Nazareth: Thousands of road signs are the latest front in Israel’s battle to erase Arab heritage from much of the Holy Land. Israel Katz, the transport minister, announced this week that signs on all major roads in Israel, East Jerusalem and possibly parts of the West Bank would be “standardised”, converting English and Arabic place names into straight transliterations of …

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – In his 4 June speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, US President Barack Obama started his discussion of religious freedom by pointing out that “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance”. Citing its long history of protecting religious minorities as well as his own experience growing up in overwhelmingly Muslim Indonesia where Christians worshipped freely, he …

The US slaughter in Afghanistan makes the Chinese creeping colonisation of Urumqi look like a picnic, bemoans Eric Walberg July 15, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — Last week’s riots in Urumqi, resulting in 180 deaths, recall similar protests in Tibet last year, though only 19 people were killed there. Both Uighurs and Tibetans exiles demonstrated during the Chinese Olympics, to …

It is true that the name Musali fails to ring a bell to an overwhelming majority of Sri Lankans. The only Muslim majority division in the entire Northern Province for some reason had been out of the limelight for nearly two decades despite having a big story to tell. By the time the LTTE evicted the Muslims in this DS …

Remember the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)? Like a comet which zooms in the distant sky and makes periodic appearances, the Non-Aligned Movement summit surfaces once in three years — and then, virtually, disappears. There was little media hype over the 15th NAM summit held at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday and yesterday. Whatever the media attention that …

July 28, 2009 “Asia Times” — The United States may think of Russia as a strategic partner when it comes to Iran. In reality, the geostrategic tensions between Washington and Moscow are still powerful enough to warrant a common approach by Russia and its eastern neighbor Iran with respect to a deterrent strategy towards the intrusive Western superpower. This week, …