In 2001, I asked: “Why are there so few Buddhists of color?”
"Something has to change." Shambhala Sun (now Lion's Roar). Sept. 2002. Click here to read story.
Coronavirus is highlighting the rift in Islam (Religion Unplugged)
Coronavirus is bringing to the fore what is likely to be one of Islam’s most fundamental divides of the next decade: the rift between those Muslims whose worldview is being shaped by the modern…
The Online Cacophony of Hate Against Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib (NYT)
Donald Trump has made the demonization of Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, a key element of his 2020 re-election strategy. But the targeting of Ms. Omar and her fellow Democrat…
I met Robert Mugabe in the late 1970s. What he told me still haunts me. (Vox.com)
The Zimbabwean rebel leader wanted to be a different kind of African president. He was — just not the way I thought he meant. By Lawrence Pintak Sep 6, 2019, 6:20pm EDT “We are not going to…
Pakistan is harnessing Western media in the wake of the Kashmir crisis
Responding to India’s August annexation of Kashmir, Pakistani officials are using interviews, op-eds and social media to emphasize that Islamabad is taking a diplomatic, not military, response…
Pakistan on Kashmir: “They have colonized the territory”
The WhatsApp message came an hour after I landed in Islamabad. Sardar Masood Khan, the president of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, wanted to know if I was available to meet. I had interviewed him…
With U.A.E. withdrawal from Yemen, Saudi Crown Prince could lose an ally
The United Arab Emirates is reportedly withdrawing most of its forces from Yemen to defend its home front in the event of an Iran conflict — a move that could also improve its standing with U.S.…
The Road to Trump’s Face-off with Iran
I was flying over the Strait of Hormuz when I first learned Iran had downed a US drone just 12 hours earlier. My Emirates Airlines 777 was on the final approach to Dubai and I had turned on the…
The US isn’t winning any popularity contests among Arabs
The Trump administration is dangerously out of touch with the Middle East, and it's beginning to show. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman may consider US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a “dear…
U.S.-Iran standoff perpetuates flaws of decades-old policies
Current U.S. policy toward Iran has deepened the Middle East's Sunni-Shia divide — embodied in the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran — and risks repeating the failures of…
Pakistan Claims Kashmir’s ‘Moral High Ground’
FEBRUARY 28, 2019, 3:45 PM KARACHI, Pakistan—“I feel like I am invisible,” the president of Kashmir told me a few months ago. “Wherever I go, no one wants to hear what I have to say.” On…
Trump’s Raw Meat for the Islamophobes
18 Apr, 2019 When Donald Trump on Friday tweeted out-of-context clips from a speech by Ilhan Omar intercut with images of 9/11, it was part of a dangerous pattern of demonisation epitomised by his…
