institutions

India's voter-roll clean-up draws accusations that Muslims were disproportionately removed

The New Arab reports that critics accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of disenfranchising millions of Muslims through a clean-up of India's electoral rolls, as protests spread. Authorities have removed more than 130 million names, and voters must now produce documents to prove eligibility. Critics say

Muslim World League chief condemns hate speech at the G20 Interfaith Forum in Salt Lake City

The 2026 G20 Interfaith Forum opened on 15 October at the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, welcomed by President Dallin H. Oaks, with a letter from Pope Leo XIV read by the Holy See's ambassador. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World

ICESCO and UNESCO renew their cooperation agreement, adding AI ethics and teacher capacity

ICESCO Director-General Dr. Salim M. AlMalik and UNESCO Director-General Dr. Khaled El-Enany signed a memorandum of understanding in Paris on 7 October 2026, under the general ICESCO-UNESCO agreement first signed in July 1985 and renewed in 2010, 2015 and 2019. It covers education and higher education (including faculty capacity building,

institutions

ICESCO and Al Akhawayn open an Ibn Battuta Center for Science Diplomacy

On 28 September 2026 Al Akhawayn University in Morocco and ICESCO announced the ICESCO Ibn Battuta Center for Science Diplomacy, to be based on the university's campus in Ifrane. The stated aim is to make science a bridge for cooperation and dialogue between Africa, the Arab world and

institutions

Indonesia is about to issue binding AI rules, and the drafts leave state use largely unchecked

Indonesia is due to issue two presidential regulations on artificial intelligence in 2026, covering ethics and a national AI roadmap, aimed at promoting ethics, transparency and accountability. The East Asia Forum analysis argues they lean on existing laws that have been selectively enforced and lack independent oversight. It says the

Pakistan, Indonesia and 27 others found a Global South AI cooperation body in Shanghai

On 16 July, representatives of 29 states, including Pakistan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia, founded the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) in Shanghai. Its stated aim is a multipolar, people-centred approach to AI governance, in contrast to Western-set rules. The plan includes 5,000 AI training opportunities over five

institutions

UNESCO programme puts women's leadership at the centre of AI capacity-building in the Global South

UNESCO's International Centre for Higher Education Innovation (ICHEI), working with UNESCO's Institute for Information Technologies in Education, launched "AI-Enabled Empowerment: Women's Leadership in Higher Education in the Global South" on 10 September in Paris. The programme runs on three strands —

Five African universities each receive three million dollars to scale what already works

The Mastercard Foundation's inaugural Africa Higher Education for Transformation (AHEFT) Prize — a $500 million commitment over its first decade — named five winners in Accra on 22 September, each receiving $3 million. Addis Ababa University was recognised for aligning research with national priorities and running clinical training that reaches

institutions

Nigeria's education ministry reviews its Renewal Initiative and sets fresh targets

Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Education has reviewed progress on the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) and set fresh targets, six months after the reform programme's last major stocktake. The review took the form of a ministerial deliverables meeting held on 7 August 2026, revisiting commitments

institutions

Pakistan's Islamic Research Institute and NACTA sign a counter-extremism accord

The Islamic Research Institute (IRI) of the International Islamic University Islamabad and Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly counter violent extremism, strengthen inter-sectarian harmony and advance peacebuilding nationally. The agreement, signed by IIUI's acting rector Professor Ahmed Saad Alahmed

Twenty-five education ministers sign a statement on who governs AI in schools

UNESCO's Digital Learning Week ran in Paris from 8 to 11 September under the theme 'Education in the age of AI: Facts, Frictions, Frontiers', and closed with a joint ministerial statement on sustaining education as a common good in the age of AI. More than twenty-five

ICESCO's Bridges of Civilisation programme opens a Dhofar chapter with Oman

Oman hosted an ICESCO delegation in Dhofar from 25 to 28 August under the organisation's Bridges of Civilisation programme, run by its General Secretariat of National Commissions and Conferences to build direct working ties between ICESCO and member states. The delegation spent the visit on the ground rather

