In this Huffington Post piece, Sharmine Narwari, a Senior Associate at St. Anthony's College, Oxford University, argues that given the current geopolitical standpoint, the "political spat" between Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is, for now at least, much ado about nothing.

Bill Spindle and Margaret Coker explore the historical divides between Iraq and Saudi Arabia and demonstrate how recent uprisings in the region have heightened tensions between the two countries.

Thomas Fuller discusses what role Islam will play in the new political landscape of Tunisia.

More than five years after Danish artist Kurt Westergaard published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, lives continue to be lost. Malise Ruthven of the New York Review of Books investigates why.

The Economist reports that the Communist Party in China is tightening its control of the Catholic church.

Those who warn against efforts to promote free elections in Muslim-majority countries often point to the threat posed by Islamic parties that stand ready to use democracy against itself. Writing for the Journal of Democracy, Charles Kurzman and Ijlal Naqvi examine the historical record of Islamic parties and Muslim voters.

Maznah Mohamad expresses concern over the increased radicalization of Malaysia's ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO).

Sheikh Ali Goma'a, Grand Mufti of Egypt, champions moderate Islam, condemns religious violence, and addresses the challenges facing the United States in bettering its relationship with Islam.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a comprehensive demographic study of the World's Muslim population.

Seyran Ates, a practicing Muslim, charges that  Germany has been downplaying human rights--and women's rights in particular--in an effort to remain politically correct with respect to religious practices.

George Weigel argues that a real understanding of Pope Benedict's trip to the Middle East "must start at the true source of Benedict's own thinking: scripture."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks to Newsweek's Owen Matthews about Islam, modernity and Turkey's role in Israel-Syria communications

Turkey is at war with itself again, over religion and politics in Turkish life, and the consequences for both itself and its friends could be devastating.

Against the backdrop of changing political alliances between Kurds and Sunnis, Moqtada al-Sadr is transforming Iraq’s Shiite Sadrist movement into a new political phenomenon with implications for the country’s political structure and security dynamics.

This article examines how some followers of Buddhism, a religion that encourages detachment from worldly desires and feelings, are influencing government and picking up arms. A fast growing religion, Buddhists are increasingly visible – Burma, Thailand, and Tibet have all seen Buddhist uprisings since 2006 – and prominent on the world stage. Christian Caryl explains how meditative becomes militant.

This volume sheds light on some of the issues linked to political Islam, which is the most important and complex set of challenges that the US and Europe face today.

The article assesses the sharpening divisions within the evangelical world over the evangelical alliance with the Republican Party, among approaches to ministry and theology, and between the generations.

Basra, the second largest and richest city in Iraq, is at the brink of a major economic and political meltdown. It may become the greatest threat to the future of post-Baathist Iraq.

This report considers events in the five years that have passed since the 2002 communal violence in the Western Indian state of Gujarat in which more than 2,000 people were killed. Amnesty International says it remains concerned about the ongoing impact of that violence on the Muslim minority in Gujarat.

The Congressional Research Service reports on the rise is Islamic extremism in Bangladesh