Selecting a new pope has always been an arduous process, but some conclaves seemed to suffer more than others… 1268-71 – The longest papal election in history lasted two years and nine months – mainly due to factional infighting between cardinals. Three of the 20 cardinal electors died before a decision was made. Harriet Sherwood… Read More Fist fights, ghostly pranks and schism: a brief history of conclaves past
Praveen Swami The new political movements do not seek secession. They demand a nation ruled not by generals, but by its constitution. Their grievances have not made them enemies of Pakistan. Nationalism continues to be a powerful force… A genuinely democratic Pakistan, however, would be one where the generals’ jihadist proxies no longer enjoy state… Read More General Munir is losing a far more fateful war within Pakistan / Arif Jamal on the Pakistan military and it’s misuse of Islam (2022)
At the pogrom in the West Bank Palestinian village of Hawara, they torched homes with their occupants inside. The rioters, horrifically, took a short break in the middle of the pogrom for evening prayer, to the light of the rising flames… The late Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who served as chief rabbi of Israel, ruled, “We… Read More I Was Once Shocked by the Term Judeo-Nazi
Sofi Ahsan Kerala based Hindu organisation, Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust, has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, arguing that the law threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India. The trust, established in 2023 to study and dissemination of the values and teachings of the sage and philosopher… Read More Hindu body moves Supreme Court against Waqf Amendment Act
Hagia Sophia was built as a church over a Roman temple, and was subsequently converted into a mosque and then a museum. Since 2020 it is used as a mosque once more By Ali Halit Diker, CNN Whether you’re a believer or not, visiting Hagia Sophia is a spiritual experience. The architectural genius of this… Read More Hagia Sophia: Secrets of the 1,600-year-old megastructure that has survived the collapse of empires
A wise and wonderfully enjoyable book on the enduring power of stupidity. “Paul made possible the transformation of the Gospels’ beautiful moral ideal into an anti-intellectual ideology that was enshrined permanently in the Christian scriptures and has since passed into our secular societies. That ideology has attracted a certain sort of mind ever since –… Read More Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know
The claim of the government that waqf is not a religious issue is a poor attempt to hide its vile communal agenda that seeks to devastate the Muslim community out of existence. Anand Teltumbde The Modi government’s central premise in targeting waqf institutions is that waqf is not a religious matter but merely one of… Read More Waqf Imbroglio: What the BJP Government Won’t Reveal
John Crace What do Liz Truss and JD Vance have against elderly people? Specifically, those who are kind, decent and compassionate. Take Radon Liz. In September 2022 she made a fleeting visit to Balmoral to be sworn in as prime minister by the queen. The last picture that was taken of Queen Elizabeth was of… Read More Pope Francis’s last sacrifice in a lifetime of sacrifice: granting an audience to JD Vance
In terms of a population-adjusted equivalence, Gaza has experienced a 9/11-equivalent every five hours, or over four population-adjusted 9/11s every day for the last year and a half. If the US had experienced the same per capita death toll, population-adjusted deaths would number 8,350,000. (This number arrived at by applying Gaza (population 2.2 million death… Read More The Cross and the Pieta. The Passion of Palestine
The fact that the Supreme Court is willing to stay crucial parts of the Waqf (Amendment) Act suggests that the judicial deference that Modi government commanded as its due is not readily available Mukul Kesavan The Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 is an exercise in premeditated bad faith. Its main provisions are designed to denotify historical… Read More Majoritarian buffet
After the truth-shower 