OIC elects Mauritania's Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as new Secretary-General

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's 57 foreign ministers elected Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as the bloc's next secretary-general on August 27, meeting in extraordinary session in Jeddah. He succeeds Chad's Hissein Brahim Taha, whose term formally closes in November, and arrives with

institutions

CAIR ships a legislative toolkit for local Muslim civic organizing

CAIR and CAIR Action released a 2026 Toolkit on Promoting Muslim Civic Engagement in Local and State Governments, compiling model resolutions, proclamations, executive orders, acts and bills already introduced or enacted in jurisdictions nationwide so local chapters and advocates do not have to draft language from scratch. The toolkit spans

CAIR launches Muslims.Vote, a national civic-engagement platform

CAIR has launched Muslims.Vote, a national civic-engagement platform meant to be a one-stop hub for America's roughly three million registered Muslim voters ahead of the November 2026 midterms. The site bundles voter-registration verification, polling-place lookup, election-date reminders, voting-rights information and a personalized vote-planning tool into a single

CAIR's 2026 directory counts 228 Muslim elected officials across 26 states

CAIR and CAIR Action's newly released 2026 Directory of Elected Muslim Officials counts 228 American Muslims serving in elected office and the judiciary, spread across 26 states. New Jersey leads with 46 officials, followed by Michigan and California; the roster spans four members of Congress, 44 state officials,

Mauritania scales a state corps of certified women religious guides

Mauritania's Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Education, working with UNODC and the G5 Sahel's counter-radicalization unit, has built and continues to expand a state-certified corps of mourchidates — women trained in Qur'anic exegesis, hadith and fiqh who are deployed into prisons, schools, hospitals and mosques.

Malaysia's Sultan of Perak makes the case for governed, not just pious, waqf

In an address to Kuala Lumpur's International Da'wah Convention on July 27, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah of Perak argued that waqf, the Islamic endowment that funded the libraries of Baghdad, the hospitals of Damascus, and Fatima al-Fihri's ninth-century foundation of the University of Qarawiyyin,

Muslim World League's chief holds a third round of scholarly dialogue in Pakistan

Muslim World League Secretary-General Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa spent mid-July in Islamabad for the third session of a standing consultative forum with Pakistani religious scholars, alongside separate meetings with the Senate speaker, the chief justice, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The substance was less a single announcement than

institutions

ITFC closes IsDB annual meetings with $2.9bn in trade-finance agreements

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation closed the 2026 IsDB Group Annual Meetings in Baku with $2.9 billion in signed agreements — and the composition of that figure says more than the total. The bulk is multi-year framework agreements with member states: $1 billion with Burkina Faso (2026–2030), $750

institutions

Islamic finance regulators sign on to formal dispute resolution

On 4 June 2026, at the 3rd Global Islamic Economy Summit in Istanbul, the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) and the OIC Arbitration Centre signed a memorandum of understanding to promote alternative dispute resolution across Islamic finance. The two bodies will run joint conferences, training programmes

Istanbul becomes the seat of a new OIC arbitration authority

A Turkish presidential circular has formalized the legal status of the OIC Arbitration Centre in Istanbul, positioning the city as a dispute-resolution hub for commerce among the 57 OIC member states. Arbitration is unglamorous infrastructure, which is precisely why it matters: cross-border trade and investment follow enforceable contracts, and for

institutions

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

Institutions: Civil Society

Reprieve, Yunus Rahmatullah, and Habeas Corpus

From the archive (2012): Reprieve on Yunus Rahmatullah and habeas corpus — the institutional bedrock that a person held must be produced before a court.

Institutions: Governance

Lying Culture Disgraces US Empire

From the archive (2011): credibility and solvency decay together — and the remedy is boring: accounts, audits, accountability.