Word: muslims
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
There's usually not much common ground between a boy-band singer and a far-right politician who would like to bar Muslim immigrants from his country. But in Britain this week, both have been at the center of fierce debates over freedom of speech...
...Iran, the hard truth is that ethnic Persians make up only 51% of the population. The rest of the country is a mishmash of ethnic minorities, various religions, Muslim sects and semi-nomadic tribes. None has been entirely happy living under the mullahs' Shi'ite theocracy, especially Iran's Sunni citizens, which make up 9% of the population and include most of the Baluch. Iran's minorities have been susceptible to outside influences, but rarely have they felt strong enough to take on Tehran - which fears that that could change with the chaos at its borders. If, for instance...
...south, there's no question that the royal economic philosophy draws succor from the Buddhist concept of the Middle Path. (Indeed, one fish-breeding program at the center was recently suspended because a Buddhist monk had opined that killing catfish for their sperm was unspiritual.) Says a Muslim academic who declined to be named for fear of offending the government: "We need justice for abuses committed by the state against our people, not Buddhist teachings on agriculture." (Read about southern Thailand's forgotten conflict...
...whom snoozed in the tropical heat), there was no doubting the commander's sincere belief that the project would promote the Thai nation's cause in the south. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the complex, young Buddhist army officers earnestly gave lessons on proper fertilizer use to groups of veiled Muslim women, some of whom were completely covered but for their eyes. (The area of Malaysia bordering Thailand's Yala province is among the most conservative in that Southeast Asian nation, and the local Kelantan state government draws inspiration from Islamic Shari'a law.) In another area, under the shade of some...
...systematic military abuse of local civilians, the Fourth Army commander first says he has never heard of the report, then switches tactics and claims that the group's researchers didn't spend much time in the south collecting their information. Pichet acknowledges that the hearts and minds of suspicious Muslim villagers can't be won overnight. But the country still faces a tough battle in its bloody south, no matter how impressively the papaya and rubber trees grow...