Category: Politics, Policy & Security
Algeria’s history and identity is rooted in Islam. Cultural practices, even under French rule, were strongly Islamic. In fact, though Algeria established a secular state following its independence, much of its resistance was couched in Islamic rhetoric and ideals. Revolutionaries would often refer to their struggle against the French as a “jihad,” and those fallen […]
Spotlight on the Western Sahara Dispute The ongoing conflict discussed here between the Kingdom of Morocco and the people of the little known Western Sahara is not mentioned in high school textbooks and is not a prominent story mentioned in media, if it is even addressed at all. On occasion the dispute will gain attention, […]
From the Middle East Policy Council comes this exploration of opinions of the effects of a potential Trump presidency on the Middle East. How realistic are his proposed policies? U.S. presidential elections have consequences beyond the borders of the United States of America, making the campaign season a focus for observers and commentators abroad. In […]
The Middle East Policy Council has tackled numerous subjects from defense cooperation and foreign policy in the Middle East to humanitarian crises and hot topic issues like the Iranian nuclear negotiations at its quarterly Capitol Hill Briefings series and in the Middle East Policy Journal. One frequently addressed interest is the Arab-Israeli conflict, which continues to fester without much prospect of a resolution, though not for lack of trying. Here are some transcripts of talks given at MEPC Capitol Hill forums on the Arab-Israeli conflict to show how the climate and conversation differs among specialists and continues to evolve over time.
In 2006, Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress. He took the oath of office on a Qu’ran from Thomas Jefferson’s personal library. This prompted Denise A. Spellburg to write a book on the subject titled Thomas Jefferson’s Qu’ran: Islam and the Founders, published in 2013. In a podcast hosted by Joan Neuberg at the University of Texas at Austin, Neuberg and Spellburg delve into how Thomas Jefferson’s interest in the Qu’ran began and the different ways in which it influenced him.
Anti-extremist activist Maajid Nawaz was once, in fact, an Islamist extremist himself. This TED talk looks at why transnational extremist organizations succeed where democratic movements have a harder time taking hold. He calls for new grassroots stories and global social activism to spread democracy in the face of nationalism and xenophobia.
