Minaret of Freedom Weblog

“[A]mid a spiraling crackdown on religious groups and government critics,”

• Rights Group: 39 Uzbeks Died of Torture in Prisons (AP / Herald online)

Just asking: Is a country whose state-paid clerical officials issue a formal religious ruling against renting or selling to a religious or ethnic minority really a democracy?

• Is Israel a Democracy? Five Actions in 2010 that Fueled the Debate (Christian Science Monitor)

U.N. ambassador “Youssoufou Bamba expressed alarm that houses in certain areas were being marked according to the tribe of the person who lives there” …

• Ivory Coast on the ‘Brink of Genocide’ (Guardian)

… it is only the tip of the iceburg of the problem of  the more fundamental problem in African governance:

• Ivory Coast Election Crisis: A Roadmap for African Political Reform (Christian Science Monitor)

“Shiite Muslims in Malaysia have made a rare public plea for authorities to let them legally worship amid fears of a clampdown on outlawed religious groups”:

• Shiite Muslims in Malaysia Make Plea for Government to Let Them Freely Practice Faith (AP / Washington Post)

“Israeli security forces have orchestrated a campaign of regular night time arrest raids against Issawiya residents in an effort to halt growing popular resistance to segregation, home demolition and land confiscation”:

• The Struggle for East Jerusalem (Al-Jazeera)

“The last American soldier will leave Iraq…. This agreement is not subject to extension, not subject to alteration. It is sealed.” — Nouri al-Maliki:

• Iraqi Prime Minister Says U.S. Not Welcome After 2011 (abc News)

“The protests began in the central town of Sidi Bouzid after a young man tried to set himself on fire earlier this month, in despair after police seized fruits and vegetables he had been selling illegally”:

• Tunisian Minister Is Fired After Unrest (AP / Washington Post)

“MPs spent eight hours questioning Sheikh Nasser about the recent protests, claiming that he breached the constitution and suppressed freedoms”:

• MPs File ‘No Co-operation’ Motion Against Kuwait Ruler (BBC)

In Saudi Arabia women can’t drive at all, but in Area C of the West Bank there no traffic regulations whatsoever, and the “Speed Sisters” push the pedal to the metal:

• Palestinian Women Race Car Drivers Leave Gender Barriers in the Dust (Christian Science Monitor)

“The Hindu mobs who attacked us called us all terrorists. Then the mullahs wanted to take away our freedoms… Everyone felt confused”:

• In India, a Struggle for Moderation as a Young Muslim Woman Quietly Battles Extremism (Washington Post)

Justice minister says police have foiled what “is probably the most serious terror attempt in Denmark”:

• Denmark Arrests Four over Suspected Terror Plot (Guardian)

Planting conifers that remind them of the forests of their Eastern European homelands (even as they destroy the native Palestinians’ indigenous olive trees) has been an ecological disaster for the Zionists:

• Forest Fire Fuels Review of Israel’s Tree-planting Tradition (Washington Post)

(Be)Coming Home(less):

• Fighting Abroad, Homeless at Home (abc News)

ElBaredei says Egypt’s growing number of “voices of dissent come from many orientations, … vocations, … parts of society, … different faiths” to demand “accountable and transparent” government, with meaningful checks and balances”:

• Egypt’s Real State of Emergency Is its Repressed Democracy (Washington Post)

“Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment”:

• Somali Islamist Insurgents Threaten US Attack (abc News)

Refugees “have walked for up to four days with little food to neighbouring Liberia, … [a]t least one child drowned while trying to cross a river” and West African troops threaten invasion as the losing incumbent refuses to step down:

• Ivory Coast Violence Forces Thousands to Flee (Guardian)

The alert came as West African leaders threatened a military intervention if Laurent Gbagbo, almost universally declared the loser of last month’s presidential election, persists in his refusal to step down.

