Minaret of Freedom Weblog

Foreign Policy is accused of publishing incomplete information about the IAEA’s recent experience in Iran,  painting a misleading picture that could cuase us to repeat the mistakes in Iraq:

• Foreign Policy’s Irresponsible Reporting on Iran’s Nuclear Program (Foreign Policy Journal)
• In Iraq, Done In by the Lewinsky Affair (Washington Post)

Minaret of Freedom Institute President Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad challenges the explanations put forth for the incident that Military Religious Freedom Foundation President Mikey Weinstein blames on a culture of Islamophobic evangelism in the U.S. military; Karzai pleads for calm; and U.S. exit strategy increasingly muddled:

• Afghanistan Reaction to Burning Korans (Voice of Russia)
• Quran Burning Protests Rage on, Injuring 7 More Troops (Christian Science Monitor)
• Violence in Wake of Koran Incident Fuels U.S. Doubts About Afghan Partners (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

As NYC’s police commissioner vows to continue spying on New Jersey, revelations emerge that millions of dollars “in the the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, known as HIDTA,” — a program that “has little oversight — has paid for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods”:

• White House Helps Pay for NYPD Muslim Surveillance (USA Today)

What hath NATO wrought? “This is not just about Nick and Gareth. This is about the thousands of Libyans and foreigners who have been picked up by militias who are freelancing with the law” — Human Rights Watch:

• Efforts Continue to Free British Journalists Held in Libya (BBC)

NYPD Spokesman Paul Brown insists Newark was “fully briefed” about what Newark Mayor Cory Bookerdenounces as a “blanket investigation of individuals based on nothing but their religion”:

• New York and Newark Spat Over Muslim Spying (Atlantic Wire / Yahoo)

“Somalia’s Al-Shabaab has brushed aside accusations from Human Rights Watch that the Islamist militia recruits child soldiers, saying that Islam considers people to be adults from the age of 15.”

• Somali Islamist Militia Defends Recruiting Teen Soldiers (CNN)

• Muslim Families Turn to Home-Schooling (Washington Times)

• Afghans Protest Burning of Korans at U.S. Base (Washington Post)

Iran is willing to negotiate with the EU a the “earliest opportunity” hoping to have the “best relations possible” with the bloc after the talks with the IAEA have proven fruitless:

• UN Nuclear Regulator Says Iran Denies Request to Visit Key Military Base (Bloomberg)

Avoiding both crony capitalism and a state-run economy, the Brotherhood’s plan include “a constitution based on the US model that guarantees investor rights and … transparency of public institutions, … a low, graduated tax rate,” competitive trade, and fuel subsidy reform that could “generate an estimated 65 billion pounds in revenue annually”:

• Ikhwanomics: The Muslim Brotherhood Has a Plan for Egypt’s Economic Recovery (Majalla)

As the Greek Orthodox and Arameans petition Turkey’s Islamist government for an equality of citizenship they were denied by their secular predecessors, …

• Turkey’s Non-Muslims Seek Equal Citizenship Rights in Constitution (Today’s Zaman)

… a columnist advises the AKP to use its considerable political capital to resolve the Kurdish question:

• Lessons for the AK Party and MÄ°T (Today’s Zaman)

None of the “12 people who had been members of Muslim student associations who were later charged or convicted of terrorism” were “from New Jersey schools” and Muslims are demanding oversight of “police activities ‘targeting law-abiding Muslims'” …

• Muslim Groups Press Rutgers to Act on NYPD Spy Reports (The Record)

… “Not only did the department go well outside its jurisdiction to “get a better handle on what was occurring at” Muslim Student Associations, as spokesman Paul Browne told the AP, it did so in a pretty Keystone Kops manner at times”:

• Someone Called the FBI on NYPD Officers Pretending to Be Muslim Students (Atlantic Wire)

“[T]he FBI has pulled more than 700 documents and 300 presentations that stereotyped Islam or were factually inaccurate, an FBI spokesman said. The federal agency also intends in coming weeks to roll out plans on how it will vet training materials”:

• FBI Ditches Training Materials Criticized as Anti-Muslim (USA Today)

“Despite a trial, an acquittal, and a subsequent plea agreement, the government continues to pursue Dr. Al-Arian in an effort to punish him and once again jail him, due to his political and religious beliefs in a country that prides itself on the bill of rights that purportedly guarantees freedom of beliefs, opinions, and associations”:

• Ninth Commemoration of the Political Persecution of Professor Sami Al-Arian (Norman G. Finklestein)

