• Exclusive: Afghan Insurgents Use Planned Koran Burning to Turn Villagers Against U.S. (abc News)

… and as Evangelical leaders seek to dissuade Jones from his reckless course, even Sarah Palin has doubts about the wisdom of Qur’an burning:

• Qur’an Burning Will Boost Terrorism, Says Barack Obama (Guardian)

Indian authorities remove the enforced curfew in Kashmir for Eid-ul-Fitr, giving a reason to celebrate to a population under duress of unsettled competition between Pakistan, China, and India:

• Eid-ul-Fitr: Kashmir Valley Freed from Curfew (India One)

“According to a [new] Washington Post-ABC News poll, 49 percent of all Americans say that they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say that they have favorable ones”:

• Half of Americans Have Unfavorable Opinion Of Islam: Poll (Thaindian News)

The latest target of the Islamophobes is a small Muslim college:

• New Muslim College Welcomes Freshmen in California (AP / Washington Post)

With hate crimes against Jews outnumbering even those against Muslims, “Jews and Muslims share a common interest in fighting hate crimes in America and working to strengthen pluralism” …

• The Reality of Islamophobia in America (LA Times)

… meanwhile back in Deutschland, a member of the board of the central bank argues the Nazis were mistaken only in the specifics,  claiming Jews are smart and Muslims inferior:

• Economist’s Views on Muslim Immigrants Sparks Controversy in Germany (Washington Post)

• Clinton: Planned Qur’an Burning Not the American Way (AP / Washington Post)
• Koran-Burning Plan Draws Worldwide Condemnation (Reuters)

“I do not underestimate the challenges that will be involved in bringing our work to completion. … we will clearly identify all of our financial backers,” Imam Rauf (identified as a Sufi by author Stephen Prothero):

• Imam Rauf: Mosque Will Move Ahead (Politico)

Syrian crackdown goes into high gear:

• Syria’s Solidarity With Islamists Ends at Home (New York Times)

2008 Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr warns that Islam is not Qur’an burners’ only target as they believe that “any religion .  .  .  which teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God” is “of the devil”:

• Quran-Burning Preacher Defines “Idiot” (AJC)

• 5 Steps to Burning Books (Shalom Center)

“On one hand, 9/11 is a very difficult day for us, and on then other hand, Eid is like our Christmas, it’s a day for celebration,” says Zeba Iqbal, Executive Director of the Council on the Advancement of Muslim Professionals:

• Muslims Toning Down Eid Festivities In Honor Of Sept. 11 (Washington Post)

“The spectacle of Israeli youth helping destroy al-Arakib helps explain why 56% of Jewish Israeli high school students do not believe Arabs should be allowed to serve in the Knesset – why the next generation wants apartheid”:

• The “Summer Camp Of Destruction:” Israeli High Schoolers Assist The Razing Of A Bedouin Town (Max Blumenthal)

Foreign policy Realists from the Nixon Center question how strategic federally-funded programs in Israel are (a novel idea from the school of thought of Kissinger):

• Nixon Center Debate, “Israel; Asset or Liability?” (The Nixon Center)

Fordham University Professor Father Patrick Ryan explains how conflict, and cooperation between Christians and Muslims is not new:

• Bridging The Christian-Muslim Divide (NPR)

Step by step, and without intending to, Mobley’s captors seem to have turned a man who declined to be a spy into a murderer:

• The Post-9/11 Life of an American Charged with Murder (Washington Post)

“ElBaradei was not specific on where he would take his campaign next, but he threatened civil disobedience if the regime continues to ignore calls for change”:

• Egyptian Opposition Leader Urges Election Boycott (AP / WTOP)

• Malaysian Muslims Go for Gold, But It’s Hard to Make Change (Wall Street Journal)

A ham-handed government attempt to smear the Muslim Brotherhood backfires, “turning a dinosaur into a living political phenomenon”:

• Egypt TV show stirs debate over Muslim Brotherhood (Washington Post)

MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad argues that Netanyahu’s attempt to convince Abbas that citizens of Israel and Palestine should be guaranteed civil rights but not “national rights” is a step backwards:

