Meet Fatin Shidqia, the Hijabi X-Factor Champion

A humble high school student has zoomed to stardom to win Indonesia’s X-Factor. Afia R Fitriati has the story. After dozens of elimination rounds over five months, the votes are in: 16-year-old Fatin Shidqia Lubis has emerged as the winner of the first season of X-Factor Indonesia, beating rival finalist Novita Dewi by a thin margin in … Read more

Anti-graft academic leads Afghan push against ‘economic mafia’

In this photograph taken on April 5, 2015, Hamidullah Farooqi, an economist appointed by Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to lead an anti-corruption inquiry into fuel contracts, works on his laptop at his office in Kabul. Ringed with snipers and sandbag bunkers, the fortified makeshift office of a Kabul academic spearheading President Ashraf Ghani’s unprecedented anti-corruption … Read more

Sri Lanka Muslims still awaiting justice after pre-Ramadan riots

Anti-Muslim violence in southern Sri Lanka by hardline Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists threatens to be an eerie echo of anti-Tamil violence 30 years ago. By Abdul-Halik Azeez. “They came after curfew was imposed,” says Sharmila, sitting by the entrance of her destroyed house. “We thought we were safe in our houses, so we locked ourselves in, but … Read more

Bosnia Muslims life in pictures

Foreign interest in Bosnia’s once-beleaguered Muslim community is evident all around. Saudi Arabia built the largest mosque and Islamic center in the Balkans in Sarajevo and is helping to fund the new university library. Countries such as Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE have all provided aid and investments. Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a … Read more