Minaret of Freedom Weblog

“Any person of any faith will identify himself as a believer first, and a patriot second. When I wear my modest attire, including a scarf on my head, I am saying “God and Country” — in that order”:

• Muslim and American: Staying True to Faith and Country (Huffington Post)

“ Al Wafd would boycott the elections if the government’s obstinacy towards the party and the refusal of its right to air its political advertisements continues.” Al Wafd Spokesman Mohamed Sherdi:

• Egypt: Tensions, Arrests And Threats Of Boycott Ahead Of Parliamentary Election (LA Times)

Prince Alwaleed coming out against the construction of the mosque shows that the debate is not Muslim v. Christian America, but a conversation about the values of tolerance and liberty:

• Prince Alwaleed ‘Against’ Ground Zero Mosque (Arabian Business)

“Mary Brereton, 55, a personal trainer who lives in nearby Alexandria, Va., said she was more worried about the safety record of Metro’s subway trains than the potential for a terrorist attack”:

• FBI Learned Subway-Bomb Suspect Tried To Contact Terror Groups In January To Fight Abroad (LA Times)

F-15 fighter jets and bunker buster bombs are a poor way to deescalate the situation with Iran; they rather give Iran the incentive to maintain balance by further arming themselves:

• Eyeing Iran, US Details $60 Billion Arms Sale To Saudi Arabia (Christian Science Monitor)

The Islamic Movement’s ideological differences with the Muslim Brotherhood can be explained by the former’s operational environment, a country that “treats the indigenous Palestinians” as immigrants:

• Islamic Movement of Israel (Al-Jazeera)

“The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedom in Yemen says at least 20 foreign-born Muslims have been deported from Yemen in 2010. No evidence suggests any of them had joined Al Qaeda”:

• Why Sharif Mobley Is to Be tried in Yemen – and What It Means for American Muslims (Christian Science Monitor)

The “line towards what protesters describe as fascism was … crossed … at the beginnings of the Zionist project, which was built on a conquest of land and exclusively Jewish identity”:

• US And Israel: Blinded By The Right (Al-Jazeera)

“I wasn’t sure just how serious Aziz was with his offer – although having spent time with the former head of the Unscom weapons inspections team, Scott Ritter, I was pretty sure that Aziz was telling the truth about WMD”:

• Tariq Aziz Is A Man Who Knows Too Much (Guardian)

“While striking down the proof-of-citizenship requirement, the court let stand the other key provision of the law which requires people to provide identification before being allowed to cast a ballot”:

• Court Voids Citizenship Voter Proof (Arizona Daily Star)

Although prohibited by Islamic law, forced marriages are problem among Muslims in Germany that proposed legislation will seek to solve with a five year prison sentence:

• Germany Hopes to Make Forced Marriage a Crime (AP / WTOP)

Despite the disruptions of “airstrikes and special operations,” “Taliban commanders who are captured or killed are often replaced in a matter of days” and their forces “appear confident that they can outlast an American troop buildup set to subside beginning next July”:

• U.S. Military Campaign to Topple Resilient Taliban Hasn’t Succeeded (Washington Post)

“As you kill, you will be killed. As you capture, you will be captured. And as you threaten our security, your security will be threatened. The way to safeguard your security is to cease your oppression…”:

• Bin Laden Warns France over Afghan War, Veil Ban (AP/ Forbes)

The unarmed Afghan mullah “seemed friendly. He didn’t seem to have any sort of animosity towards us,” but he was murdered and his body mutilated and evidence planted to make it appear that he was hostile:

• Stryker Unit Sought to Defend Killing at Heart of Afghan Murder Probe (Washington Post)

Saddam’s Christian foreign minister refused to testify against his former boss and now will be executed on charges “related to a crackdown on an uprising led by Shia Muslim parties in the early 1990s”:

• Tariq Aziz Sentenced To Death (Al-Jazeera)

“[Imam Rauf] called on all Muslims in the United States and the world to work to eliminate prejudices against Islam, while noting that the real Islam portrayed by Islamic figures such as Yunus Emre and Ahmet Yesevi should be introduced to other people”:

• Islamophobia Nourished By Ignorance, US Preacher Says (Todays Zaman)

Just one day after the NY Times reported Karzai gets “slush funds” fro Iran, the Afghan president reveals that the USA and the UAE also contribute to “official presidential expenses”:

• Karzai Says His Office Gets Cash from Iran, US (AP / Yahoo)

As Tony Blair says that the threat of militant Islam echoes that of fascism, his sister-in-law converts to Islam, hoping “her conversion would help Blair change his presumptions about Islam”:

• Tony Blair’s Sister-In-Law Converts To Islam (Guardian)

