The surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has given rise to speculations that the next pontiff to lead the Catholic Church will hail from the developing world, says expert James P. McCartin.

Violence against U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt highlights the difficult road ahead for U.S. relations with these struggling states, says CFR's Robert Danin.

Arab world pro-democracy movements raise questions about how much Islam will figure into the political calculus in emerging governments in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as new ones that might arise elsewhere, says religion expert Ebrahim Moosa.

A rise in Iraq's violence and sectarian tensions--and the highest U.S. monthly combat deaths since 2008--come amid mounting concerns over the government's role and questions about the U.S. troop presence, says expert Sean Kane.

Despite concerns over the political power of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Cairo-based expert Dina Shehata says it is faulty to think Egypt is headed toward a theocracy.

With Islam under intense scrutiny internationally, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, secretary-general for the Organization of the Islamic Conference, discusses the organization's efforts to promote human rights and democracy, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Recent violence against Christians in Malaysia and Egypt points to rising tensions over religious freedom and Islamic identity. Legal expert Angela Wu argues these issues must be considered more carefully in U.S. foreign policy.

Farah Pandith, U.S. special representative to the world's Muslim communities, says the new position will aim to build constructive relationships with Muslims at all levels of society to counter extremism.

Howard B. Schaffer, a former top State Department official on South Asia, says Washington should seek to prevent tensions in Kashmir from complicating U.S. security interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hossein Bastani, an Iranian journalist, discusses the split within Iran between the so-called neoconservatives, who support Ahmadinejad, and the more traditional conservatives, who support the older generation of leaders.

Timothy Samuel Shah, a scholar on religious issues, says that when Pope Benedict XVI makes his first visit to the United States as pope, it will give Americans their first chance to hear firsthand his views on Iraq, the environment, and immigration.

A week away from crucial parliamentary elections in Turkey, relations between the United States and Turkey are severely strained. CFR Fellow Steven A. Cook says a recent major poll shows that “in Turkey, a NATO country firmly allied with the United States over the last fifty years, only 9 percent of Turks have a favorable view of the United States.”

Jawad I. Ali, a lawyer who helps corporations structure sharia-compliant finance deals, discusses the boom in Islamic banking and the industry’s future.

An increasing wave of restrictions on religion spread across the world between 2009 and 2010 in all five of the major regions on the world, according to the Pew Forum.

Libya is experiencing a transition away from its earlier state into a region that has changed in its political and religious landscape.

In the wake of the deadly attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya, Bobby Ghosh writes that the newly-formed democratic governments which replaced long-standing dictatorships, as a result of the Arab Spring, has contributed to greater instability and a more chaotic and unstable Middle East.