“[A]t least part of the elite has been pushed out, so the ruling circle has become narrower, in terms of ideological orientation” — Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii:

• Why Ahmadinejad Is Dismissing High-Level Iranian Officials (Christian Science Monitor)

”I’m here today because a moderate Afghani and a moderate Pakistani helped me and it’s important for Americans to know that” — David Rohde:

• Captured by the Taliban (abc News)

A U.S. District Court ordered the award to a  chapter of the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in response to “its legal challenge of the Bush administration’s so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program”

• Feds to Pay $2.5 Million over ‘Terrorist’ Wiretaps (MSNBC)

The marriage was illegal not  because of the bride was eleven, but because “elements of threat and force” violated Islamic law :

• Malaysia Court Rules Child Marriage ‘Illegal’ (BBC)

Out of eighty some women in parliament, only one is appointed to the cabinet:

• Women Lawmakers Protest Lack of Female Faces in Iraq’s New Government (LA Times)

His legs were mangled by the drone attack, but “[d]etailed accounts by casualties such as Wazir [whose legs were mangled by a drone attack] rarely make it outside the tribal regions”:

• Pakistani Drone Victim Seeks to Put US on Trial (AP / WTOP)

“The police acted as if they were Israel and we were Hamas” — Father Mina Zarif:

• Egypt’s Coptic Christians Struggle Against Institutionalised Prejudice (Guardian)

“Even though I personally don’t agree with Shia teachings …,  I cannot accept the approach of the allegedly democratic Malaysian government in denying the people’s right to practice their faith” — Muslim scholar Asri Zainul Abidin:

• More than 200 Shia Muslims Nabbed in Malaysia May Be Charged for Deviating from Islam (AP / Huffington Post)

At first, his parents “‘didn’t understand,’ he says. ‘There were fights and quarrels. But of course they had been very mad at me when I was getting home late and drunk.’ So when … that that stopped, they started, slowly, to come around.

• Young Russians in Search of Faith Are Turning to Islam (Washington Post)

“Prosecutors say the police officers were also responsible for the hosing down of the crime scene, thereby destroying key evidence”:

• Pakistan Police Detained over Benazir Bhutto Murder (BBC)

Recber “was arrested after an anonymous letter was sent to authorities claiming that a suspect in” the Ergenekon “deep state” trials had chosen him to kill Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I:

• Turkish Man Goes on Trial for Plot to Kill Rabbis (AP / Ynet)

“The intention of Mr. Gbagbo and the security forces loyal to him is clearly to blockade the United Nations peacekeeping mission and to suffocate the government of President-elect Ouattara. We cannot allow this” — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

• Ivory Coast Risks Return to Civil War, UN Warns (Guardian)

Big brother is watching; the U.S. “is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators”:

• Top Secret America: Monitoring America (Washington Post)

Members of the group claiming responsibility for last week’s mosque bombing are executed for spreading “corruption on earth, fighting against God and the Prophet and confronting the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran”:

• Iran Hangs 11 Jundullah Sunni Militants (BBC)

Muslim students appreciate the religious atmosphere;  the fact that “it’s not strange or weird to care about your religion here, to pray and make God a priority… They have the same values we do”:

• Enrollment of Muslim Students is Growing at Catholic Colleges in U.S. (Washington Post)

Maybe they should try to learn about Christmas spirit from the Charlie Brown TV special instead of jewelry store catalogues:

• Abu Dhabi Hotel Regrets $11M Christmas Tree (AP / Huffington Post)

Al-Bashir “appears to be resigned to the secession of the south and also prepared to do away with key provisions of the 2005 peace accord that recognizes Sudan’s ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity”:

• Sudan Leader Vows to Bolster Islamic Law in North (AP / Beaumont Enterprise)

Anwar is punished “for saying in March ‘1Malaysia,’ a government campaign to promote unity among Malaysia’s ethnic groups, was named after ‘One Israel'”:

• Malaysia Parliament Suspends Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (Christian Science Monitor)

By dictating Friday sermons to West Bank imams, Abbas’ government entangles religion and state more than Hamas has ever done and demonstrates contempt for freedom of expression to boot:

• Palestinian Authority Cracks Down on Mosques to Promote Moderate Islam (Washington Post)

“Resuming the negotiations will be conditioned on receiving a serious offer that guarantees an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict”: Arab League Chief Amr Moussa:

• Arabs Reject Middle East Peace Talks Without US Plan (BBC)

The terrorist act is seen as revenge for the government’s execution of the U.S. backed groups’ leader:

• Iran, Still Haunted by Jundallah Attacks, Blames West (Christian Science Monitor)

Criticized by both Libyan conservatives and Israeli supporters:

