OPINION: Bosnians know all too well what Syrians are going through

Fri 12 July 2019: The dehumanisation campaign Syrians are facing is strikingly similar to the one that led to the genocide of Bosnians. Refugees are being hunted, arrested and forcibly returned to the regime they fled in increasing numbers. The “reasons” for their targeting are multiple, from formalities regarding their documents to accusations of extremism […]

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OPINION: The Houthis’ real enemy is their own people

Mon 08 July 2019: On top of their obstructing humanitarian aid efforts, the Houthis’ tax policy is adding to the suffering of Yemen’s civilians. With Iran reeling under the pressure of increased US sanctions, its proxy militias, such as the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, are looking for alternative ways to finance their activities […]

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OPINION: Africa and Palestine: A noble legacy that must never be betrayed

Sun 07 July 2019: Europe’s “Scramble for Africa” began in earnest in 1881, but never ended. The attempt at dominating the continent using old and new strategies continues to define the western relationship with this rich continent. This reality was further validated when I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya on 23 June. Although my objective was to address […]

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OPINION: No, religious freedom isn’t about who you can discriminate against

Fri 05 July 2019: It’s clear we are living in the age of fear and loathing of the foreign “other”.  A slew of signposts, statistics and signals make this reality abundantly clear, but none more so than data that points to a dramatic spike in hate crimes against religious minorities during the presidency of Donald […]

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OPINION: What the Zaira Wasim controversy reveals about contemporary India

Wed 03 July 2019: The teenage Muslim actress’s decision to quit Bollywood for faith reasons brought India’s Islamophobia to the fore. On Sunday, Zaira Wasim, an 18-year-old Kashmiri Muslim Bollywood actress, caused a stir in India by announcing her decision to “disassociate” from the film industry. The actor took to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to declare that while […]

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OPINION: ‘Forcing Muslim Women To Remove Hijab Is Infringement Of Rights’

Tue 02 July 2019: Removing the hijab worn in the form of a headscarf for a Muslim woman is a right infringment. This is according to the Women’s Legal Centre (WLC). On June 29, The Daily Vox reported that Khadeejah Khaffoor, a Muslim woman travelling at OR Tambo International Airport was asked to remove her […]

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OPINION: Facebook’s anti-Islam algorithm

Fri 28 June 2019: A newly published Snopes investigation provides a deeper understanding of how small groups of right-wing extremists are manipulating Facebook to portray anti-Muslim views as representative of a much broader swath of the general public. The authors of the investigation reveal how a small group of right-wing evangelical Christians have created an array of Islamophobic […]

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OPINION: The Ahwazis’ struggle is also cultural

Tue 25 June 2019: “Thanks to technology, the Iranian regime’s project to isolate us linguistically and culturally from our Arab milieu has been thwarted, said Ahwazi writer Yousef Azizi. The Arab minority of the Ahwaz region in Iran has long suffered from Iranian regime’s systematic marginalisation. They consider themselves deliberately forgotten or made invisible. Ahwazi […]

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