunched over headstones, shedding tears into clasped hands whilst coffins...
This September, it will be 20 years since the 9-11 attacks on the United States by Al Qaeda, and the launch of the United States led global “war on terror” (WOT). No single event has affected/defined the Muslim Ummah globally as much as the WOT (possibly since the launch of the Crusades in 1095). The...
The Syrian Presidential election takes place today, 26th May. Few people aside from Bashar Al Assad and his backers are taking them seriously. There is only one outcome that most are expecting. Like dictators of other countries and the past, Assad will no doubt obtain a large majority (somewhere around 95-99% of the vote tends...
105 years ago on 16 May 1916, the Sykes-Picot agreement was signed. The British and French obtained mandates over different parts of Muslim lands, that had formerly been part of the Ottoman Empire. The First World War was very much a clash of dying empires competing to consolidate or take control of territories/regions. The aftermath...
As Israeli forces attack and invade Al Aqsa mosque on the holiest nights of the holy month, I will repeat what I have previously said about Palestine. Israel and its extreme supporters appear to be able to do anything to the Palestinian people and few in the world would care or act. The occupied Palestinian...
Genocide, Nationalism and International law. Genocide is a heinous crime. The intentional attempt to punish or wipe out a people for any reason, be it political, religious, or racial falls foul of International conventions on genocide. Intent being the key word here. Even in wars, whether internal between communities or external against other countries, collectively...
