The European Union today approved a 500 million euro ($570 million) loan to help Tunisia address economic challenges and bolster its democratic processes, Reuters reports: Tunisia’s transition to democracy has… Read more »
Backers of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, who has pledged to improve the economy and relations with the West, won a sizeable minority in a parliament that has been under the… Read more »
Something great is afoot in Tunisia. Last weekend, the once-Islamist Ennahda party officially declared that it will separate its religious activities from its political ones, notes Maajid Nawaz, co-founder and chairman… Read more »
The war against Islamist extremism is a war against a triumphalist religious ideology that cloaks itself in the sanctity of the sacred and the history of “authentic” Islam, argues Robert… Read more »
In a move widely reported as a landmark separation of mosque and state, Ennahda announced it was separating politics from preaching, notes Oxford University researcher Monica Marks. It also unveiled… Read more »
In the days after the fall of the regime of Tunisia‘s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, the long-exiled founder of the Ennahda movement Rached Ghannouchi (left) made a… Read more »
The collapse of the post-colonial Arab system is, at its heart, a crisis of legitimacy. The impact of colonialism, often blamed by Arabs for their woes, should not be… Read more »
The public outcry over the rape and murder of six-year-old Afghan refugee Setayesh Ghoreishi (left) demonstrates how social media has allowed Iran’s civil society to hold accountable hardliners in the… Read more »
The Future of Islam and Democracy After the Arab Spring is one of the sessions of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy’s 17th Annual Conference. Panelists include: John Voll,… Read more »
Tackling extremism is a political minefield in Pakistan where politicians openly consort with leaders of banned militant groups and sympathy exists within the security forces and civil administration for perpetrators… Read more »