University of Al-Karaouine
The University of Al-Karaouine, also written as al-Quaraouiyine and al-Qarawiyyin (in Arabic: جامعة القرويين), is considered by the Guinness World Records as well as UNESCO as the oldest continuously operating, degree-granting university in the world. You’ll find it tucked within the winding alleyways of Fes el-Bali, Morocco, one of the world’s most ancient living cities.
Wandering around Al-Karaouine today, you can admire the institution’s simple yet beautiful design, decorated with Andalusian art bordered with Kufic calligraphy. The university library is home to numbers of precious manuscripts including historic copies of the Qu’ran.
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How Islam's holiest site treats women and men equally
I was headed to Jeddah to take part in bilateral meetings with representatives from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – a sort of “Muslim United Nations.” The goal was to convince these member states, as well as other U.N. representatives, to let me and my colleagues conduct workshops with government and community stakeholders on religious freedom issues
Having arrived early for the conference, I decided to use my free time to make a pilgrimage to the Ka’bah, Islam’s holiest site in nearby Mecca, something I hadn’t done since I was a young boy. What I saw there stood in sharp contrast to what I witnessed in the rest of the country and, indeed, in many Muslim communities throughout the world.
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From smoking to biking
Heavy smoking, politics and chai – a ritual that happens across Iraq all the time. In the village of Al-Bunahidh in central Iraq, decade after decade, people would gather in al-mudheef, the village guest hall, to chatter away with their chais in hand, late into the evening hours. As for cigarettes – well, it felt as though every boy and his grandma would light one up several times a day. But then, things changed.
Smoking is nothing new in Iraq, quite the contrary. What is more recent is the cheap access to cigarettes, where a pack of smokes would cost about the same as a couple of candy bars. For young and pre-teen Iraqis, it became easy to pick up the habit of their parents and elders, spending only a bit of their pocket money.
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