Videos
Arab Region
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Mona Harb 6 September 2022In Lebanon, the pandemic was used by sectarian political groups as a pretext to reassert their dominance over the country – says prof. Mona Harb (AUB) - 27 July 2021The 2011 Arab uprising raced through the Arab world like a highspeed train and then derailed, from optimism to suffering and despair. A new railroad could revive not only infrastructural policies and trade but overcome the sectarian conflict, political repression, refugee crisis, and violence against women. Drawing on history and policies that have worked, Franklin Roosevelt’s 4 principles of freedom might be useful?
- 16 January 2017Cultures need to learn from each other and so does democratic theory. We need new tools, democratic tools to tame violence, says Ramin Jahanbegloo from York University, Toronto and it is Gandhi who can inspire us once again. And we need democratic passion, civic education and cross cultural, non-violent ideas.
- 21 October 2016Making revolutions and facing modernity was easier for Shia Muslims then for Sunnis, says Prof. Arjomand from N.Y. State University. The Shia attendance for the Madhi helped in mobilizing people and create the Iranian constitution. Instead Sunni Islam is more conservative and hostile against change, with religious reactions against state building, constitutionalism and modernity. And what about comparing the religious differences to those of the religious wars in medieval Europe?
- 19 October 2016The Dalits, once the caste of the untouchables, are still denied the fundamental rights to education and medical reservation. This applies in particular to the more then 21 million Christian Dalits in India, says Rowena Robinson from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, stressing that the denial of these fundamental human rights could become an even worse problem in the future by recreating generations of uneducated young, poor Christian Indians.
- 22 June 2016In Indonesia we have limited separation of state and religion, strong Ulema councils and also pluralism, democracy and fair elections, says Syafiq Hyasim, founder of Rahima Foundation. He researches theological answers ‘within’ Islam. Specifically, two issues: women’s rights and polygamy and the necessity to train female ulemas.
