Feature – News Updates

Prominent Islamic scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday criticised the public celebrations of Christmas in Qatar, saying that such celebrations would “undermine” the country’s Islamic identity. In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Qaradawi called the current practice of displaying Christmas trees and other Christmas-related decorations by local stores “un-Islamic”. “This is not the image of the Muslim capital city of Doha,” Sheikh …

Washington, DC – With almost 58 per cent of Swiss voters recently delivering an electoral surprise by casting ballots in favour of a referendum to ban construction of minarets in their country, it remains to be seen whether the result of the referendum will be good for Switzerland, or even for Europe as a whole. This may seem odd to …

A black futureIn a tunnel outside Geneva, the Large Hadron Collider will smash protons so energetically that tiny black holes might be produced in the process. Maximilien Brice/CERN Shortly after the first of the year (if not already), the Large Hadron Collider — the most powerful particle accelerator ever built — will smash protons together at record energies. If the …

If Noam Chomsky’s critics have a common refrain, it is pointing to his habit of being far too hard on America’s motives and too easy on its opponents. The former, of course, is his métier. The latter criticism has limited (though a few important) instances. In fact, Chomsky’s central question is how do you punish the crook who owns the …

For years Turkey has tried to join the European Union (EU) however Turkey ’s application for entry here been rejected time and again. Turkey continues its efforts to join the European Union, despite the open determination of some members of the EU such as Germany and France to exclude it. All this despite relations between Turkey , Israel and the …

It wasn’t meant to go this way. For months we had been told that the efforts to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland were doomed. The last surveys suggested around 34 percent of the Swiss population would vote for this shocking initiative. Last Friday, in a meeting organized in Lausanne, more than 800 students, professors and citizens were in …