This past week, Al Jazeera America published a piece by Musa al-Gharbi in which the author argues that Mexico’s drug gangs, who have effectively transformed parts of the country into a war zone, are a greater threat to international security than the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

When my brother, his partner, and I decided to catch a late night show of Haider, a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in Kashmir, we made sure that we arrived a solid twenty minutes late. None of us wanted to endure the possible mandatory stand-and-salute to the national anthem which often plays in Indian cinemas at the start of films. Some of us who’ve tried to stay seated in the past have had to endure many a self-righteous aunty berating us for insulting India or argue with some chaat-loving corporate exec languishing in sheeplike patriotism on his night off.

On Monday, New York's Metropolitan Opera went ahead with its production of John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer. The evening was met with protests from various conservative organizations outside and jeers from some audience members inside who denounced the opera and called for it to be banned from the stage, declaring that the work is a glorification of terrorism and a tool of anti-Semitism.