Center for Strategic Communication

A Glimpse of What Could Be Lost in Timbuktu

By Patricia Lee SharpeTimbuktu, for most Westerners, is simply another word for the end of the world.  Today, in fact, it’s a somewhat decayed real city on the southern edge of the Sahara desert. Once upon a time, however, Timbuktu was a vital commercial and cultural...

Iconoclasts in Timbuktu

By Patricia Lee SharpeNot so long ago Buddhists and art lovers of the world were aghast when the Afghan Taliban destroyed the famous Buddhist statues in Bamiyan. I thought of this tragedy when I learned that  Salafist gangs known as the Ansar Dine (Defenders of Islam)...