Switzerland is a unique and distinguished country, one that had adopted an independent approach based upon the principle of neutrality. Switzerland refrains from adopting positions that may result in hostility with others. It is a country that has adopted the principles of hard-work, accountability, responsibility, and justice. ... More

How can one strike a balance between individual freedom and cultural and ethnic diversity? It is a dilemma that becomes doubly urgent when certain acts are committed like the one by Nidal Hasan, the U.S. officer of Palestinian descent, who opened fire and killed a number of his military comrades in a U.S. base in Texas last ... More

Poor Gordon Brown. The UK prime minister did not start the war in Afghanistan, but last night he was again having to defend the presence there of his country’s soldiers in the face of growing hostility from the British public. Mr. Brown’s annual Guildhall foreign policy speech came in the wake of the row over his letter ... More

In two weeks, the Swiss will be called to vote in a referendum proposed by the Swiss People’s Party and the Federal Democratic Union, to add an amendment to the Constitution whereby the construction of minarets is banned. The issue was blown up beyond proportion: In fact, it started as a dispute over building a minaret in ... More

Shortly after the Fort Hood shootings in which the lives of 13 U.S. Army personnel were senselessly wasted by a killing rampage by one of their own, a U.S. radio commentator called me up for my take as an Arab and a Muslim on the incident. Gary specifically wanted to know if there was any hint of sympathy in the Kingdom for ... More

The more things change for India’s Muslims, the more they remain the same. It’s more than six decades since the country won independence from the British. Meanwhile the world has dramatically changed. India is incredibly different today from what it had been 62 monsoons ago. Its priorities and concerns have changed. Its ... More

Like most of his predecessors, U.S. President Barack Obama has failed to come up with a logical approach to solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, now in its 62nd year. Many optimists on both sides of the great divide had believed that he would, this month, take his first, tough step towards bringing the two sides to agree ... More

The shock of unexpected violence and death can bring about trauma in the lives of the living that is difficult to make sense of, let alone bear. Muslim families are uniquely placed to empathise with the families of victims, as this has been their own daily reality in a region of the world plagued by uninvited violence for more ... More

Ask any Arab where he was on April 9, 2003, when US marines pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in Baghdad, broadcast live on TV and watched by millions, and he will tell you. But most have a hard time remembering what they were doing on that cold day in November 1989, when the Berlin Wall collapsed under ... More

Even before US President Barack Obama gave his inauguration speech, a ray of hope swept the region. Intellectuals and ordinary citizens debated Obama’s new Middle East policy and hopes that an Israeli-Palestinian deal would be struck under his leadership intensified. Refusing to refer to him anything but as Barack Hussein ... More

“A promise is a cloud,” runs the old Arab saying, “fulfillment is rain.” The clouds of promise that surrounded the U.S. president Barack Obama’s far-reaching overture to the Muslim world in Cairo last June have so far conspicuously failed to fall as rain. Indeed, in a week which marks once year since he was elected ... More

A few weeks ago, my close friend Mustafa Akyol gave me a call to share his “aha moment” after listening to Mr. Eric Zürcher’s lecture on “Kemalist ... More

My apologies for returning to Rudyard Kipling in every discussion about Afghanistan! But the man, who gave us such enduring classics as “Jungle Book” and an endless repertoire of tales, ballads, ditties and just about everything on the British Raj, remains eminently relevant to this untamed frontier of civilization. ... More

A page has turned in the grim tale of Britain’s military involvement in Afghanistan. For months, members of the political class have been whispering about the human cost of the war effort – 229 dead so far – and the ever receding chance of defeating the Taliban. But no top politician dared to call for a deadline for ... More

Every Afghan ruler has one fear and one hope, and Hamid Karzai, just confirmed as President of Afghanistan for a second term, is no exception. The fear is that of ending up as Shah Shujaa. The hope is to become like Emir Abdulrahman. Although from different dynasties, the two rulers had much in common. Both had to suffer ... More

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's three-day trip to Pakistan was timely and needed. In the face of a rising tide of Anti-Americanism it was also an act of courage. While she may not be returning with settlement of all outstanding issues between Pakistan and the U.S., the visit seems to have helped in setting the ... More

The novelty of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government’s democratic initiative eclipses issues regarding children’s rights in the criminal justice system. Lately, in the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey, we have been seeing children young enough to be in elementary school and adolescents ... More

Nowadays we, the brave and noble-blooded Turkish people, are afraid of everything under the sun. Avian flu, swine flu, ticks. Yes, our bodies do not deserve to die because of a sickness that spreads through the public. Yes, we do not want to die via “dishonorable” ways. Yes, we are not like the other nations in the ... More

Turkey’s relations with its neighbors have been rapidly evolving over the last few years. Some are improving unexpectedly well, and some are deteriorating unexpectedly fast. One can argue that Turkey’s relations overall as such are evolving for the better. However, the historical characteristics of some of the neighbors ... More

More than 300 killed and injured is the cost of the “welcome” given to the U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by the extremist militants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. This massacre, which was committed by means of a car bomb in Peshawar, coincided with another massive attack at the heart of Kabul, when the ... More