Pakistan’s laws against blasphemy have been used to bring cases against numerous people over the years, and in particular, the country’s religious minorities.
Tazreena Sajjad, American University School of International Service
Pakistan, created during the 1947 partition, comprised two geographical areas, separated by over a thousand miles. The fault lines between the two regions resulted in the birth of Bangladesh.
India and Pakistan have been fighting for control over Kashmir, an 86,000-square-mile territory in the Himalayas, for seven decades. But the people of Kashmir have their own political goals too.
Hosay, a religious ritual performed by Trinidadian Muslims, combines the somber Islamic observance of Ashura, brought by immigrant Indians, and the joy of Trinidad’s famous carnival.
Amy Bhatt, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Before colonialism, India embraced homosexuality and gender fluidity. The Supreme Court’s repeal of a 157-year-old gay sex ban partially reclaims that history, but LGBTQ Indians still face hurdles.
With Pope Francis recently elevating a Pakistani archbishop as cardinal, a scholar traces the history of persecution of the 2.5 million Christians of Pakistan.
The single greatest failure of current punditry is the refusal to recognise that context matters. A one-size-fits-all approach to solving Zimbabwe’s complex set of problems simply won’t help.
For Gandhi, whose birth anniversary is Monday, Oct. 2, nonviolent resistance meant placing one’s own body in harm’s way to expose social injustices, which made it a powerful political tool.
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, Religion and Civic Culture Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences