Nowhere in the world is Shariah more contested (yet seldom debated) than in war-weary, Somalia where each of the entities competing for power claims to have embraced it while condemning its detractor, or rather, its enemy, as a dangerous imposter.

All the colorful politics motivating each contender...

Not since France's banning of wearing the hijab or Islamic headwear in schools has institutional Islamophobia unveiled its ugly head under the spotlight of world attention. In Florida, political pressure has caused the scale of justice to tilt shamelessly.

The case of Rifqa Bary -- a 17 year old Muslim...

In his attempt to improve relations with the Muslim world, President Obama has done what no other American president has ever done before.

Starting with his inauguration speech in which he stressed on the importance of relaxing the defensive posture so that the demonization process could stop. Following with...

Whether in Somalia or elsewhere, any attempt to tame religious extremism with violence leads to costly tragedies and disenchantments. And anyone who doubts this ought to simply reevaluate the miserable results of GWT -- the global war on terrorism.

So it goes without saying: a non-violent paradigm to solving...

In light of the rising violence in Mogadishu and how dramatically power seems to be slipping out of the hands of the unity government, the specter of what is commonly referred to as "the curse" is once again creeping back into the Somali collective psyche.

In the eighteen years...

Make no mistake: the proliferation of piracy in the Somali coast is a serious problem -- not only for the international community but for Somalia in general, and more specifically, for the current Islamist-led government of national unity. After all, Islamic law has zero tolerance for banditry, whether sea-based or...