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Islam and the World: Islam Series

Are terrorist attacks and suicide bombings a betrayal of Islamic teaching? Is the world truly enduring a "clash of civilizations?" Are the world’s one billion Muslims a monolithic community, or is the diversity of Muslim life the key to understanding Islam’s future?

Islam often has uneasy relations with what passes for "modernity" across the rest of the globe: separation of church and state, equality for women, acceptance of an independent status for other religions (other than as prefiguring Islam), a secular legal system.

Whether because of the perceived defeats inflicted upon Muslims by the outside world, or because of the derelictions of their governments, the past 25 years have seen a huge growth in Islamic fundamentalism. Many who see their countries as victims of Western economic and cultural imperialism want to show that they can do better. Thirty years ago, their pride sought refuge in nationalism. Today, they seek a sense of identity by turning back to the Koran.

Across the Muslim world, today’s crisis has produced inflamed discussions about the status of Islamic belief in this age of globalization. To open a global window onto these debates, Project Syndicate is publishing a series of commentaries by statesmen, scholars and activists, predominantly from within "the House of Islam." Edited by Clifford Chanin, Islam and the World displays the breadth and vitality of opinion within and without the Muslim world as it confronts huge pressures for change.

Contributing to this monthly series have been Jordan’s Prince Hassan, Pakistani nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy, Kuwaiti democracy activist Ahmad Bishara, Iraqi intellectual Kanan Makiya, Turkish sociologist Nilufer Gole, Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi, Egyptian Islamist thinker Fahmi Howeidi, Egypt’s human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Indonesian modernist intellectual Nurcholish Madjid.

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Further Offers

Videos

Project Syndicate produces video interviews with regular and featured authors, conducted by the editors of Project Syndicate. In these lively interviews, Project Syndicate contributors expand upon their ideas and analyses, and on the events and trends that their commentaries address. These pithy, compelling discussions are the perfect way to enhance the impact of commentaries that you receive from Project Syndicate.

Podcasts

Complimentary English-language podcasts are provided with the majority of our commentaries. Podcasts are a stimulating complement to Project Syndicate content, and an easy means of integrating a popular media platform into your offerings.

Newsart

Project Syndicate works with NewsArt, a collective of artists who create graphics that wittily allude to the topics addressed in the commentaries that they accompany. These inventive representations of the controversies and events of the day provide eye-catching counterparts to the news that you report.

 

With each column that we distribute, we offer a selection of NewsArt graphics that are available for immediate purchase with a simple click of your mouse. You may then use those images alongside Project Syndicate commentaries, or as a means of enhancing your own content.