Middle-east-online.com As civilised people across the world breathed a sigh of relief to see the back of former US president George W. Bush, top American intellectual Noam Chomsky warned against assuming or expecting significant changes in the basis of Washington’s foreign policy under President Barack Obama. During two lectures organised by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in …

THE SPREAD OF A WORLD CREED The Times (London) Lucy Berrington finds the Muslim Faith is winning Western admirers despite hostile media coverage. Unprecedented numbers of British people, nearly all of them women, are converting to Islam at a time of deep divisions within the Anglican and Catholic churches. The rate of conversions has prompted predictions that Islam will rapidly …

The world needs to get a sophisticated understanding of the problem of Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. It has figured so steadfastly in the media for weeks, months, and years, that it has become understandable that the Israeli President Shimon Peres should say “Iran today is really a world problem, maybe the number one problem of the world.” (London Telegraph interview …

The relations that have existed between the Sinhalese and Muslims of Sri Lanka since time immemorial may be cited as a unique example of ethnic harmony in pluralistic, multi-ethnic societies. This inimitable relationship between the country’s majority community comprising of over 70 percent of the population and a minority of less than 10 percent is certainly an eye-opener for all …

Interview with Geert Somsen, a historian of science at Maastricht University. GEERT SOMSEN is a historian of science with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He currently directs his faculty’s Graduate School and teaches in several bachelor’s and master’s programmes. He graduated in Chemistry but switched to historical research about 20 years ago. …

Bullying, ragging, intimidation, are acceptable news stories in our morning papers. As a predominantly religious and moral society, where non violence is more than a philosophy, where a large number of people are vegetarian and abstain from alcohol, where religions are interchangeable and festivals celebrated by all, how have we come to that place where, we look on as a …