17 MARCH 2020, THE CONVERSATION The rule of Egypt’s former leader Hosni Mubarak, who died in February at age 91, will be remembered by many for its repressive tactics and the unprecedented Arab Spring protests that led to the strongman’s ouster in 2011. But Mubarak’s legacy is more complicated than that. Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christian Church had a … Continue reading Mubarak’s lasting legacy on Egypt’s Coptic Christians

7 FEBRUARY 2020, OMAHA WORLD-HERALD The writer is an associate professor of political science at University of Nebraska at Omaha and author of "Alien Citizens: The State and Religious Minorities in Turkey and France." Why are authoritarianism and underdevelopment so pervasive in the Muslim world? Both Muslims and others have asked this question for more than … Continue reading Let’s examine a key problem hampering the Muslim world

16 JANUARY 2020, FIFTEEN EIGHTY FOUR Recently, India passed a bill to amend its citizenship law. With this bill, religion becomes a major criterion for the approval of new citizens. While the bill makes it easier to get citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians, it excludes Muslims, India’s largest minority, with a population … Continue reading Religious Minorities and Politics

RAMAZAN KILINÇ 25 NOVEMBER 2019, THE BERKLEY FORUM On Tuesday, October 29, the French Senate approved a controversial bill banning parents of Muslim students from wearing headscarves during school trips. The bill came to the Senate after a French far-right official shouted at a Muslim volunteer parent with a veil to take off her scarf during a … Continue reading How Has Islamophobia Transformed French Politics Toward Muslims?

RAMAZAN KILINÇ 21 NOVEMBER 2019, THE CONVERSATION Vowing to better protect Christians, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told media at the White House recently that Turkey will restore churches damaged during the civil war in northeastern Syria. With this statement, Erdoğan might have hoped to send signals addressing western concerns about the vulnerabilities of Christians in his own country, … Continue reading Christians have lived in Turkey for two millennia – but their future is uncertain

RAMAZAN KILINÇ 22 OCTOBER 2019, INFORMED COMMENT Omaha, NE (Informed Comment) – Turkey is a country where the status of democracy and human rights has never been isolated from international developments. Turkey became a multi-party democracy only after it was threatened by Soviet Russia and put under the NATO defense shield. As I examined elsewhere, when … Continue reading Can his Incursion into Syria Help Turkey’s Erdoğan Consolidate Power?

RAMAZAN KILINÇ 18 JANUARY 2019, SIYASA Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Egypt and gave a speech at American University in Cairo. Secretary Pompeo criticized President Obama’s foreign policy in the region by referring to his famous speech, “A New Beginning,” given in Cairo after he became the president in 2009. He blamed Obama of retreating American … Continue reading A Century of Western Meddling in the Middle East: A Backgrounder

RAMAZAN KILINÇ 23 NOVEMBER 2018, SIYASA On October 19, Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudais, the imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca and the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia, delivered a sermon and declared the Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman as a renewer of religion whom all Muslims should obey. This move was in reaction to … Continue reading Muslims Should Reclaim Religion from the State

RAMAZAN KILINÇ 14 NOVEMBER 2018, SIYASA On 12 November 2018, the Amnesty International withdrew its most prestigious human rights prize from Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s chief of government, accusing her of perpetuating human rights abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority. In the past, Suu Kyi was put on house arrest for several years by the military … Continue reading Why Do Former Victims Become New Oppressors?

RAMAZAN KILINÇ 30 AUGUST 2016, BERKLEY FORUM If it had succeeded, the July 15 coup would have turned Turkey into a military authoritarian regime. It might have even led Turkey into a spiral of violent political instability for several years to come. The failure of the coup saved Turkey from a possible military authoritarianism and … Continue reading Turkish Islamism 2.0: Hegemonic, Nationalist, and Populist