In selecting Theresa May as the new prime minister, the British establishment has opted for another Margaret Thatcher. Can the consequences be any different for ordinary Brits, especially Muslims?
1Europe’s mask of civility is off. Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment are rampant and expressed openly. Our correspondent offers some tips on how to go about living and traveling in Europe.
2The referendum result in Britain on whether to stay or leave the European Union (EU) was not supposed to go the way it did. The expectation was that people would opt to stay. The result stunned everyone including those cynically leading the Leave campaign. Britain and the EU are now stuck with an oucome that is fraught with great risks.
Rightwing parties have made a strong showing in elections in a number of countries recently including Austria. Our correspondent examines the reasons and what this may imply for the future of Muslims.
Europe is in political and financial turmoil following the referendum in Britain where 52% voted to leave the European Union (EU). It has forced the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron who wanted Britain to stay. The EU leaders are angry and want the Brits to get the hell out and not wait until October to start the process of separation. The EU itself may not survive the shock.
1The French National Assembly became the latest elected body calling for the recognition of a Palestinian State. The French follow Britain, Ireland, Sweden and Spain in support of Palestine. The ball was set rolling by a vote in the UN General Assembly in November 2012 upgrading Palestine's status to a non-member state.
The Western-inspired unrest in Ukraine can only go so far. Russia will not allow its interests to be undermined in such a brazen manner by the US. Without European Union support, that has no stomach for a fight on its borders, the US will not achieve its objectives.
The third round of talks between Iran and the sextet started in Geneva today amid guarded optimism that there may be an interim deal at last. It is still too early to tell but all signs point to progress. The next two days will show what can be expected.
When Kosova declared its independence from Serbia on February 12 (becoming the seventh state to emerge from the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991), the US and nineteen members of the European Union (EU) backed the declaration.
The decision of the European Union summit at Luxembourg on October 4 to hold accession talks with Turkey (over Austria's objections) was hailed by both Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, and Jack Straw, Britain's foreign minister (Britain holds the current EU chairmanship), as “historic”.
Turkey has been a trusted and valued member of NATO for a long time, as it has been an associate member of European economic organisations. Turkey first applied to join what was then the EEC in 1959 and signed an association agreement with it in 1963, which strongly implied that it would later become a member.
The assumption that it is the European Union’s transparent unwillingness to admit a Muslim country, rather than the reluctance of a Muslim people to join a Christian union, that is mainly responsible for the failure of membership-negotiations to make any progress is being steadily revised.
The Turkish government has recently announced a programme for retraining schoolchildren, teachers and even imams to “promote modern and peaceful interpretations of Islam”, and to rebrand old European enemies such as Greece and Russia as friends.
The deal recently negotiated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, in Brussels on his country’s longstanding quest for membership of the European Union is, by general agreement, unfair and humiliating, and by no means indicates – let alone guaranteeing – that Turkey will eventually be allowed to become a member of the EU.
There was some sense of relief in the Muslim world in late November, when negotiators representing the Islamic Republic of Iran of succeeded in persuading the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) not to report it to the UN Security Council for having a nuclear weapons programme.
It is not as unfair as it might sound to describe the management of Kosova’s affairs (mismanagement, according to many analysts) by the UN and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as meddling...
When the European Commission recommended on October 9 that nine countries be admitted to the EU but not Turkey, most Turks were not surprised. While the popular view is that a Muslim country is not wanted in the Union in any circumstances...
If Turkey joins the European Union (EU) it will be its largest member by population, and Europe will share borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria. Both prospects are bound to make most Europeans uneasy (to put it mildly), and they may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to Turkey’s EU membership.
The Turkish parliament on October 3 passed 34 amendments to the constitution. Designed to ease Turkey’s entry into the EU, they are impressive only on paper.
Until a month ago it was a firm western policy to arm the Macedonian military and isolate Albanian fighters by branding them as ‘terrorists’ out to break up the country in their alleged pursuit of ‘Greater Albania’.
