As our tour bus full of Christian pilgrims rolls out of Jerusalem, the Jewish guide reads a poetic description of the Israeli settlement Itamar, a place where, we are told, the fields are carpeted in scarlet poppies and blue pansies and the deer “run free … and skip from hill to dale.” Mid-poem, a woman snaps a photo of the Israeli-built cement separation wall just before we cross a checkpoint into the West Bank. Now we’re heading into the heart of the land where Palestinians want to build a state and Israeli settlers want to build Greater Israel.

Saudi Arabia’s support to the Islamic world has been put under the spotlight by the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as the kingdom marks its 83rd National Day. Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said the occasion would celebrate “a time when the Kingdom is enjoying dignity and prosperity under the wise leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.”

While Muslim women wearing niqabs in Britain might be a constant bugbear for EDL types, it's generally not something the rest of the population are particularly concerned about. But once every couple of years, a "niqabi" demands the right to keep wearing the veil in a situation where other people think it shouldn't be worn, so it becomes a Big Deal for a while and the media kick up a grand, preachy fuss until it all blows over.

Nearly 35 years after the Islamic Revolution, gender discrimination is still a challenging issue for Iran. On the one hand, the situation for Iranian women has improved considerably in many respects under the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). On the other, there is a clear and seemingly impregnable ceiling for women in administrative and government positions.

With 250 million people the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia will soon elect a new leader. Prabowo Subianto is a man transformed, driven by a persistent ambition to serve the Indonesian people as its head of state. Once the feared head of Indonesia’s notorious special forces known as Kopassus, now Prabowo puts those days firmly behind him.

Since the founding of the United Nations in 1946, the United Nations Security Council has existed to oversee decisions made by the U.N. The five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France—have a veto power that enables them to prevent the passage of any "substantive" draft Council resolution even if the other countries support it.

About half of Bloc Quebecois and Parti Quebecois supporters think that Muslims and Jews have too much influence in their province, while nearly a third of British Columbians think the same of Sikhs and Asians, a new poll suggests. While that sentiment is particularly pronounced by separatists and in Quebec in general, the rest of Canada fares little better in the Forum Poll on multiculturalism, with about one-third of Canadians saying Muslims have too much influence in their home province.

Boris Johnson has said forcing children to wear a burkha to school is “completely wrong” and contradicts British values and freedoms. Speaking after it emerged a number of UK secondary schools forced girls as young as 11 to wear the full Islamic veil, the Mayor of London said a burkha cannot be described as part of a school uniform, adding that he was “totally against kind compulsion in this matter”.