In early March, Tariq Ramadan demanded the dismissal of a court-appointed expert to analyse the control he could exercise over young women with whom he had violent sexual relations. The preacher's defence for the dismissal of Dr Daniel Zagury refers to “manipulation”. In fact, the main reproach levelled at this doctor is that he is... Jewish!

Everyone thought they knew Tunisia when the revolution broke out in January 2011, sweeping away the experts' reassuring analyses of the “Tunisian exception”. In 2021, the same experts, or their emulators, woke up with a start after having served us for years the same ideological broth, seasoned to the taste of the day. The new “Tunisian exception” would thus allow the country of jasmine to escape the fate of other Arab revolutions, thanks to the famous “democratic transition”, guarantor of the political wisdom of Carthage. Now, if it did indeed exist, at a time when intelligence held the reins of the revolutionary chariot, particularly with the great jurist Yadh Ben Achour, who chaired the High Authority for Political Reform, the “transition” has seriously slowed down over time.

Chinese President Xi Jinping displayed his expansionist ambitions within a year of taking over as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) when he launched the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that traverses through Asia, Europe and Africa, connecting dozens of countries. The first country that partnered with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was Pakistan, when the US$ 62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), comprising of a wide range of infrastructure projects, was signed with much fanfare in 2015. Due to its expanse, the CPEC, often referred in Pakistan as the flagship project of the BRI, provides the observer with a ringside view of the actual objectives and expectations of Xi Jinping from his dream initiative.

Increasingly strong, increasingly insane. Recep Tayyip Erdogan enthroned himself as the “second conqueror” of Hagia Sophia after Mehmet II in 1453. He proclaimed it in his “message to the nation” broadcast on television on that funeral day - July 10, 2020 - when Ataturk's 1934 decree transforming the building into a museum was rescinded. Mustapha Kemal had given back to humanity the basilica, jewel of Christianity for 916 years, then flagship mosque of the Ottoman Empire for five centuries. He wanted to put an end to the Islam-Western divide and ease conflicts. Erdogan, on the other hand, is turning them back on.

To paraphrase the Michel Audiard of Les Tontons flingueurs, we can say that collaborators dare to do anything. While the jihadist cutthroats are still shedding blood on France, a black flight of peremptory crows is descending on the plateaus and squatting in the newspaper columns. The poisonous honeyed platforms charged with rewriting reality follow one another as if nothing had happened. In any case not what had upset us to the core of our souls: this aftershock of previous earthquakes, five years after the massacre of Charlie Hebdo's journalists, the attacks on the Bataclan and the Hypercacher.

Multiple French flags and effigies of President Emmanuel Macron have been burnt all over Pakistan in the last couple of days as Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government encouraged political parties, radical Islamic groups, lawyers and students’ associations to come out to the streets in thousands against the perceived Islamophobia in France.

A teacher. He was a History teacher who, when teaching the subject of freedom of expression, asked his pupils that this fundamental freedom could shock them out of the classroom. That already says a lot. This teacher was threatened with death on social networks. He knew it. He had filed a complaint. Some parents had even asked him to resign because you understand, freedom of expression is obscene.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, held a virtual plenary session from October 21 to 23. During this session, the various countries on the FATF watchlist, classified on the organization’s “blacklist” and “gray list”, were reviewed. Currently, two countries, North Korea and Iran, are on the “black list” and 16 countries, including Pakistan, on the “gray list” known as heightened surveillance.

In rapid succession, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Britain’s leading Muslim NGO, was forced to get rid of two of its key leaders. The first for antisemitic writings, the next for singing the praises of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

On September 2, the trial of the January 2015 terror attack at the Charlie Hebdo office and the Hyper Cacher of Porte de Bagnolet in Paris commenced at the Paris Criminal Court. The same day, the Charlie Hebdo magazine re-printed the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad that had made those who worked in the magazine target of lslamist terrorists. When questioned during his visit to Lebanon, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not intervene against the reprint of these cartoons, as the press in France enjoys freedom of expression and even the freedom to blaspheme. While Mr. Macron's statement was well received in France and in most countries around the world, it sparked strong opposition in some countries in the Muslim world.