HERAKLION, Crete: A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article with the catchy title “Intrigue in Turkey’s bloodless civil war”. It was referring to the ongoing “cold war” climate between Turkey’s Islamic-leaning ruling party – the Justice and Development Party (AKP) – and the country’s old laicist elites who describe themselves as [...]

BEIRUT: Launched by a small group of non-partisan civic-minded citizens called Laïque (Secular) Pride, the March for Secularism will bring Lebanese together on 25 April in support of secularism, and to bring attention to the letter and spirit of the Lebanese Constitution. Participants will walk from the Beirut neighborhood Ain El Mraissé on the Mediterranean [...]

CAIRO: The fifth Conference of the Establishment of Secularism in Egypt was held on Monday morning under the title “Secularism is the Antithesis of Extremism and Fundamentalism” in cooperation with the forum of Ibn Rushd and the Middle East Forum for Freedom. The conference was headed by the prominent thinker Murad Wahba, the Chairman of [...]

CAIRO: The fifth conference of the establishment of secularism in Egypt under the title “Secularism is the Antithesis of Extremism and Fundamentalism” will be held in early March at the headquarters of the Middle East Forum, a statement from the forum said over the weekend. It comes as Egyptian political activists and intellectuals have argued [...]

WASHINGTON, DC: In the last three decades, Palestinian identity has undergone tremendous changes. According to a UNDP poll published last April, 47 percent of residents of Gaza and the West Bank identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims. This is surprising, considering that the Palestinian community was once regarded as one of the most secular [...]

MANCHESTER: The British Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, has called on Muslims to accept being a minority in Britain and to learn to separate religion from power. Lord Sacks added that neither Muslims nor Christians had the benefit of learning this lesson, but that the Jewish people had, because of their Babylonian exile. The Chief Rabbi [...]

A self-proclaimed Muslim feminist and Egyptian is to be awarded the 2010 Anvil of Freedom Award by the Estlow Center for Journalism and New Media. The problem with this is that Mona Eltahawy, a well known journalist, although extremely talented at making you think, isn’t quite an ambassador of freedom. My main beef with Eltahawy [...]