Calling the Faithful to Freedom!

Does Hariri’s resignation signal that the Trump administration has pressured the Saudis to spoil Lebanon’s “compromise with Hezbollah … which over the past 12 months has brought some rare stability to Lebanon? Hariri’s Shock Resignation: What Saudis Gain, and Lebanon Could Lose (Christian Science Monitor) The Revolutionary Guard “often benefited financially from the sanctions regime”…

On a single day Yemen launches a missile at Saudi, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri travels to Saudi Arabia to resign, and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is arrested … Saudi Arabia: Missile Intercepted near Riyadh (BBC) Lebanese President Will Not Accept PM’s Resignation Until He Returns, Say Sources (Middle East Eye) Future Saudi King Tightens Grip…

“Contrary to an oft-propagated myth, the land was not devoid of people. In 1920 the Jewish population in Mandatory Palestine stood at only 11%; their land ownership was less than 7% by 1947″: A Century  On from Balfour, I Challenge Britain to Finally Do the Right Thing (Guardian) Police say a New York truck attack…

While Saudi Arabia grants a robot “more rights than many humans in the country” … Saudi Arabia Grants Citizenship to a Robot for the First Time Ever (Independent) … Israel looks to cement its “definition as a state that belongs not to its citizens – as is the case in a liberal democracy – but to…

As with President El-Sisi, the phony “progressivism” of the new university president does not include “opening the public square, including campuses, to political organizing“: New Cairo University Leader Advocates for Progressive Islam (Al-Fanar) “Katie … wouldn’t want to sit next to a Muslim on a bus … [and] was fearful of women wearing the niqab.…

The State Department’s warning is reminiscent of how the U.S. eventually admitted that chemical weapons use it falsely attributed to Iran was actually the work of Saddam Hussein: US Admitting Syrian Militants Use Chemical Weapons ‘Welcome’ Overdue Corrective (Sputnik) Trump says his policy is to kill terrorists, but “since the Taliban kicked off their spring…

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Hawaii ruled it “plainly discriminates based on nationality,” and on Wednesday one “in Maryland … issued a second halt to portions of the ban”: Muslim Americans Rally Against Trump Travel Ban One Day After a Judge Blocked It (Washington Post) After what Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boyla called “four years…

He wasn’t Muslim, black, an immigrant, and “was not groomed by the FBI,” so old Michael Christopher Estes “narrowly foiled terror plot” got little media attention: Foiled NC Terrorist Plot Buried When It Didn’t Fit Counter-Terrorism Narrative (Mint Press) Corker proposes replacing presidential certification of compliance with “re-triggered” sanctions ‘should Iran be assessed within one year…

“The UK, France and Germany responded that the pact was ‘in our shared national security interest’…. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the US was ‘more isolated than ever’” … Iran Nuclear Deal: Global Powers Stand by Pact Despite Trump Threat (BBC) “Trump decides to ‘decertify,’ but not scuttle, the … deal…. There are some issues that…

The war in Yemen strengthens Al-Qaeda’s deadliest branch, “yet there’s never been a public debate over the American role in deepening that threat to our own national security”: Stop the Unconstitutional War in Yemen (NY Times) “[A]s a Muslim[, y]ou commit your life to being a force for good, particularly in [places] that have struggled because…