Crystal ball

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With the new year looming, it's time for me to gaze into my crystal ball and reveal what 2016 may hold for us all. Please note: None of these predictions come with an ironclad guarantee. The spirits are notoriously fickle, don'tcha know. The most important single word in the world will be "Islam". Whether we are taking about war in the Middle East, tides of refugees, or that obscure epithet, "terrorism", the question of Islam will be foremost on our lips. On everyone's lips, in fact, for this is a matter which is every bit as important to the Muslim world as it is to non-Muslims. There must be an accord on both the political and personal level. This is the defining cultural challenge of the century. Meanwhile, war in the Middle East will not be ended and the flood of migrants, refugees, new neighbors, call them what you will, is set to continue. 60 million of these men,women and children does not seem too unreasonable a number. Here's the big one: Expect a major attack somewhere in the world on May 16 next year. Why then? The spirits are reminding me that this date marks the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, that short-sighted treaty responsible for so many of our current woes. We don't know it yet, but ISIS has a sense of history as well as of destiny, hence the Paris atrocity coinciding with the date that the Ottoman Empire and its Caliphate fell. The mists are clouding now, and I can't be sure about the next couple of predictions. But they seem to be revealing that we will all will care about Africa for the first time since our Empires played Risk with the world. Burundi, Gambia, Nigeria, the best hope for Christianity...the next 12 months will bring the Dark Continent into an overdue spotlight. And finally, with the most controversial and important of US elections just 10 months away, the spirits are whispering a name to me. No, surely not. Okay then. Get ready for President Chris Christie.