Prayers for 2012 and Reflections on 2011
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - It is customary for columnists to conclude the common year with reflections on that which has just finished and predictions for that which is to come. I make no pretensions to prophecy, aside from occasional analysis based on news reports. I am, however, a Muslim believer, and will therefore reverse the usual More...
Global Tumult Enters Critical Central Asia
Column by Stephen Schwartz - December 2011 marked two momentous anniversaries. The suicide by burning of Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, occurred on December 17, 2010, one year ago. The dissolution More...
Rajasthan Authorities Favor Barelvis, Rejecting Wahhabi Infiltrators
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - On December 5, The Hindu, a major national daily, reported an important step forward in Indian Muslim relations with state governments. According to the newspaper, authorities More...
Ashura – The Continuing Martyrdom
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - The 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the year 1433 according to the Islamic lunar (hijri) calendar, correlated with December 5-6 in Western measurement. Then, and More...
The “Arab Spring” and Turkish Neo-Islamists – A Question and Three Observations
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - The transnational collective journey dubbed hopefully the “Arab Spring” has entered a new stage in its twisting trajectory. After the effervescent phase of “social networking,” More...
The Arab Lands From Revolt to Stalemate
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - The Arab countries dominated, and dominating world attention, by their political unrest in the past year, have outgrown their period of early expectations, and entered a phase More...
Islamophobia Reassessed
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - At the beginning of November, I travelled to rural Pennsylvania, in the Eastern U.S., to lecture on “Islamophobia: The New Fear Industry.” The site of my presentation More...
An Eid Al-Adha Manifesto: For A Sufi Revolution
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - Eid Al-Adha has arrived. Known in India as Eid ul-Zuha, to Balkan and Turkish Muslims as Kurban Bairam and to Persian speakers as Eid-e-Ghorban, the four-day festival of More...
Tunisia Tests Arab Democratic Gains
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz The Tunisian Republic, where the “Arab Spring” began at the end of last year, has now passed the first test of democracy in the region undergoing upheaval since then. More...
The Moral Crisis of Pakistani Barelvism
Column by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz - The week ending 23 October has been replete with complex events. They include the violent end of Mu’ammar Al-Qadhdhafi, the death in hospital of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan More...