• Netanyahu Treats Negotiations Like a Joke (Minaret of Freedom Institute)

“The West has accused us of curbing the liberties of BlackBerry users, while America, Israel, Britain and other countries are allowed access to all transferred data”:

• U.S. and Israel Spying Behind BlackBerry Woe: Dubai Police (Reuters)

“[P]anicked depositors formed long queues at Kabul Bank branches throughout the country, nearly every branch a staging ground of outrage against the government”:

• Kabul Bank Run May Pose More Immediate Threat than Afghan Taliban (Christian Science Monitor)

Asked how far away from ground zero should Park51 be built, 9% of New Yorkers say no distance is sufficiently far away, demonstrating “why we don’t put fundamental rights up to a show of hands”:

• The Mosque Exclusion Zone, Quantified (Washington Post)

What transforms the ploy from being simply a defense of racism into a sick joke is the fact that the man whom Netanyahu is lecturing has no interest in distinguishing between national and civil rights of Palestinians. The Palest8inian Authority has inherited the Palestine Liberation Organization’s the principle of equal rights of all Palestinians whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. Netanyahu’s comments would be more appropriate if his interlocutor were Hamas, which has adopted Israel’s peculiar notion about a distinction between national rights and civil rights, claiming, as Israel does, that while there should be no discrimination in the civil rights of law-abiding citizens, nonetheless the land of Palestine (to Hamas) or to Israel (to the Zionists) is a trust of single group (Muslims to Hamas, Jews to Zionists).

Even if Netanyahu and Hamas are correct on this point (and I would be fascinated to hear the debate), as a practical matter it is a step backwards in the peace process to try to convince Abbas to adopt their point of view. If the U.S. administration wants the peace talks to be anything other than a joke, they need to invite Hamas to the talks and immediately start to try to convince both Hamas and Netanyahu that the citizens of any nation-state should have the same national and civil rights as any other. That is, after all, America’s great contribution to the evolution of human governance.

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D
Minaret of Freedom Institute
www.minaret.org

• When Will Those Brave Critics of Islam Decry This Mob Hate? (Guardian)

Are we talking about Abercrombie and Fitch or Hooters? Confronted by the EEOC, company lawyers said allowing the employee to cover her hair “‘would have created an undue hardship’ for the company’s business”:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Sued Over Muslim Scarf (San Fransisco Chronicle)

The negative reaction displays disagreement among French “Muslims about what foods are really halal, who is qualified to decide, and whether the certification agencies are” sufficiently rigorous …

• Paris Mosque Slams Burger Chain’s Muslim Outreach (Washington Post)

… meanwhile, as with his move to ban the burqa, Sarkozy’s “actions against the Roma and his proposals relating to foreigners … have divided the country and his government”:

• France And Its Deportation Of Roma (Gypsies) — Echoes Of The US? (Christian Science Monitor)

“There’s already a mosque four blocks away. Should it be moved?” asks NYC Mayor Bloomberg; and what of the Christian Science Reading Room, the Churches and the off-track betting?

• Community Near Former WTC Almost Like Any Other (NPR)

Gates thinks that the problem with the Iraq War “is that for many Americans … the premise on which we justified going to war turned out not to be valid”:

• Gates: Iraq War Premise ‘Not Valid’ (Al-Jazeera)

• Military Officers Cancel Trip After Humiliation At US Airport (Dawn)

As an IDF officer was acquitted on the charges of killing a 13-year-old Palestinian girl; the military court ruled that he had “not acted unethically” …

• Not Guilty. The Israeli Captain Who Emptied His Rifle Into A Palestinian Schoolgirl (Guardian)

… the State Department and express the view that Hamas’s attack on settlers from Kiryat Arba and Beit Haggai. was really aimed at the “peace process”:

• Hamas Targets Israeli-Palestinian Talks By Killing Four Israelis (Christian Science Monitor)

““By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor.” — Taliban operative Zabihullah:

• The Taliban vs. the Mosque (Newseek)

In the face of increasing hate crimes, a spokesman for the planned Nashville Islamic center says, “that there should be a law enforcement presence at prayer services but that it should be police, not the FBI” …

• Muslims Debate FBI Presence At Mosques (Washington Post)

… but we have received an an unpublished “special message” from American Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections’ chairman Agha Saaed that, contrary to the above cited article, he “NEVER welcomed FBI’s presence in the Nashville mosque.”

