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OSCE: anti-Muslim intolerance is now a social-cohesion problem

OSCE: anti-Muslim intolerance is now a social-cohesion problem

In a March 2026 statement issued under Switzerland's chairpersonship, marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe framed hostility toward Muslims not only as a matter of individual rights but as a security and social-cohesion problem. The framing is the substance:

Islamic tech startups: an ecosystem in the making

Islamic tech startups: an ecosystem in the making

Surveys of the Muslim-world technology scene, including Salaam Gateway's work with DinarStandard on its Top 30 Digital Islamic Economy startups, describe an ecosystem that is still assembling its own parts. The founders are visible across fintech, travel, modest fashion, media and halal food tech; what has lagged is

IOM and OIC sign a three-year plan on migration governance

IOM and OIC sign a three-year plan on migration governance

On the margins of the 51st session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Istanbul, the International Organization for Migration and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation signed a three-year Plan of Action (2025–2027) on migration governance. The detail that matters is not the ceremony but the machinery: the

Scholars draw the line on AI in fatwa: human mufti stays in the loop

Scholars draw the line on AI in fatwa: human mufti stays in the loop

As bodies from al-Azhar and the International Islamic Fiqh Academy to the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America build their 2026 programmes around artificial intelligence and ifta, a shared position is emerging — and it is a governance position, not a theological panic. The starting premise is that a large language

Turning a thousand years of Arabic books into something a machine can read

Turning a thousand years of Arabic books into something a machine can read

Projects such as OpenITI and KITAB are assembling the first large-scale, computationally analysable corpus of the premodern Arabic book tradition. The ambition is to turn a millennium of classical texts into a machine-readable substrate that scholars can search, compare and trace at scale — mapping how passages were quoted, reused and

576 Islamic manuscripts just became a public commons

576 Islamic manuscripts just became a public commons

A consortium led by the Free Library of Philadelphia, working with the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia and backed by a Mellon-funded grant, has digitised 576 Islamic manuscripts and 827 paintings spanning roughly 1000 to 1900 and released them for free public access. The scholarly value is obvious; the institutional

UNESCO is teaching universities to build AI capacity, not buy it

UNESCO is teaching universities to build AI capacity, not buy it

UNESCO has launched a year-long programme, anchored at Saint Joseph University of Beirut, to help higher-education institutions build their own capacity to teach and govern artificial intelligence rather than simply procure it ready-made. The design is the point. Instead of treating AI as a product to be bought from a

The IsDB opens 2026 with a $1bn sukuk — and central banks bought half of it

The IsDB opens 2026 with a $1bn sukuk — and central banks bought half of it

The Islamic Development Bank opened its 2026 funding year with a one-billion-dollar benchmark sukuk, its first issuance of the year. What matters is less the headline figure than who bought it: central banks and official institutions took close to half the order book. That is the signal of a market

Oxford Accelerator Fellowship Programme 2026/27 in Ethical AI — applications open

Oxford Accelerator Fellowship Programme 2026/27 in Ethical AI — applications open

The University of Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI opened applications for its 2026/27 Accelerator Fellowship Programme, a small and competitive scheme — three to four fellows — aimed at professionals and academics whose work is already moving ethical, responsible AI from theory toward real-world impact. The emphasis is

Fitch projects growth in Nigeria's non-interest finance and sukuk through 2026

Fitch projects growth in Nigeria's non-interest finance and sukuk through 2026

Fitch Ratings expects Nigeria's non-interest finance sector to keep expanding through 2026, and the reason it gives is institutional rather than cyclical: a wave of regulatory reform and new liquidity tools from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) designed specifically for non-interest financial institutions. The growth, in other

Islamic finance 2.0: when sukuk became plumbing

Islamic finance 2.0: when sukuk became plumbing

A White & Case analysis notes that foreign-currency sukuk issuance has passed $100bn and that tokenisation is moving from pilot to practice. What was a novelty instrument in 2005 is now institutional plumbing, and the interesting questions have shifted accordingly — away from bare permissibility and toward market structure, settlement, and,

From using AI to owning it: the Global South's shift

From using AI to owning it: the Global South's shift

A World Economic Forum survey traces how initiatives across the Global South are moving from a consumer posture to a builder posture: local models, local data governance, and local talent pipelines. The framing matters. The question is no longer whether these societies will use AI — they already do — but whether

AI in higher education: build the institution, not the gadget

AI in higher education: build the institution, not the gadget

UNESCO's new programme with Saint Joseph University of Beirut treats artificial intelligence in universities as an institutional problem rather than a procurement one. Instead of buying the tool of the month, it builds governance frameworks, trains staff, and integrates AI around human judgement. The wager is that absorption

Gibbon's narrative on Islam in the 'Decline and Fall' of the Romans

Knowledge: Scholarship Featured

Gibbon's narrative on Islam in the 'Decline and Fall' of the Romans

From the archive (2019): reading Gibbon on Islam — double literacy in one’s own tradition and the West’s, the capability this site works to spread.

The Distilled Essence

Theology: Quran & Hadith

The Distilled Essence

From the archive (2017): Abu Hanifa’s five narrations from five thousand — curation as scholarship, the tradition’s own knowledge engineering.

Uthaymeen, Five Years after the 'Qad Khalat' Debate

Theology: Quran & Hadith

Uthaymeen, Five Years after the 'Qad Khalat' Debate

From the archive (2016): five years of follow-through on one verse — translation versus commentary, a distinction now critical as AI paraphrases scripture at scale.

Malcolm X knew Islam's History of Slavery, not Racism

Knowledge: Media Literacy

Malcolm X knew Islam's History of Slavery, not Racism

An interesting article appeared in the Telegraph, titled "The conversion to Islam of Malcolm X is the wrong model for young black men [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11425643/The-conversion-to-Islam-of-Malcolm-X-is-the-wrong-model-for-young-black-men.html] ." Although the author, David Edward, cites historical events, he makes a serious error that fatally undermines

No Solutions to British Muslim Problems without Mutual Respect

Identity: Diaspora

No Solutions to British Muslim Problems without Mutual Respect

From the archive (2015): answering Quilliam — no solutions without mutual respect; partnership with communities’ own institutions, not suspicion.

Theology: Comparative Religion

Evangelii Gaudium - Pope Francis on Muslims

From the archive (2014): Evangelii Gaudium on Muslims — institutional religious leadership choosing respect, and the depth the other side of the table requires.

The Caliphate Brings Trauma

Theology: Comparative Religion

The Caliphate Brings Trauma

From QeRN's 2014 caliphate conference: Daniel Pipes' paper, kept as a record of the debate. The live question underneath: institutions, not slogans, build capability.

Discussion: Caliphate as a Political System - Myth or Reality?

Theology: Comparative Religion

Discussion: Caliphate as a Political System - Myth or Reality?

From the archive (2014): QeRN’s caliphate conference — subjecting the era’s most dangerous slogan to public scholarship, weeks after ISIS claimed it.