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

News

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.

Institutions: International Order

The Myth of Moderation

The Washington Post published a poll-induced barely comprehensible laundry list of what a ‘moderate’ Muslim should be [http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2011/02/will_the_real_moderate_muslims_please_stand_up.html] . Let us pick it apart one by one. With apologies to the author of the said

Institutions: Governance

Obama, and the Beginning of the End of Racism

The article version of this post was published by Chowk [http://www.chowk.com/articles/age-of-obama-beginning-of-the-end-of-racism-akber-choudhry.htm] . Almost a year after Obama’s historic election, the strange wave of euphoria that swept around the world is finally morphing into some long-awaited rational discourse. What was it at the time? What

Institutions: Civil Society

The Gulf Arabs' Quixotic Pursuit of Knowledge

Sometimes, I end up asking young Arab workers to gain more training and experience, and apply their mind to an issue and develop critical judgment, instead of simply following instructions. To most young Arabs, knowledge is the piece of paper they get from a college or the instructions they get

Institutions: Civil Society

Convicting Padilla: Bad News for All Americans

From the archive (2007): the Padilla conviction read as a due-process problem for all Americans — defending institutional principle when it was least popular.

Institutions: Governance

The history at the end of history

From the archive (2007): Fukuyama revisiting the end-of-history thesis — public self-correction by a major thinker, landing on the institutional question this site now works on.

Institutions: Governance

Bush Quotes bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri, Al-Zarqawi, Kerry

From the archive (2005): defining a community by its worst claimants — a technique then presidential, now automated. The countermeasure is self-definition.

Institutions: Governance

George Galloway vs. US Senate - transcript

From the archive (2005): the Galloway Senate transcript — a confrontation on the institution’s own floor, on the record, preserved since the week it happened.

Institutions: Governance

Illegal suppression of black vote by Bush's party in America

From the archive (2004): vote suppression as administrative friction — a recurring mechanism, answered by organisation: drives, legal funds, observers.

Institutions: International Order

OIC Intra-trade Vital (courtesy theStar.com.my)

PUTRAJAYA: There is a vital need for meaningful and reliable information directories for intra-trade to flourish among the 57 member countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. The Prime Minister said information directories like the OIC trade directory, released in conjunction with

Institutions: Civil Society

Alfred Nobel Forgiven!

From the archive (2003): a Nobel Peace Prize celebrated — and the lesson that recognition follows institution-builders, decades after the building starts.

Institutions: Governance

Religion, Nationalism and Ummah in Islam

It is without doubt that without the rule of law (judicially enforced or socially enforced), human society would not exist. It is also a fact that most of the man-made law of this world owes itself to religious laws in one way or another. Laws against stealing, cannibalism, rape, incest,

Institutions: International Order

U.S. Ties Military Aid to Peacekeepers' Immunity

From the archive (2002): aid conditioned on ICC immunity — a precise record of how international institutions are weakened by leverage, not argument.

Institutions: Governance

Hampshire College Condemns War

From the archive (2002): Hampshire College’s all-community vote against the war — a small institution using its proper forms to speak, a case study in institutional voice.

Institutions: Civil Society

Federal Bureau of Intimidation

From the archive (2002): Zinn on the FBI — know your history, keep your records, mind your rights; institutional self-defence that transfers.