Culture
LA VERRIÈRE, France — When Faiza Silmi applied for French citizenship, she worried that her French was not quite good enough or that her Moroccan upbringing would pose a problem.
When Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church, suggested that the British public consider "some accommodation" to Islamic law, and that such an accommodation ultimately was "unavoidable", the response was one of outrage. Yet in most cases, Williams's words were wildly misinterpreted, writes Stephen Jones. When even the most progressive writers about Islam do not denounce the concept of Sharia, would it not be more productive to ask how a symbol that stands for all that is good comes to be used to justify oppression? Could it be that unwillingness to countenance references to the Sharia betrays a reluctance to examine the ethical and moral bases of legal norms in the West?
The Somalia town of Galkayo is known as a refuge from the violence to the south. But girls and women who are separated from their clans know little safety: An 8-year-old was raped and her mother must keep working with the man who did it.
By Anna Husarska
Special to The Washington Post
GALKAYO, Somalia -- On a dusty street that runs through this town of 80,000 in central Somalia, a cluster of men sit on low stools, lost in their daily ritual -- chewing the green leaves of a mild narcotic called khat. Lethargic and
As they prepare to mark the year 2000 seven years after the rest of the world, Ethiopians are torn between pride in a unique culture and uneasiness at the extravaganza planned to mark the occasion.
There is a new breed of internationally mobile, young people of African descent making their mark on the world. They are neither Africans nor Americans or Europeans for that matter but children of many worlds. Afropolitans they are.
Muslim Pilgrims performing the hajj walk outside the Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in this Dec. 27, 2006 file picture. Land developers and religious zealots are transforming Islam's holiest city, erecting giant glass and marble towers of luxury apartments, hotels and gleaming new malls while destroying ancient landmarks.



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