Archive List for al jazeera upfront

Would we be better off without religion 🛐? – UpFront

Is religion a force for good or evil? A controversial question at times, but one that can’t be avoided in the modern world. From violence and terror, to gender equality, to science, reason, and education, the faithful and the faithless tend to repeatedly clash over whether religion is a net positive or negative, whether it helps humanity more than it hurts it. “Religion is both a force of good and evil because religion is a manmade institution, and human beings are both good and evil,” says Reza Aslan, a scholar of religion and best-selling author. “I don’t know why it would come as a surprise to learn that the religious […]

Balfour 100 years on: salvation or betrayal? – UpFront

“One nation, solemnly promised to a second nation, the country of a third.” That’s how one writer famously described the Balfour Declaration – the declaration by then-British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour, on November 2, 1917, that said, “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. […]” One hundred years later, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues, with no sign of any sort of resolution. So, how central was the Balfour Declaration to later developments and what role did Britain play subsequently? And should the declaration be celebrated as the first step towards the establishment of the state of Israel […]