Religie

Editorial

Modi wields the sceptre in India more than ever

7 June 2023 -

What was a sunny Pentecost weekend for you and me took on the colours of a political high mass in India. MO* contributor Gie Goris: "The images leave no doubt: Modi is wielding the sengol."

Analysis

Russian mercenaries in exchange for African natural resources

12 December 2022 -

Two phenomena have been on the rise in recent years: privatised warfare and ultra-nationalist extremism in Russia. Its outflow is the infamous Wagner Group, the private military company that does not even officially exist. In recent years, Wagner has occupied more and more space in Africa.

Longread

The fight against “political Islam” creates a monster that is everywhere and nowhere

30 November 2020 -

The attacks in France and Austria reinforce the call for zero tolerance. Austrian Chancellor Kurz wants to tackle terrorism by outlawing 'political Islam', French President Macron by reforming Islam into a religion that fits the secular state. Is there a baby in the political bathwater?

Analysis

Asia Bibi and Pakistan´s Great Win Against Bigotry

11 February 2019 -

After spending eight years of solitary confinement in an 8f x 10f death cell, Asia Bibi (51) has been declared innocent. She was released from jail after a three-member Supreme Court bench cleared her of all the charges of blasphemy on October 31, 2018 and a review petition was categorically dismissed on January 29, 2019.

Column

The Ambiguities of Anti-Semitism

2 November 2018 -

It's essential we do not see antisemitism or the Shoah as something unique, says Anya Topolski in her column. It blinds us for a systematic pattern of racism and genocide, and, because it means we do not try to get to the root cause of the problem.

Report

Kairouan, or the network behind the Tunisian suspect of the Berlin attack

15 February 2017 -

Anis Amri, chief suspect behind the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, grew up in Kairouan. Jihadi Salafists proclaimed this ancient Tunisian city the capital of an Islamic state. The shooter who killed 38 hotel guests on a beach in Sousse in 2015 radicalized here as well. In the summer of 2015, Montasser AlDe’emeh and Pieter Stockmans w ...

Longread

Trump brings the European New Right into the White House. To be continued in 2017?

6 December 2016 -

Everyone fears Trump will give the European far-right parties a boost. But it is the European New Right that laid the ideological foundations for Trump. Their network has been paving the way since 1968. Half a century later they are in power in the White House and the Kremlin. Next year in Western Europe?

Interview

‘Waging War, Eating Meat, Capitalism – Evidence Of A Harrowing Lack Of Imagination’

3 February 2016 -

Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist who loves science more than incense, believes the logic of cooperation will, by a process of natural selection, eventually come to replace the logic of neoliberalism. With the government currently displaying less compassion than ever for vulnerable citizens, it was high time for a conversation with the author of “A ...

Analysis

Roots of radicalisation in Pakistan

29 May 2015 -

The political and intellectual consensus against terrorism in Pakistan is getting regular shocks by unabated terrorist attacks on civilians and communities. With 1520 people killed during 5 months of 2015, the “motivated vigor” of civil and military leadership has started sounding shallow despite the successes of military operations in ...

Opinion

Self-criticism is the mother of dialogue

21 April 2011 -

These days, Judaism and Christianity are often presented as kindred souls who stand for democracy and human rights, while Islam is cut from a wholly different cloth. This essay by Tom Kenis argues that the books and practice of the three religions barely support this contention.