Ethnic/Religious Minorities

A Kurdish fighter from the Iranian Kurdish armed faction Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) stands with his rifle at a site near the Iraqi border with Iran in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, on March 8, 2026.

Interview

PJAK leader mocks Iran’s claim Turkey spiked US Kurdish-backed regime-change plan

The PJAK co-leader says he does not believe Washington or Israel would abandon a strategic objective as significant as toppling Iran's government because of Turkish objections.

Siamand Moeini

Siamand Moeini

PJAK Executive Council Member

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) welcomes France's President Emmanuel Macron for a joint press conference in Damascus on July 7, 2026.

Explainer

How Macron seeks to carve out France's role in new Syria

French President Emmanuel Macron became the first Western leader to visit Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, showcasing Paris' support for Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa while seeking to secure a share of the country's emerging reconstruction market.

Volunteers of the Druze-led National Guard manage traffic at a checkpoint, Suwayda, Syria, Jan. 22, 2026.

Clashes between Druze fighters, Syrian forces raise fears of renewed violence

The episodes in Druze-majority Suwayda escalated amid kidnappings, various disputes, and absent movement on integrating Druze into state institutions.

A Druze fighter stands at a roundabout draped with the Druze flag and a portrait of a local leader in the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda in southern Syria on July 21, 2025.

Druze gunmen, Syrian government forces clash in Suwayda: What to know

The United Nations recently said that the government has thus far failed to bring calm to the area of southern Syria following sectarian clashes last year.

Latest News

3 IRGC members killed in twin attacks as Iran intensifies Kurdish crackdown

Members of the crowd wave Iranian flags during a funeral procession held for IRGC Navy Chief Alireza Tangsiri.

Explainer

Israel's Armenian genocide recognition marks new front against Turkey

Members of the Jerusalem Armenian community hold placards as they march during commemorations for the 94th anniversary of mass killings of their kin under the Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem's Old City, April 24, 2009.

Culture

Turkey’s Erdogan meets Orthodox patriarch amid push for reopening Halki Seminary

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Orthodox Patriarch of Bartholomew at the presidential complex, Ankara, Turkey, June 16, 2026.

Feature

Backed by Trump and Turkey, Armenia's Pashinyan eyes third term in pivotal poll

US President Donald Trump (L) welcomes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, on Aug. 8, 2025.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

A Druze woman casts her ballot in the northern village of Maghar, Israel, Jan. 22, 2013.

Mixed feelings in Israel over first Druze city

Residents of Maghar would have preferred Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to announce it as a new Arab city, and not as the first Druze city in Israel.

Egypt Christian

Egypt churches play matchmaker as Christians' marriages decline

Egypt's churches are trying to help their unmarried male and female members tie the knot, but the move is making some people angry.

Muslims attend a ritual ceremony to commemorate the Mawlid of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, outside Al-Hussein Mosque, Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 16, 2018.

Egypt celebrates Prophet's birthday with Sufi music stars

Egypt held the first Mawlid festival with Sufi chanting performances to highlight the main core of Sufism, which is combining all religions and urges people to accept each other, whatever their religion is.

Taras Press

Children's books share Sudan's endangered Nobiin with new readers

Three Nubian-Sudanese writers have published children's books written in the Nobiin language and using the Old Nubian script.

Israeli Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana arrives for a photo at the president's residence during a ceremony for the new coalition government, Jerusalem, June 14, 2021.

Israeli minister promotes controversial reform on conversion into Judaism

Minister of Religious Affairs Matan Kahana is determined to break the monopoly of ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate over conversions into Judaism.

An Ethiopian Orthodox priest wafts incense during a prayer inside Bole Medhanialem church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 20, 2021.

Egypt strengthens influence in Africa through church

The Egyptian government is working through the Egyptian Orthodox Church in Africa, especially in the Nile Basin countries, as part of a soft power strategy to boost its influence in light of the crisis over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images

Three Israeli ministers visit Emirates on sidelines of Dubai expo

Three Israeli ministers are using the opportunity of the 2020 Dubai Expo to visit the country and meet with their Emirati counterparts.

This picture shows the Mughrabi ramp, leading from the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound that includes the Dome of the Rock Mosque (background) in Jerusalem's Old City, on Sept. 10, 2021.

Jewish Israelis flock to Temple Mount in greater numbers

Despite warnings from some rabbis that visits are forbidden, more Jewish Israelis are ascending the Temple Mount than ever.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during the Baghdad conference in the Iraqi capital on Aug. 28, 2021.

Sisi statements spark debate about status for Egyptian atheists

The Egyptian president's remarks on human rights have drawn attention to freedom of belief for the nonreligious.

Iraqi Assyrian Christians attend a ceremony with the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church of the East to elect a new Catholicos-patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, at Saint Youhanna church in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq on Sept. 18, 2015.

LISTEN: Assyrian Church of the East elects new patriarch

The new leader of the historic church must now navigate the unique political and spiritual challenges facing his shrinking community in Iraq and its worldwide diaspora.

US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I light candles during Biden's visit to the Church of St. George on Nov. 23, 2014 in Istanbul.

Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew I set to meet Biden at White House

The patriarch will also meet Ankara's US ambassador while in Washington.

A religious Jewish yeshiva (seminary) student stands outside the local army draft office May 11, 2006 at Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv in central Israel.

Bennett’s government advances ultra-Orthodox public school system

The new Israeli government focuses efforts on pushing forward and expanding an ultra-Orthodox public school system.