Changing the Discourse: First Step Toward Changing the Policy? by Phyllis Bennis President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated Cairo speech reflected a significant shift away from the ideological framework of militarism and unilateralism that shaped the Bush administration’s war-based policy toward the…

Remarks of President Barack Obama A New Beginning Cairo, Egypt June 4, 2009 I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood…

1. Obama and the Muslims by Tariq Ramadan The relationships between the United States and the Muslims have been so damaged after eight years of the Bush administration that the whole world is now wondering: What Barack Obama is going…

Focus Article: What is and isn’t Islam? by Nikolaos van Dam It is not only important to explain what Islam really is, but it is also important to make a distinction between what Islam involves, and what people have incorrectly…

Focus Article: Religion is part of the solution in Middle East by Ben Mollov Jerusalem – Bringing religion into the Arab-Israeli conflict cannot be avoided. It is already part of the conflict and has been from its inception. But in…

The Paradox of Israel’s pursuit of might by Max Hastings Forty years ago, I was enraptured by Israel’s courageous sense of mission. For me today, as for many, that idealism has palled. I first visited Israel in 1969. It was…

Focus Article: Enemies no more: the power of sustained dialogue by Saliba Sarsar West Long Branch, New Jersey – A Muslim American woman, standing next to her new American Zionist friend, lit a candle on 20 April – the day…