When Turkish director Semih Kaplanoðlu’s film Honey won the Golden Bear award in the 2010 Berlin Film Festival this February, international film critics turned their attention to Turkish cinema.
Honey is the final part of Kaplanoðlu’s trilogy, which narrates three stages of the life of a man in re

“We need a cultural revolution between Arabs and Jews,” proclaims Said Abu Shakra, founder of the first Arab contemporary art gallery in Israel. “I believe art is a catalyst for social change. It empowers communities and contributes to progress. Wherever there is culture, pride and a sense of belong

On 6 June some organisations, such as Stop Islamization of America, Jihad Watch and the Tea Party movement, have planned a demonstration in New York to protest the building of a cultural and community centre called the Cordoba House, two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The founder of the ce

What happened in Lahore is truly one of the saddest and heart wrenching incidents I have ever experienced as a Pakistani. When places of worship no longer carry the sanctity they deserve, the stark divide in religious ideology is made clear in Pakistan. After wandering around various blogs and rea

Today there is an urgent need to organise the workers in the Catholic Church. We are familiar with associations, clubs, cooperatives, trade unions etc. organized for social, economic and cultural welfare of their membership. In Christian circles, traditional associations such as Confraternities, Sol

The schools in America , no doubt, are places of learning in true sense where both the students and teachers learn from each other. While the students learn about the lessons they are taught in the Classes, their teachers learn about their talents, study methods, food habits and skills among many th

This month marks the 12th anniversary of a critical event in recent Indonesian history – the May 1998 riots. Following the death of four university students who were participating in a protest to demand the resignation of President Suharto, people took to the streets, rioting and looting.
Though m

In a span of just over a month two incidents rocked my city of Jacksonville, Florida, garnering wall-to-wall coverage in local media: the first was my nomination to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission (JHRC), whose mission is to promote fair treatment and equal opportunity for all people regard

After years of stymied efforts, reform in Saudi Arabia is focused on women’s rights. A recent survey by the Researchers Center for Women’s Studies in Riyadh examining Saudi newspapers and websites showed that from mid-January to mid-February 2010 some 40 per cent of articles in print media and 58 pe

I will be the first to defend anyone's right to express their opinion, no matter how offensive it may be to me. Our nation has prospered because Americans value and respect diversity. But freedom of expression does not create an obligation to offend or to show disrespect for the religious beliefs or

Discriminatory practices against religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries are an ongoing issue. For example, in Saudi Arabia non-Muslims cannot build places of worship, nor can they bring their religious scriptures into the country without having them confiscated by Saudi customs. And in so

When we speak of ‘Minority Images in the Indian Print Media’ there are two broad areas to be addressed. The first is the coverage in print -- and images on television and the electronic media – of minorities and how these images have contributed to a process that has strengthened negative stereotyp

It is well conventional fact that no nation can steps forward without education . People can not get privileged skills and guidance without education . Pakistan has the lowly literacy velocity in the world; it is not more than 26% . The governments have been provided that funds but these allocations

In late March, global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome's Colosseum and Egypt's pyramids all stood in darkness, along with more than 4,000 cities in 128 countries that officially switched off their electricity to pledg

Naif Al-Mutawa, creator of a highly successful comic series that is published in eight different languages and will soon appear on television screens all over the United States, has been ranked one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Jordan. He has wo