• Guide Tells How Terrorism Suspect Became Informant (Washington Post)

Sharing the archaic view that marriage conflicts with education, lawmakers move to address the problem by taking the right to marry away from young women 15-17, adults under Islamic law but not under Jordanian law:

• Jordan Marriage Law Challenged (al-Jazeera)

“In other parts of Tennessee, including Chattanooga, Knoxville and Memphis, Muslim leaders reported that they had experienced no hostility and saw no reason to increase security”:

• Incidents at Mosque in Tennessee Spread Fear (New York Times)

Pan Arab Research Center in Dubai “estimates advertising spending by financial services companies in the Arab region is likely to grow by 40 percent this Ramadan compared with the previous season”:

• Banks Step Up Ramadan Marketing Campaigns to Spur Growth: Islamic Finance (Bloomberg)

“For the sake of the values we hold dear in this country, we must resist the temptation to fear and hate those we may perceive as ‘the Stranger,’ but instead make a place at the table for all members of the American family”:

• The Spiritual Convergence Of Rosh Hashanah, Eid al-Fitr And 9/11 (Washington Post)

“My Faith, My Voice”, a web forum initiative, enables Muslim Americans to respond directly to controversial issues regarding Muslims in America:

• Muslim Group Wants a Voice on Mosque Debate (Fox)

• As U.S. troops Leave Iraq, an Officer Honors the Memory of a Young Interpreter (Washington Post)

… but Iraqis have little confidence in politicians who “fight over positions and have no idea what we eat and drink and where we live”:

• As U.S. Withdraws, Iraqis Still Live in Crisis (Reuters)

After “far-right activists threw missiles and smoke bombs,” the police say, “the way all the people of Bradford, particularly the Muslim people, reacted, was wonderful”:

• English Defence League Rally in Bradford Leads to 13 Arrests (Guardian)

“It aint what you don’t know that kills you; it’s what you know that aint so.” — Mr. Dooley:

• Five Myths About Mosques in America (Washington Post)

Hitherto silent, Imam Faizul says the dispute is “not between Muslims and non-Muslims, but between moderates of all the faith traditions and the radicals of all the faith traditions”:

• Imam Says Islamic Center Dispute Politicized (Reuters)

Everyone “thinks it is all very funny,” the owner says as he points to a poster of Yasser Arafat in his kaffiyeh and Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in a green baseball cap standing in front of the Dome of the Rock mosque:

• Hamas Headband? Fatah Keychain? Gaza Strip Gift Shop Has It All (Christian Science Monitor)

• Iran Bomb ‘Not Imminent’ (Al-Jazeera)

The “level of rhetoric has become so poisonous that we could end up turning the very moderates we seek to bring into the fold against us”":

• Radical Islamists Try to Exploit Islamophobia (VOA)

“If you’re going to say that we’re separate from people, you’re going to do what the radicals want — on both sides,” says President of the American University Muslim Students Association, Tanim Awwal:

• Hostility Across U.S. Jars Muslim College Students (Washington Post)

As the National Association of Evangelicals urges Terry Jones to call off his Qur’an burning “in the name and love of Jesus Christ,” Prof. John Esposito exposes the flaws in the argument that “Islam is the enemy”:

• One Church’s Reasons to Hate Islam, Challenged by an Expert (NY Times)

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force “officials are aware of civilian casualty allegations as a result of the engagement and are conducting an investigation”:

• NATO kills Afghan children, loses three soldiers (Radio Netherlands Worldwide / ANP / AFP)

Is the euphoria of the holy month reflected in a Muslim world stock surge?

• Muslims See a Ramadan Rally for Stocks, Investments (Huffington Post)