Islam
Politics & Society
Will Muslim-Majority States recognise the Afghan Taliban’s ‘Islamic’ regime?
By Islamic standards, the Taliban regime is unusually narrow and destabilising. Security-conscious Muslim-majority states should pause before deciding to recognise it
Arts & Culture
Hagia Sophia reigns serene
Istanbul’s 1,500 year-old Hagia Sophia has a tumultuous history and its return to being a mosque is only the latest twist for a building that has long rolled with the times
Arts & Culture
How Arabic is a window on the world
A chance find in a Damascus bookshop is a reminder that to study Arabic is to be drawn into a wider and vibrant multicultural world
Arts & Culture
Podcast
The oddities of existing things
Between the eighth and thirteenth centuries, Islamic thinking and literature was at its height, and one text in particular attempted to catalogue life, the universe and everything
Politics & Society
India’s alliance politics
In 2014, the BJP rode the Modi-wave to come to power. With the Modi magic waning, and no wave in sight, the 2019 elections will be a story of alliances and partnerships
Politics & Society
Pariah to partner: The West’s premature embrace of Myanmar
Although Myanmar has faced condemnation over a violent military crackdown on the minority Rohingya Muslims, the former military dictatorship is still enjoying a growing embrace by the West
Arts & Culture
Podcast
Twisting the law on the way to the battlefield
How the US stretches international and domestic laws to wage war on non-state Islamist forces, and how those forces invoke Islamic law to justify their own actions