Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Yana Kunichoff CHICAGO, Mar 7, 2011 (IPS) – In a contentious free speech case, the nation’s highest court has ruled that the right of a fundamentalist church group to protest at military funerals is protected by the First Amendment free speech clause of the constitution when the [...]
INDIA: Hindus Flock to Temples of Death
February 28, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By K. S. Harikrishnan THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Feb 28, 2011 (IPS) – Disasters caused by overcrowded pilgrim centres are as old as the religious festivals themselves, but a dramatic increase in stampedes in recent years has caused national concern. The latest tragedy occurred at the popular hill shrine of [...]
Patriarchy and Fundamentalism Two Sides of the Same Coin
February 25, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Cléo Fatoorehchi UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24, 2011 (IPS) – While "fundamentalism" has become something of a buzzword in the past few years, particularly in the West in connection with Islam, it in fact exists in every region and religion, and has a set of common characteristics, say [...]
PAKISTAN: Mullahs Fight Math in Madrassas
February 22, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Ashfaq Yusufzai PESHAWAR, Feb 22, 2011 (IPS) – The government has launched a programme to modernize religious schools so that students get a basic education in such subjects as math, English and even computers. Sardar Hussain Babak, education minister for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the [...]
EGYPT: Muslims and Christians Protest as One
February 9, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa Al-Omrani CAIRO, Feb 9, 2011 (IPS) – Over recent years, Egypt has witnessed mounting tension between its Muslim majority and its sizeable Coptic Christian minority. But in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the site of ongoing mass protests against the ruling regime, members of [...]
Religious Violence Poses Challenge to Egypt
January 5, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Richard Johnson IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis GENEVA (IDN) – The New Year car bomb attack on the Saints Church in Alexandria is the culmination of a chain of religious violence involving Egypt’s Coptic Christian community, which is estimated to number 10-15 million in a total population of 80 [...]
Muslim Americans Foil Terror Threats
November 10, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By William Fisher NEW YORK, Nov 9, 2010 (IPS) – A new report on violent extremists in the United States finds that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumber those attempted by Muslims, and that Muslim-American communities helped foil close to a third of al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening [...]
INDONESIA: Minority Religions Pray For End to Discrimination
November 8, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Kanis Dursin BEKASI, Indonesia, Nov 8, 2010 (IPS) – Clutching bibles and song leaflets, members of a Protestant church flocked into a one-storey building here, situated next to a new shopping mall on one of the busiest streets in this municipality in Indonesia’s West Java province. The [...]
INDIA: Dalits Turn to the Goddess of English
November 6, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI, Nov 6, 2010 (IPS) – India’s Dalits are turning to the ”Goddess of English” for deliverance from centuries of religiously-sanctioned caste oppression. Dalits, meaning literally the broken people, have begun erecting a temple to their new muse in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of [...]
