Many news outlets carried stories in mid-July of the Turkish government’s condemnation of a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) upholding a ban on headscarves in certain circumstances, in which an employer wishes to convey a “neutral image.” In doing so, it is weighing into the...
In France, Samuel Paty was beheaded on October 16 near Paris. He was a history teacher who had shown caricatures of Prophet Muhammad to his students in a lesson on freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. Paty’s killer, Abdullakh Anzorov, is an 18-year-old of Chechen origin. He arrived in...
At the end of July, Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Adha, the second of the two great Islamic festivals. It honors the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God’s command. God had mercy on him and spared Abraham from losing his son. Abraham sacrificed a sheep...
The rise of Islamophobia and the increase in hate crimes targeted at Muslims point to the lasting effect of Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” thesis. Twenty-three years after the publication of his book, the image of a “violent and irrational” Muslim continues to...
In this edition of The Interview, Fair Observer talks to Peter Riddell, vice-principal at the Melbourne School of Theology in Australia. Islamophobia can be seen in a variety of ways. As a form of intolerance and discrimination, it risks affecting relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and...
In this edition of The Interview, Fair Observer talks to Afshin Marashi, professor of modern Iranian history at the University of Oklahoma. Nowruz is the ancient Iranian celebration of the new year. Although it is difficult to say with certainty when it was first marked, there are some accounts...
