Month: August 2011

“There is currently not a single Sunni mosque available for use in the capital, despite there being several churches and synagogues. Instead, they have to rent houses for their prayers but were not allowed to use them for this year’s Eid ceremonies”: Sunni Muslims Banned from Holding own Eid Prayers in Tehran (Guardian) A Muslim…

“And do not … eat up wrongfully and knowingly … (other) people’s property” (Qur’an 2:188); Turkey’s Islamic government moves to rectify the injustice of Turkey’s Kemalist founders who seized non-Muslim minorities’ immovable property through the “1936 Declaration”: Non-Muslim Minorities Will Retrieve Seized Property (Bianet) An in-depth investigation shows that Islamophobia is the product of “a…

A “swift victory is not certain – raising concerns about an insurgency”: Libyan Rebels Prepare for Final Phase’ in Tripoli Battle (Christian Science Monitor) NYCLU’s Donna Lieberman says, “The most effective means for the government to identify security threats is by focusing on criminal behavior, not religious belief,” but … With CIA Help, NYPD Built…

In the fog of war, Tripoli is in chaos; the rebels have the momentum and Gaddafi’s compound, but Gaddafi and Saif-al-Islam are still at large, vowing to fight to the end; Libyan-Americans support the rebels, but what happens next is as uncertain as how to spell “Gaddafi”: Libya’s Rebel Government Moving to Tripoli to Head…

Syrians are  emboldened by signs of an imminent victory for the rebels in Libya … Syrian Protesters Greet UN Delegation with SOS Signs (Guardian) …. but in “a comment that appeared designed to include Turkey, [Assad] warned ‘countries close and far away’ against intervening” as “Syrian opposition groups” met in Istanbul aiming “to elect a…

NOTES FROM THE IIIT CONFERENCE ON IFTAA AND FATWA IN THE MUSLIM WORLD AND THE WEST: THE CHALLENGES OF AUTHORITY, LEGITIMACY AND RELEVANCE #9 [This is the ninth in a series of my notes on the International Institute of Islamic Thought conference on iftaa and fatwa held in Herndon, VA. These notes are raw material…

“The push into Latakia ordered by commanders this week was stridently criticised by other nations in the region, with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Tunisia and Qatar withdrawing their ambassadors and Turkey warning it had uttered its ‘last words” on the crackdown’”: Syria: Assad Must Resign, Says Obama (Guardian) The Nobel Prize winning chemist’s dream of  “a…

The “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a force of around 700 security personnel fanned across al-Raml, with houses being demolished in the neighborhood “on the pretext they lacked construction permits”: Syria Forces Hold Hundreds in Latakia Sports Stadium (Reuters) China calls the Financial Times report “baseless and preposterous”: China Denies Pakistan Gave It Access…