The World

SACSIS seeks to examine global issues, particularly as they relate to South Africa.

The Islamic State and a Burgeoning Refugee Crisis: Whither Democracy and Social Justice?

Picture: New arrivals in Lebanon last year. Refugee Khatar with three of her six children in a cowshed on a farm in the Bekaa valley (CAFOD Photo Library/flickr) Alexander O'Riordan - While the world shudders at the horrific and systematic brutality of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), it pays scant attention to the fuel that powers organisations such as militant jihadist groups. Meanwhile there is an escalating refugee crisis developing in Syria, as ordinary people flee the jihadism of the Islamic State. Somewhat bizarrely, this enormous human rights crisis is growing alongside a decrease in donor assistance. While...

Battle over Austerity Collapses French Government

Picture: French President François Hollande courtesy Jean-Marc Ayrault/flickr Sarah Lazare - French President Francois Hollande took the dramatic step Monday of dissolving the country's government in the midst of a heated row over unpopular austerity policies - a move that effectively forced austerity critics from their positions and created a new cabinet of loyalists. The upheaval marks the second time in less than five months that Hollande has orchestrated a shake-up of the French cabinet and comes amid rising opposition to the austerity policies of the president, whose approval...

How the Brutalized Become Brutal

Picture: Al Arabiya English Chris Hedges - The horrific pictures of the beheading of American reporter James Foley, the images of executions of alleged collaborators in Gaza and the bullet-ridden bodies left behind in Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are the end of a story, not the beginning. They are the result of years, at times decades, of the random violence, brutal repression and collective humiliation the United States has inflicted on others. Our terror is delivered to the wretched of the earth with...

Power, Ideology and the War on Terror

Picture: RidzDesign Tom Mills - Arun Kundnani teaches at New York University and is the author of The End of Tolerance: Racism in the 21st Century (2007).  His latest book The Muslims are Coming!, examines the ideologies and strategies of the domestic War on Terror in the US and UK, critiquing both the explicitly Islamophobic ‘clash of civilisations’ ideology and more sophisticated notions about Muslim ‘radicalisation’ which have impressed liberal commentators.  In an interview with Tom...

The Beautiful Smiles of the Fallen Children of Gaza

Picture: Hind Shadi Abu Harbied (10) died of a heart attack during a bomb attack on Beit Hanoun on July 14, 2014, courtesy Humanize Palestine. Fazila Farouk - On 28 July 2014, Defence for Children International Palestine reported that the death toll for the children of Gaza was 200 and rising. However, in the past day or two, the world received news that Israel had bombed a United Nations school in Gaza killing 15 people, mostly women and children. The Guardian newspaper reports, “United Nations officials described the killing of sleeping children as a disgrace to the world and accused Israel of a serious violation of international...

Gaza is Everyone's Concern

Picture: Free Gaza/flickr Richard Pithouse - Every time a man has contributed to the victory of the dignity of the spirit, every time a man has said no to an attempt to subjugate his fellows, I have felt solidarity with his act. - Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, 1952 The ruthless assault on Gaza has sometimes been presented in our media, and on occasion in some solidarity efforts too, as an issue that is solely of concern to Muslim people. It is true that in recent years state politics in both Palestine and Israel has taken...