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May 26, 2022

Nigeria
Reaction to “Blasphemy” Killing Illustrates Complicated Role of Religion in Nigeria’s Democratic Transition

Horrendous killing of college sophomore highlights the country’s ethnoreligious fault line, but interdenominational rivalry in the south is of no less moment. All in all, reactions to the murder of Ms. Deborah Yakubu, a 200-level home economics student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, have exposed Nigeria’s deepest political fractures and lingering questions over citizenship, national identity, and secularity. On May 12, following disagreement over a WhatsApp voice note deemed to have been blasphemous against Islam and Prophet Muhammad, a mob comprising some of the twenty-two-year-old’s schoolmates brutally clubbed and stoned her to death, after which they proceeded to incinerate her body.

Pastor lectures with a microphone and gestures with his arm wearing a formal attire.

May 9, 2014

United States
This Week: Syria’s Latest Agreement and a New U.S. Ambassador for Egypt

Significant Developments Syria. Regime forces took complete control of Homs today as part of a deal struck with armed rebels allowing for nearly 1,700 opposition fighters to evacuate the city with l…

Residents arrive on foot to inspect their homes in the al-Hamdeya neighborhood, after the cessation of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, in Homs May 9, 2014 (al-Hariri/Courtesy Reuters).

August 20, 2020

Middle East and North Africa
Lebanon’s Frustrating Day of Judgment

Fifteen years after the killing of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri roiled Lebanese society, the international tribunal’s ruling has left wide open the question of who at high levels was responsibl…

Seven judges sit in rows of three and four at attend a session of the UN-backed  Special Tribunal for Lebanon

January 27, 2016

Sub-Saharan Africa
South African Icon Disillusioned with Ruling Party Leadership

On January 24, in London, UK Prime Minister David Cameron honored Nelson Mandela’s three surviving co-defendants at the 1964 Rivonia trial. They were Denis Goldberg, Ahmad Kathrada, and Andrew Mlange…

Rivonia

October 13, 2015

China
China’s Charm Offensive Continues to Sputter in Southeast Asia

After a decade, in the 2000s, in which China aggressively pursued warmer relations with many Southeast Asian nations, using a combination of diplomacy, aid, and soft power to woo its neighbors, the p…

malaysia-protests