News and Analysis (11/16/14)

“Unlike Malaysia’s Kelantan state, which introduced the gold dinar and silver dirham for investment purposes only, IS proposes to make the coins the official currency, freeing their people from the tyranny of central bankers” …

• ISIS Planning New Gold & Silver Currency (Truth in Gold)

… now if they would just stop murdering people; an American Muslim aid worker is the latest victim of IS brutality:

• ISIS Claims to Have Beheaded American Aid Worker Peter Kassig in New Video (abc News)

The Gulf state monarchies lumping the Muslim Brotherhood with  actual terrorists reflects their concern that the proto-democratic impulses of their “Sunni Islamist doctrines challenge the principle of dynastic rule”:

• UAE Lists Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Group (Reuters)

“A Jerusalem holy site at the heart of recent tensions between Israelis and Palestinians was quiet on Friday, police said, after age restrictions for Muslim men who wanted to pray there were lifted for the first time in weeks”:

• Calm Prevails at Jerusalem Holy Site: Did US Diplomacy Help? (AP / Christian Science Monitor)

“[S]anctions … somewhat … benefit entrepreneurs…..” Digikala has filled the void of Amazon’s absence from the Iranian market and plans to use the rise of venture capital to expand in “Iran for now,” and perhaps later “to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Iraq”:

• Here’s What It’s Like to Launch a Start-up in Iran (Washington Post)

Alone among the countries that experienced the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, Tunisia’s transition has remained on track”, but “[t]he possibility of an old-regime politician and his party controlling both the presidency and parliament has raised some concern”:

• Tunisia Readies for Presidential Elections (AP / abc News)

“A suicide bomber has targeted a prominent female Afghan politician, killing three civilians and wounding others in an attack on a Kabul convoy. Shukria Barakzai, a women’s rights advocate and ally of new President Ashraf Ghani, was lightly injured in the attack”:

• Afghan Woman MP Survives Car Attack (BBC)

“Several weeks ago, Ghani invited the Taliban to join national reconciliation negotiations. On Saturday, Sharif backed Ghani’s initiative, but added that the process must be fully Afghan-led and Afghan owned”:

• Pakistan Pledges Support for Afghanistan’s Plan to Negotiate with Taliban (Christian Science Monitor)

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