Minaret of Freedom Weblog

The Obama administration has chosen to defend John Ashcroft’s abuse of “the material witness law to round up people suspected of ties to terrorism, without evidence to charge them with a crime”:

• Court to Hear Argument over Post-9/11 Arrest (AP /Seattle Times)

Will the West rise to the bait to create yet more enemies by intervening into Libyan affairs? The U.S. repositions two ships, but calls the move “symbolic”:

• Qaddafi Forces Push into Libya’s East (Christian Science Monitor)

Another Pakistani politician is murdered for opposing the blasphemy law, but the country’s largest religious party, which had praised the similar recent assassination of his Muslim colleague condemns this killing:

• Militants Say Killed Pakistani Minister for Blasphemy (Reuters)

“[A]ccording to those who have tracked his career in Britain, Choudary is wholly a press creation. ‘”He’s a media whore,’ says Mehdi Hasan, a senior editor at the New Statesman”:

• Fox’s Favorite Muslim Radical (Salon)

Despite continuing resignations over the direction of developments in Tunisia:

• Tunisia Legalises Islamist Group Ennahda (BBC)

As protestors, government dispute whether Mousavi and Kourrabi are in jail or under house arrest:

• Iran Forces Fire Teargas, Clash with Protesters (Reuters)

Despite the fact that Gaddafi’s opposition has “seized about half of Libya’s coastline, including a number of major cities in the east” …

• Defiant Tripoli Neighborhood Endures Crackdowns (Washington Post)

… and continue to hold Zawiyah in the west …

• Qaddafi’s Forces Repelled in Bid to Retake Western Libya City (Christian Science Monitor)

… the delusional leader of the four-decades-old revolution continues to insist that the only opposition comes from al-Qaeda and their doped-up dupes:

• ‘My People Love Me’: Moammar Gadhafi Denies Demonstrations Against Him Anywhere in Libya (abc News)

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi called for more democracy in his LSE Ph.D.dissertation, but the university is taking seriously allegations that the work was plagiarized:

• LSE Investigates Gaddafi’s Son Plagiarism Claims (BBC)

When Hadiya AbdulSalaam complained that her family was being unfairly broken up by a biased official, the agency “”disbelieved anything Mrs. AbdulSalaam said that [the accused bureaucrat] contradicted”:

• Witness Questioned 5 Hours as Muslim Bias Trial Continues (Columbus Dispatch)