by Salman Ahmad and Deepak Chopra

Suspicions over a cooked election in Iran have brought a glimmer of hope for real reform. It takes glimmers in the long, fractious fights that hold societies in thrall. Can we find one in the toxic fight that has plagued India-Pakistan...

A tragic case like Michael Jackson's reinforces the recurring story of addicted celebrities and their enabling doctors. Being a celebrity does not change the simple fact that the user is a drug addict. And having an M.D. after your name does not change the fact that if you supply the...

Michael Jackson will be remembered, most likely, as a shattered icon, a pop genius who wound up a mutant of fame. That's not who I will remember, however. His mixture of mystery, isolation, indulgence, overwhelming global fame, and personal loneliness was intimately known to me. For twenty years I observed...

If France had a humane, democratic record in its treatment of Muslim immigrants, one might be bemused by Pres. Sarkozy's attempt to suppress the burqa. But the opposite is true. Arab immigrants are treated as second-class citizens, and the rightist politicians, including Sarkozy, are happy to keep them down. As...

Improvement is a simple, natural impulse -- everyone wants to see a better life for his family and society. But when you add the ingredient of sin, improvement becomes clouded. Is it an improvement to deny women education and health care, to dictate what they wear in public, and to...

To someone outside the Muslim world, the ideal of a pure Islamic state looks like a reactionary form of repression. The contradictions between a modern state and one based on the Quran, a divinely inspired document from the seventh century, are simply too great. The issue of theocracy comes down...

In light of the recent sentencing of US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee in North Korea, and the ongoing stalemate in US and North Korean relations, it is vital that we all hold in our hearts and minds the space within which a resolution can be reached so these...

A recent cover story in a struggling news magazine, under the title "Crazy Talk:" accuses Oprah Winfrey of spreading "dubious advice" in a wide range of health issues from menopause and hormone replacement therapy to autism, cancer, aging, and weight loss. The tone of the article was the same...

The issue of Iran's nuclear threat escalates every day, but it is already wearisome -- one more threat to add to a pile that's too high already. Several weeks ago Iran launched a solid fuel missile capable of striking Israel. Reading the news, I felt Cold War déjà vu. Anyone...

President Obama's superlative speech at Cairo University will be much analyzed. It was, as expected, an address that was rational, intelligent, eloquent, and fair. In stark contrast to George Bush's catch phrase, "clash of civilizations," Obama made every effort to weave common threads between the West and the Islamic world....

What should be done when parents rely on religion instead of medicine to heal sick children?

I doubt that any sensible person would sanction withholding medical treatment for a sick child because of his parents' religious beliefs, especially when it's a case of life and death. So far as I...

The war of words between President Obama and Dick Cheney has exposed a rancorous divide over national security. Mr. Cheney states flatly that there is no middle ground on the issue. There is no such thing as being half-safe, he declares. On the face of it, his statement is nonsensical....

This is a column about optimism and why there's reason to feel it. Over the weekend one of the news shows referred to "morning in America." That was Ronald Reagan's call to optimism thirty years ago. The country was demoralized and just beginning to come out of a long recession....

Thursday is National Day of Prayer, as mandated by Congress. What should President Obama do? Should he follow tradition and sign a ceremonial proclamation? Should he follow President George W. Bush's practice of hosting a formal White House event? Should he ignore it completely?

Whether or not a national day...

It seems clear that the question of torture won't go away. It would be easier to talk about moving ahead. Images of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo belong in nightmares. As a physician, my personal nightmare is of the doctors who stood by during torture sessions to monitor the victim's vital...

A new poll has brought some welcome news. When asked, "Do you think the country is headed in the right direction?" more responders say yes than no. This is in stark contrast to the latter stages of the Bush administration, when the no's were mounting to unheard-of levels, past 80%....

Dear Friends,
This post by my friend DK Matai reveals the full extent of this economic crisis. The language may be too technical for some ,and the numbers hard to fathom, but it suggests that the current bailout strategy may be of little more help than a band-aid on...

How would you respond to radical Muslim clerics in northwest Pakistan -- now under Islamic law -- who are calling for expansion of Islamic law across the entire federal republic of Pakistan? Should any nation be governed by religious rules?

Although it may not often be realized, freedom...

I'm calling all my friends on Earth Day to just remind them that the earth is recycling in our bodies. Through our rivers and waters are our circulation, its atmosphere is our breath, its trees are our lungs. We call it the environment, but that's the wrong word. It's our...

It's mysterious how swiftly a society can collectively change its mind. As rapidly as the financial markets crashed, so has Fox News's credibility. What was gospel to an entire segment of voters and viewers just a few months ago has become a desperate flapping in the wind. Some may...