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Articles on Religious extremism

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A woman who’s not wearing a hijab flashes a victory sign as she walks around in the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran, on Oct. 1, 2022. Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks to protest the death of a woman who was detained by the morality police for allegedly wearing her mandatory Islamic veil too loosely. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian women keep up the pressure for real change – but will broad public support continue?

To many Iranians, a revolution has happened given the public’s embrace of women and their demands amid ongoing protests. The question is whether the solidarity holds up and the regime listens.
Young women members of the Charles Manson family kneel on the sidewalk outside the Los Angeles at Hall of Justice March 29, 1971, with their heads shaved. Wally Fong/AP

Religious lies, conmen and coercive control: how cults corrupt our desire for love and connection

What is the appeal of cults? How do they work? And what is the damage they do? A new book, by the creator of the podcast Let’s Talk About Sects, answers these questions and more.
Personnel were evacuated from the U.S. embassy in Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, as Taliban insurgents broke through the capital city’s defensive line. AP Photo/Rahmat Gul

Afghan government collapses, Taliban seize control: 5 essential reads

The Taliban ‘expect a complete handover of power.’ Experts explain who the Taliban are, what life is like under their rule and how the US may bear responsibility for Afghanistan’s collapse.
Afghan citizens at a March 2021 rally in Kabul to support peace talks between the Taliban and the government. Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Taliban ‘has not changed,’ say women facing subjugation in areas of Afghanistan under its extremist rule

Burqas and male chaperones for women were features of the Taliban’s extremist rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s. Those policies are now back in some districts controlled by these Islamic militants.
In early 2021, some Taliban fighters surrendered their weapons to support peace talks with the Afghan government. Today the Islamic extremist group is battling government forces to control the country. Xinhua/Emran Waak via Getty Images

Afghanistan after the US withdrawal: The Taliban speak more moderately but their extremist rule hasn’t evolved in 20 years

Two decades have passed since the US invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban’s Islamic extremist regime. Despite efforts to update its image, the group still holds hard-line views.
Local fishermen take matters into their own hands to rescue dozens of Rohingya people drifting on a broken boat in waters off Lhoksukon in Aceh. Rahmad/Antara Foto

Why Aceh is a rare place of welcome for Rohingya refugees

Islamic solidarity, customary law and their experience of conflict and foreign aid can explain the Acehnese greeting people in need with open arms.
US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar sign an agreement ending the US’s 18-year war in Afghanistan, Doha, Feb. 29, 2020. GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images

After US and Taliban sign accord, Afghanistan must prepare for peace

A peace deal with the Taliban has been signed. But rebuilding Afghanistan after three decades of conflict will take much more than an accord, says a scholar of peacebuilding.
The Myanmar military’s years-long campaign against the Rohingya Muslims left hundreds of villages a smoldering pile of debris. Warpait village, Rakhine State, Oct.14, 2016. Ye Aung Thu/AFP via Getty Images

Preventing genocide in Myanmar: Court order tries to protect Rohingya Muslims where politics has failed

The International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to protect its Rohingya minority and preserve any evidence relevant to the genocide charges against it. But compliance is not guaranteed.
Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is the most dangerous and sophisticated offshoot of the terror group Osama bin Laden founded in Afghanistan in 1988. AP Photo/Hani Mohammed

Al-Qaida is stronger today than it was on 9/11

Bin Laden’s extremist group had less than a hundred members in September 2001. Today it’s a transnational terror organization with 40,000 fighters across the Middle East, Africa and beyond.
Students are far more understanding of their religious peers if they attend classes about religious diversity. from shutterstock.com

Want a safer world for your children? Teach them about diverse religions and worldviews

Australian society is made up of people from different backgrounds and faiths. Teaching school children about religious diversity and traditions makes them more tolerant of religious minorities.

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