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Image: The clash of civilizations according to Huntington (1996) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Wikimedia Commons.

The Koran Is Partly on the Side of Islamic Fundamentalists

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — What do we in the West know about Islam? Perhaps more than we did before 9/11 but not much. Now the US and NATO have withdrawn from Afghanistan we are again reminded how little we understand about Islamic fundamentalism and how its adherents justify their beliefs, not least their use of violence.

When Tony Blair was prime minister of the United Kingdom, he was photographed walking along holding the Koran. I wonder how much of it he read. Did he read the verses on violence?

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 21 September 2021

Photo: UN Blue Helmets. Credit: United Nations

UN Urged to Declare a Global Peace Education Day

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Following is the text of Inaugural Keynote Address by Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations and Founder of The Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP), at the First Annual Peace Education Day Conference organized virtually by The Unity Foundation and Peace Education Network.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 September 2021

Image: Two riders at the end of the west frieze Parthenon Marbles, Greece, now in the British Museum, London.

Creating and Codifying the Right to Be Remembered

By Yossef Ben-Meir, Emily Oksen, and Kristin O’Donoghue

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation and Chief of Party of the USAID Religious and Ethnic Minorities Activity Program in Morocco. Emily Oksen and Kristin O’Donoghue are students at the University of Virginia and interns with HAF.

MARRAKESCH (IDN) — It is human nature to wish to be remembered. We have an innate desire to leave behind a legacy or some tangible proof of our existence that outlasts our fleeting time on Earth. Groups comprised of individuals who share an identity also long for this recognition. Collective experiences, achievements, and histories of people have been lost, sometimes systematically through institutionalized inequity, and others through tragic, but often unavoidable, cycles.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 21 September 2021

Report Censures Facebook for Promoting Human Trafficking

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

New York (IDN) — False or misleading posts on Facebook and Instagram are being blamed for enabling human traffickers who recruit African women to be ferried to Saudi Arabia and other countries with promises of visas and jobs.

Instead, the women are held captive, denied access to food and forced to perform sex acts in massage parlours, according to internal investigations published recently in the Wall Street Journal.

: SUSTAINABILITY; Decent Work & Economic Growth; 20 September 2021

Photo: President George Manneh Weah, his wife and entourage.

Liberia To Mark Year-Long Bicentennial Celebration Beginning January 2022

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

New York (IDN) — On February 5, 1820, the first organized group of emigrating freed slaves departed from New York to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa.

Next year, Liberia will mark the date with a bicentennial celebration beginning January 2022 and running through December 2022, according to a recent announcement by President George Manneh Weah.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 20 September 2021

Photo: Bhikkhu Bodhi. Source: Buddhistdoor

Tackling Global Hunger at Its Roots

Viewpoint by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Tackling global hunger requires that we identify its fundamental causes and remove these at the roots. This necessitates not only the adoption of transformative policies, but a fundamental change in our own values and attitudes, writes Bhikkhu Bodhi.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Buddha teaches that to effectively solve any problem we have to remove its underlying causes. While the Buddha himself applies this principle to the ending of existential suffering, the same method can be used to deal with many of the challenges we face in the social and economic dimensions of our lives.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 19 September 2021

Collage: Title of 'No Comment' (left) Thalif Deen (right)

Veteran Journalist Thalif Deen Takes Over as IDN Advisor

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) — Veteran journalist Thalif Deen has been appointed IDN-InDepthNews Advisor on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Arms Control Issues & Senior Writer at the United Nations. IDN is the flagship of the Non-profit global media agency International Press Syndicate. He has been covering the United Nations since the late 1970s.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 19 September 2021

Photo: UN Human Rights Council. Wikimedia Commons.

Fifteen Countries Ask UN Human Rights Chief To Leave Sri Lanka Alone

By Sugeeswara Senadhira

COLOMBO (IDN) — The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet delivered her oral update on Sri Lanka on September 13 at the 46 Session of the UNHRC in Geneva, which went beyond the council’s mandate in commenting on a member country that has not gone unnoticed by at least 15 member countries that have come out in support of Sri Lanka.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 18 September 2021

Photo: Navy Commander at Sampoor with US Marines. Credit: Sri Lanka Navy

Sri Lanka’s Valorous Battle Against a Separatist Insurgency

Viewpoint by Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne

The writer is former Chief of Defence Staff and Retired from the Sri Lanka Navy

COLOMBO (IDN) — The month of August 2006, fifteen years ago was a very eventful month for Sri Lanka Navy. I was the Commandant of Naval and Maritime Academy (NMA) and Flag Officer Naval Fleet (FOCNF) based in Trincomalee; both were busy appointments. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Tamil separatist group, was very active in Eastern area in 2006. They had their Grand Strategy very well laid, with plans to capture Trincomalee harbour and thereby cutting off the lifeline to North, Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC). As no land route to North, (Vanni was under LTTE Control then), Trincomalee was vital to keep our ships and craft to carry men and material to North by sea.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 September 2021

Photo: Herero prisoners of war, around 1900. CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Germany’s Forgotten Genocide in Namibia

Viewpoint by Adekeye Adebajo

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is Director of the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation in South Africa.

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) — As some world leaders gather in New York for their annual United Nations General Assembly rituals, the September 22 debate on “Reparations, Racial Justice, and Equality for People of African Descent” to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Durban Racism Conference, will be particularly significant. While at the Durban conference itself, the issue of reparations was not allowed to be debated by former Western slaver and imperial powers, this issue is now firmly on the agenda.