The “Vatican summit … criticized Israel and urged the Jewish state to end its occupation of Palestinian territories”:

• Pope Seeks Religious Liberty In Muslim Mideast (Reuters)

An August poll “found that 75 percent of New Yorkers had never visited a mosque, and that those who had, or who had a close Muslim friend, were more likely to support the Muslim center planned in Lower Manhattan”:

• At Mosques, Inviting Non-Muslims Inside to Ease Hostility Toward Islam (NY Times)

Harrassment affects “women whether or not they wear the conservative Muslim headscarf and reaching the point were women avoid the streets”:

• High-tech Answer to Harassment on Egypt’s Streets (AP / Washington Post)

Anti-jihadi activists like the blogger Pamela Geller, the author Robert Spencer, the investigator Stephen Emerson, and the “think tank denizen” Frank Gaffney make their living professionally by hyping up the threat of Muslims:

• Inside The Lucrative “Anti-Jihad” Industry (Salon)

As Israel Ramps Up Settlement Building, Rachel Corrie’s parent sue “the state of Israel, for a nominal one dollar, for allowing, and at some points encouraging, its soldiers to act with impunity”:

• Justice, Israeli Style (Al-Jazeera)

“[T]he foundation of [journalists’] greater freedoms – the millionaire businessmen who opened up a generation of private media, full of criticism of authority – are just as vulnerable to government pressure as their predecessors:

• Egypt’s Emboldened Press Now Feeling the Backlash (AP / Washington Post)

“[T]he best way to support a negotiated settlement would be to leave Iraq”:

• Will Islam Divide Or Unite Iraq? (Christian Science Monitor)

“The aid does not include any building materials [which is what is needed most], which the Egyptian authorities did not allow, as part of the agreement permitting the activists to enter Gaza for three days”:

• Viva Palestina Convoy Reaches Gaza (Al-Jazeera)

An imam invites fired NPR host “Juan Williams to to meet with Muslims to have a serious and honest dialogue”:

• Muslims Should Not Write Off the Fears of Fellow Americans (Washington Post)

Wilders’ motion “to dismiss the judges because one said that Wilders appeared to be dodging debate by remaining silent in court … was rejected,” but:

• Dutch Retrial Ordered for Wilders’ Hate Speech Case (AP / Miami Herald)

A movie fictionalizing the Islamic punk-rock scene, following a book by the same author, works to make Muslim-American youth culture comfortable in the orbit of American counterculture:

• ‘Taqwacores’: Muslim, Misfit And Making A Noise (NPR)

“Federal Judge Milan Smith said it was ‘repugnant to the Constitution’ for the government to say it ‘has the power to arrest and detain or restrict American citizens for months on end … merely because the government wants to investigate them for possible wrongdoing’ “:

• Supreme Court To Decide Civil Liberties Suit Against John Ashcroft (LA Times)

New developments on the story of Anwar al-Awlaki raise questions as whether the US intelligence community really knows who the terrorists and radicals are:

• NBC: Al-Qaida Figure Was At Pentagon Meeting (NBC)

“Only successful comprehensive negotiations can provide both Israel and Iran with the confidence to get off a course that could lead to mutual destruction…. Why, in God’s name, should comprehensive negotiations be a last resort rather than a first step?”:

• The Iranian Dilemma (Al-Jazeera)

Cindy Sheehan criticizes the Obama administration for abuse of power, lies, and disrespect for civil liberties:

• Injustice In The Age Of Obama (Al-Jazeera)

Et tu, Juan? Juan Williams shares his fears of Muslims on airplanes with Bill O’Reilly:

• NPR fires news analyst after remarks about Muslims (AP / Washington Post)

In his call for an election boycott, ElBaradei “charges that the conditions for a free vote have deteriorated since the last elections in 2005”:

• Egypt’s President Sets Date For Parliamentary Elections On Nov. 28 (LA Times)

A report that the CIA overlooked a critical intelligence source from the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID) as an “internal power play within Jordanian intelligence” turns up the heat:

• CIA Ignored Jordanian Intelligence Before Suicide Bombing In Khost, Afghanistan (Christian Science Monitor)

The resistance of the Taliban to the idea that it has began talks with the Karzai regime suggests that the US and Afghani regime should have pursued peace talks long before the US sought to pull out:

• Meeting The Taliban (Al-Jazeera)

The cancellation of Obama’s visit to the Sikh Golden Temple over “the thorny question of how Mr. Obama would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires” shows how ignorance and prejudice can not only lead to problems for Muslims, but can spillover to other minorities as well:

• A Question Of Appearances: Obama Will Bypass Sikh Temple On Visit to India (New York Times)