• Gaddafi Son Retreats on Human Rights (Guardian)

The Afghani government’s increasing reputation for corruption may put “regions like Nangarhar Province that have traditionally had a limited Taliban presence … more at risk”:

• In Afghanistan, Taliban Rise  Where Kabul Falters (Christian Science Monitor)

Two claimants to the Presidency, the U.N., which backs the claim of the Muslim candidate plead for calm as military supporters of the Christian incumbent gun down demonstrators:

• Ivory Coast Troops Fire on Alassane Ouattara Supporters (BBC)

Afghanis complained Holbrooke was more concerned with their neighbors than them; now his death complicates a war “plagued by unreliable partners, reluctant allies and an increasingly skeptical American public” …

• Holbrooke’s Death Leaves Major Void in Obama’s Afghan Strategy (Washington Post)

… and the diplomat’s last words to his doctors were,  “You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan”:

• Holbrooke, Doctors Talked Afghanistan Before Surgery (Reuters)

Keine Muslime erlaubt!:

• Muslim Employees of D.C. Hotel Say They Were Barred from Floors where Israelis Stayed (Washington Post)

“Douglasville Police Chief Joe Whisenant characterized the incident at the time as a miscommunication”:

• Woman Arrested for Wearing Hijab Sues Georgia City (AP / Salon)

Paranoid about separatist feelings, Indian police swing clubs at Muslims commemorating “the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, in the battle of Karbala on Ashura”:

• Police Stop Religious Gatherings in Indian Kashmir (AP / WTOP)

Britain denies conscientious objector status to a Navy medic with an implication that  as an atheist his objection to the killing of civilians in Afghanistan constitutes a political, not moral reservation about the war:

• My Conscientious Objector Husband (Guardian)

Karzai again says he prefers the Taliban to the status quo of civilian vulnerability to contractor violence:

• As US Assesses Afghan War, Karzai a Question Mark (Washington Post)

New Wikileak: Iran’ s interest in nuclear weapons is deterrent and “Tehran sees a ‘grand bargain’ with the United States as its best way to ensure national security”:

• Iran Not a Rogue State: Australia (Yahoo / Reuters)

The Iranian Parliament claims that Iran’s complex structure of checks and balances is being undermined:

• Iran Replaces Foreign Minister (Washington Post)

Court rules “we are in a free country, and as a result, everything that isn’t forbidden is allowed.”:

• French Court Annuls Fine for Driver in Muslim Veil (AP/ WTOP)

A high speed train available only to Gulf State Arabs mocks the brotherhood theme of the Muslim Pilgrimage:

• The Hajj and the Apartheid Train: Where Is the Muslim Outrage? (Huffington Post)

Customs like “Honor Killings” and giving girls in marriage to settle disputes are inconsistent with Sharia (Islamic) law as well as Afghan and international law:

• UN Urges Afghanistan to Protect Women’s Rights (Washington Post)

Standing by their claim that they killed in self-defense, Israel offers the deceased civilians’ families cash and a “a statement of regret” instead of a mea culpa — if Ankara helps indemnify “the Israeli navy against lawsuits”:

• Israel Offers Gaza Flotilla Raid Payouts (Guardian)

“Derakhshan – nicknamed The Blogfather – started the first Farsi-language blog 10 years ago, the start of Iran’s opposition blogging movement” but has also spoken “out in favour of Iran’s disputed nuclear programme”:

• Iran Blogger Hossein Derakhshan Temporarily Released (BBC)

With the collapse of the bi-lateral talks, Abbas has an alternative proposal: alternative to bilateral talks: “international recognition of Palestinian statehood” …

• Israeli and Palestinian Negotiators Fault US Focus on Settlements (Christian Science Monitor)

… and Israel has alternative plan, too, another military offensive against Gaza:

• Israel Strikes Gaza Sites After Mortar Attack (abc News)

American Jew turned “radical Muslim” who co-founded “Revolution Islam” site now claims he never intended to promote violence against civilians:

• Revolution Muslim Changes His Tune (CNN)

Health care officials i Afghanistan says claims that a false claim that “85 percent of Afghans that have access to health care” is “undermining efforts to improve health services for Afghans”:

• An Inflated Claim of Health Success in Afghanistan Exposed (Christian Science Monitor)