Religion

Islamic Finance has mainly replicated conventional finance methods inefficiently. It has thrived during periods of high oil prices, which allowed recycled petrodollars to implicitly subsidize its inefficient modes. As petrodollar…

Gay rights in the West have been publicly debated since at least the late 1970s. In much of the rest of the world, however, same-sex relations, and specifically male-to-male intercourse,…

In February 2019, Pope Francis became the first pope to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Like John-Paul II before him, he has also visited Egypt, and he went…

In 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage through a national referendum vote. The decision to introduce equal marriage received a great deal…

Gulmira last heard from her mother via text message on October 19, 2017: “Hello, daughter. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to camp. Don’t write to me.” Shortly thereafter, the…

The New Year rang in little cheer for transgender women in Malaysia. On January 1, a trans woman was killed in Klang, a Kuala Lumpur suburb, the third such…

A country hostile toward women, Pakistan faced a reckoning on March 8 when thousands took to the streets to commemorate International Women’s Day—a demonstration of how Pakistani women grow stronger…

The following is the second of a two-part series. The Rise of Jihadism It was not until the Soviet war in Afghanistan, as the Cold War withered away and jihadi…

The following is the first of a two-part series. For many years, the relationship between the United States and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) has been under fire, plagued by…

In January, Ukraine’s Orthodox church won independence following 332 years of Russian control – a powerful blow to Russia’s ability to exert influence in Ukraine and across the Orthodox world.