Air Commodore (R) Khalid Iqbal Recent upsurge in violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Formerly known as Burma) has highlighted the regime’s complete disregard for basic human rights. While the international conscience awakens slowly, the Muslim minority has already suffered a colossal spell of ethnic cleansing. Accounting for over 1/3rd of total population of Myanmar, 800,000 Rohingyas are neither ...

MATTHEW F. SMITH The West's faith in Burma isn't being repaid. When U.S. President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on investments by American companies in the country last month, state security forces were still committing killings, rape and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan state. These abuses came after the authorities failed to protect both Rohingya and Arakan Buddhists during sectarian vi ...

By Brendan O'Brien and James B. Kelleher [caption id="attachment_2502" align="alignright" width="137"] Grieved Family of Sikh[/caption] OAK CREEK, Wisconsin (Reuters) - The gunman who killed six worshipers at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin was identified as a 40-year-old U.S. Army veteran and authorities said they were investigating possible links to white supremacist groups and his membership in skinhead rock ...

    By Sajjad Shaukat [caption id="attachment_2498" align="alignright" width="207"] Afghanistan[/caption] In the recent years, a series of conferences were held in order to bring stability and peace in Afghanistan before the foreign troops complete withdrawal from that country in 2014. In earlier July, in the Tokyo conference, US-led western nations and institutions pledged $16 billion for the economic deve ...

By THE NEW YORK TIMES For Sikhs in the United States, India and elsewhere, the killing of six people at a gurudwara, or Sikh temple, in Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon has brought grief and sorrow but also concern that the rampage might be the latest example of a hate crime against Sikhs on American soil in the decade since the 9/11 attacks. The police have not yet offered a motive for Sunday’s attack, which ...

ANOTHER BLOODY incident in the Sinai peninsula has underlined the reality that one of the Middle East’s most sensitive pieces of territory has become a lawless haven for Islamic jihadists. According to Egyptian and Israeli authorities, a group of militants stormed an Egyptian checkpoint in the town of Rafah, on the border with the Gaza Strip; they killed 16 police and border guards and commandeered two vehi ...

 Shibani Mahtani European Pressphoto Association Protestors in hold banners and shout slogans during a protest against Myanmar’s treatment of the ethnic minority Rohingyas in Karachi, Pakistan. Myanmar is no stranger to criticism from Western nations and human rights groups, some of whom still approach the once-reclusive nation with caution despite major economic and social reforms there over the past year. ...

by Ted Galen Carpenter As the Syrian civil war becomes increasingly chaotic and bloody, some experts caution that the conflict is not a simple morality play featuring an evil regime versus noble, freedom-loving rebels. Instead, it is a complex struggle involving several ethnic and religious factions. The regional context for the Syrian conflict is at least as complex, reflecting both a triangular geopolitic ...