Comparative Politics

What's Gone Wrong with Democracy?

Future think

World Happiness Report

map of blasphemy laws, world, 2012

Time line maps of different points of entry and size of population on the move by year, 1999-2015

Migration Policy Centre Profile: Lebanon

"The make-up of the flows has changed over the years. Migrants currently come mainly from west Africa, the horn of Africa and, since 2013, Syria. Last year, according to the UNHCR, 31% of arrivals were Syrians, and 18% were fleeing Eritrea. So far this year the flow to Italy is dominated by migrants from the Gambia, Senegal and Somalia. There are routes through the Sahara from both west Africa and the Horn of Africa; there are also some routes along the Mediterranean coast. For many of the communities along the way the traffic in would-be migrants is now a dominant part of the local economy. "

"The Islamic State has said that the historical objects and sites it destroyed were heresy to its ideology, which is rooted in Wahhabism. In Palmyra, for example, the group blew up two historic tombs, one of a Shiite saint and another of a Sufi scholar, because it considers them to be forms of idolatry."

One blogger's take on the ISIS magazine Dabiq

Abdelham Al Abaaoud profile