Religion & Politics

China

Technological surveillance of religion in China

Chris Meserole

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Bulgarian Muslims Mehmed Aiumankov (L), and his bride Fatme Kichukova (2nd L) walk with their friends during their wedding ceremony in the village of Ribnovo, in the Rhodope Mountains, some 210 km (130 miles) south of Sofia December 11, 2011. The remote mountain village of Ribnovo in southwest Bulgaria has kept its traditional winter marriage ceremony alive despite decades of Communist persecution, followed by poverty that forced many men to seek work abroad. The wedding ritual was resurrected with vigour among the Pomaks - Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. Today Muslims make up 10 percent of Bulgaria's 7.4 million population. The highlight of the ceremony is the painting of the bride's face, where in a private rite open only to female in-laws, her face is covered in thick, chalky white paint and decorated with colourful sequins. Picture taken December 11, 2011. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov (BULGARIA - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION)

Religion & Politics

Balkan affairs: Turkish and Saudi influence on Bulgarian Muslims

Rositsa Atanasova

Monday, June 29, 2020

People attend a right-wing party Alternative for Sweden protest in Stockholm, Sweden, September 7, 2018. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

Religion & Politics

What makes populists more (or less) resilient over time

Danielle Lee Tomson

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Anti-riot policemen stand in front of the Mosque, as police was deployed in several areas of the city to enforce a ban on protests over an anti-Islam film or against a French magazine that published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed. France's Muslim leaders, on September 21, urged militants not to defy the ban on protests, as a security alert closed the France's embassies across the Islamic world, in Paris, France, on September 22, 2012. Photo by Stephane Lemouton/ABACAPRESS.COM.

France

How religious legacies shape public debates over Muslim immigration

Catherine Fieschi

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Reports

Sweden Democrats party leader Jimmie Akesson speaks on election evening at Kristallen restaurant in central Stockholm, Sweden September 9, 2018. TT News Agency/Anders Wiklund/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN.

Immigration

The Rise of Sweden Democrats: Islam, Populism and the End of Swedish Exceptionalism

Danielle Lee Tomson

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Marine Le Pen - Presidente du Rassemblement National

Religion & Politics

Muslims and the secular city: How right-wing populists shape the French debate over Islam

Catherine Fieschi

Friday, February 28, 2020

People hold banners reading "Refugees and Muslims are welcome" during a memorial service held for those killed on Saturday by a 22-year-old gunman, in Copenhagen February 16, 2015. Danish police said on Monday they had charged two people with aiding the man suspected of shooting dead two people in attacks on a synagogue and an event promoting free speech in Copenhagen at the weekend. The shootings, which Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called acts of terrorism, sent shockwaves through Denmark and have been compared to the January attacks in Paris by Islamist militants that killed 17. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger (DENMARK - Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS RELIGION CIVIL UNREST) - LR2EB2G1L133Y

Religion & Politics

Islam as a “floating signifier”: Right-wing populism and perceptions of Muslims in Denmark

Susi Meret and Andreas Beyer Gregersen

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) chairwoman Frauke Petry (R) and party member Armin Paul Hampel (background R) meet with Nurhan Soykan, first deputy chairwoman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany and Sadiqu Al-Mousllie (2nd L) member of the Syrian opposition in Germany, at a hotel in Berlin, Germany May 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt - LR1EC5N0S6B8U

Religion & Politics

Right-wing populism in Germany: Muslims and minorities after the 2015 refugee crisis

Jeffrey Gedmin

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Syrian migrants walk along a railway track after crossing the Hungarian-Serbian border into Hungary, near Roszke, August 26, 2015. Hungary's government has started to construct a 175-km-long (110-mile-long) fence on its border with Serbia in order to halt a massive flow of migrants who enter the EU via Hungary and head to western Europe. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh - GF10000182998

Religion & Politics

Anti-Muslim populism in Hungary: From the margins to the mainstream

Péter Krekó, Bulcsú Hunyadi, and Patrik Szicherle

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Blog Posts

An Egyptian Muslim wearing a protective mask performs amid social distancing markers, first prayers of Al-Fajr prayer inside the Al Rahman Mosque after months of lockdown, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Cairo neighborhood of Maadi, Egypt June 27, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Order from Chaos

Reopening the World: Reopening Muslim religious spaces

Madiha Afzal

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Protestors run as riot police fire tear gas and move on demonstrators to clear Lafayette Park and the area around it across from the White House for President Donald Trump to be able to walk through for a photo opportunity in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, during a rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, near the White House, in Washington, U.S. June 1, 2020. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

FixGov

Four ways to tell a prophet from a political puppet

Thomas Reese

Friday, June 12, 2020

Members of the GKB academy, a unicycle club, return from school to the academy in Lagos, Nigeria October 11, 2019. Picture taken October 11, 2019. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja

Order from Chaos

The fundamental connection between education and Boko Haram in Nigeria

Madiha Afzal

Thursday, May 7, 2020

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Events

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May

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Related Books

Rethinking Political Islam

By Shadi Hamid and William McCants

2017

Megachange

By Darrell M. West

2016

The Islamic State

By Charles R. Lister; Foreword by Ahmed Rashid

2015

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Experts

Sharan Grewal

Nonresident Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy

sh_grewal

Shadi Hamid

Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy, U.S. Relations with the Islamic World

shadihamid

View All Experts

Multimedia

Muslims maintain safe distance as they attend Friday prayer after government limited congregational prayers and ordered to stay home, in efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Lahore, Pakistan April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza

Podcast Episode

How is Pakistan balancing religion and politics in its response to the coronavirus?

Madiha Afzal and Adrianna Pita

Friday, April 24, 2020

A view of minarets of Prophet Mohammad's Mosque in the holy city of Medina January 3, 2007. Pilgrims from all over the world gather in the holy city of Mecca each year for the five-day haj, which is a duty for every able-bodied Muslim at least once in a lifetime. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji (SAUDI ARABIA) FOR BEST QUALITY IMAGE: ALSO SEE GF2E5440NM001 - GM1DUHYIKUAA

Order from Chaos

Islam as statecraft: How governments use religion in foreign policy

Eliora Katz

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Indonesian Muslims attend Friday prayers at the Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta July 23, 2010. Indonesia's Muslims learned last week they have been praying in the wrong direction, after the country's highest Islamic authority said its directive on the direction of Mecca actually had people facing Africa. Muslims are supposed to face the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia during prayer and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued an edict in March stipulating westward was the correct direction from the world's most populous Muslim country. It has now said the true direction is north-west. REUTERS/Supri (INDONESIA - Tags: RELIGION ODDLY IMAGES OF THE DAY) - GM1E67N18IZ01

Podcast Episode

How Saudi Arabia and Iran use Islam in foreign policy

Shadi Hamid, Peter Mandaville, and Fred Dews

Friday, January 11, 2019

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Reports

Webinar: Navigating Islamic interpretation during the pandemic

“Cause of Death” – A film screening and panel discussion with the director

In the shadow of impeachment hearings, dueling visions for the nation

Nonresident Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy

Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy, U.S. Relations with the Islamic World