US pressure for Iran’s largest trading partner to freeze Iranian assets is not only economically destabilizing for the Gulf cosmopolitan state, but politically destabilizing for Iran as well, cutting the Islamic Republic off from one of the most economically liberal states in the Middle East:

• Dubai’s Next Black Hole? (Al-Jazeera)

Russian nationalists try to sell their protest the building of the fifth mosque in Moscow as pro-green, as apposed to xenophobic, bringing an interesting twist on the “not in my backyard” mosque protests in NYC:

• Planned Mosque Sparks Controversy In Russia (Spiegel)

Activists say the move will stifle efforts to mobilize voters ahead of the upcoming elections:

• Egypt Shuts More Private TVs, Arrests Opposition (AP / Washington Post)

“There are signs … that enforcement and respect for the university head scarf ban are slipping”:

• Turkey Fails to Resolve Dispute over Head Scarves (AP / WTOP)

Leadership Council member says Muslims are not doing enough in “educating the public and allaying their fears of Muslims in the mosque, what goes on in the mosque”:

• US Muslims Invite Dialogue to Counter Anti-Islamic Tensions (Voice of America)

Ratings of the ruling Christian Democratic (CDU) and Free Democratic parties “have slumped so badly this year because of economic problems that their opponents accuse them of using Islam as a scapegoat”:

• Analysis: Germany Holds Inflamed Debate on Islam and Migration (Reuters)

Turkey’s “Higher Education Board has instructed Istanbul University that it can no longer expel students for violating the dress code”:

• Is the Hijab Returning to Turkey? (Salon)

Are the abuses of the Suharto days over? “”I promise you, if it does turn out these abuses were carried out recently, we’ll find out who was responsible and we’ll come down hard” — Lt. Col. Susilo, provincial military spokesman:

• Outrage Follows Video Showing Torture of Papuans (Miami Herald)

A soldier’s testimony “that he was ordered to erase two cell phone videos of the massacre scene” has many wondering:

• Will Fort Hood Shooting Trial Find Motive – or Link to Terrorism? (Christian Science Monitor)

Late in the game, Sudan’s defense minister objects to a secession vote before deciding what are the borders or how oil revenues will be decided:

• Sudan Repeats Warning of Possible Referendum Delay (AP / Washington Post)

A violent daylight assault on Chechnya’s parliament …  has shattered the Kremlin narrative that peace and order are being restored” under Ramzan Kadyrov’s leadership:

• Chechen Parliament Attack a Threat to Kremlin Strongman (Christian Science Monitor)

Exploitation of Islamophobic hysteria is not limited to media figures like Bill O’Reilly and paranoid bloggers who see terrorists hiding in soup cans; “socialist millionaire professor’’ Martin “Peretz has the social and economic guns to … to be defended by even those who acknowledge his bigotry, and finally be honored at the highest levels of American academia:’

• After Blog Post, Peretz Again in a Firestorm (Boston Globe)

Dr Larbi Sadiki argues the good will generated by international collaboration on Arab-designed projects “may constitute the basis for a pluralist and liberal vision,” shifting emphasis away “from selfish statism and conflict to communal interests and co-operation”:

• Going Nuclear: An Arab Oppenheimer? (Al-Jazeera)

“The government’s poor record on this front is one of the main obstacles in Karzai’s bid to get insurgents to reconcile and join the political process,” said Sayed Sharif Yousofy, of the Afghani reconciliation office:

• As Anti-Corruption Measures Lag In Afghanistan, U.S. Looks To Grass-Roots Effort (Washington Post)

“A creative synthesis that is seen by Islamists as ‘Islamic’, and by secularists as ‘secular’, is very possible” since “the Islamic ideal was never the self-absorbed asceticism, but the practical ethicality”:

• Pursuing An Islamic Metamorphosis (Al-Jazeera)

Attorney says holding of football hero was a “gross abuse of the government’s narrow power” of a statute that “allows prosecutors to hold citizens without charging them to ensure that they are available to testify against others”:

• Supreme Court to Decide Whether Ashcroft Can be Sued by Detained Citizen (Washington Post)

As “Zeitoun’s wife had taken the children to safety” from Hurricane Katrina, “he remained to look after their property, paddled about the flooded area in his canoe, rescued several people, fed some abandoned dogs, then – without provocation – was arrested and held incommunicado for many days”:

• Reader Recommendation: Zeitoun (Christian Science Monitor)

The presence of OIC and about a dozen Muslim counties “shows we are on a common path. We are not alone,” according to Michael Steiner, Germany’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan:

• Iran Joins International Group’s Talks on Afghan Strategy (Washington Post)