“The moment may be one of unprecedented change for Yemen, but it leaves something to be desired as a beacon of democracy. In this election, voters will enter the polling both to find a ballot with only one candidate – Mr. Saleh’s Vice President, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi – accompanied by a graphic of the map of Yemen and the national flag”:

• Yemen Elections: Only One Choice, but Is It sSill Progress? (Christian Science Monitor)

“The UN estimates that more than 300,000 people have died in Darfur, mostly from disease, since rebels took up arms in 2003” and although the fighting has died down recently, the rebels calling themselves the “Justice and Equality Movement” are now detaining U.N. peacekeepers:

• Sudan’s Jem Darfur Rebels ‘Seize Unamid Peacekeepers‘ (BBC)

“Clashes between military rebels and Syrian forces are growing more frequent and the defectors have managed to take control of small pieces of territory in the north as well as parts of Homs province, which is Syria’s largest…. The country appears to be moving towards a civil war”:

• Assad Sends Tanks Towards Homs as Red Cross Seeks Ceasefire Talks (Guardian)

The shocking story of how U.S. intervention on behalf of the oppressive regime is generating support for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula …

• Washington’s War in Yemen Backfires (Nation)

“Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly … and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg repeatedly have said that the police only follow legitimate leads about suspected criminal activity. But the latest documents mention no wrongdoing by any students”:

• Muslim Students Across Northeast Monitored by NYPD (AP / Newsday)

With the Internet a powerful tool to sidestep restrictions on their freedom of movement, Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank “believe the private sector is really going to save the Palestinian economy, not the public sector, not the NGOs”:

• The Cool New Palestinians: Geeks (Christian Science Monitor)

Egypt tries to allay concerns over the fact that the date of the presidential elections has not been set by promising that “nominations for presidential candidates will open March 10 and last four weeks” and vowing that the election “will be held before the end of June”:

• Egypt: Nominations for President to Start March 10 (AP / abc News)

Syria ignores calls for an end to the violence, with diplomatic consequences:

• Syrian Forces Fire on Crowded Funeral Procession (Christian Science Monitor)
• Syrian Security Forces Clamp Down on Damascus (Reuters)
• Egypt Recalls Ambassador from Syria as Violence Rages (BBC)

“Adnan is being held in ‘administrative detention,’ under which an Israeli military judge can imprison Palestinians for six-month periods without charge. Palestinians don’t get to see evidence against them”:

• Israeli Court Rejects Appeal from Palestinian Man on 58th Day of Hunger Strike (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

Mourning the loss of a premier journalist on Middle East affairs:

• Anthony Shadid: Quite Simply the Best (Christian Science Monitor)
• Anthony Shadid, the ‘Most Gifted Foreign Correspondent in a Generation’(Washington Post)

• Israel’s Justice Minister Advises Rightists on How to Seek Pardons for Jewish Terrorists (Haaretz)

Britain wants Abu Qatada tried in “a court in which evidence brought about by torture is not admissible.” The Jordanian prince replies, “That is rich coming from a country that believed in rendition agreements”:

Karzai says secret talks are being held between the US, Afghanistan, and the Taliban, but the Taliban deny such negotiations have taken place; does the truth lie in the middle?

• U.S.-Taliban Talks Only “Exploratory”: Afghan Envoy (Reuters)

The unintended consequences of NATO’s intervention in Libya, “Thousands of Tuareg moved over the years … to Libya, mainly attracted to the better standard of living there…. As the Qaddafi regime began to fall most of these Tuareg … headed back to Mali … with … weapons and vehicles. The head of the NMLA’s military wing is a former Libyan colonel”:

• Bound by Hatred of the US, Pakistan Extremists and Politicians Join Hands to Shake Government (AP / Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

A story about Jews and Muslims who “have only praise for each other because they are volunteer paramedics who “are taking note of the most important aspects of their faiths: preserving human lives and justice”:

• The Life of a Heart: Muslims and Jews Saving Lives Together (Common Ground)

The most recent Muslim-Americans denied the right to return to the U.S., his attorney had to travel to Tunisia and “raise hell” with the assistance of a U.S. Senator:

• Ore. Man Asks Why He Was Queried by FBI in Tunisia (AP / abc News)

Rand Paul wants to send Egypt an unequivocal message, but Essam el-Erian points out that “a cut in aid would violate the U.S.-brokered 1979 peace agreement with Israel”:

• Muslim Brotherhood: Cuts in US Aid Could Affect Peace Treaty With Israel (Newsmax)

In the wake of bombings in Bangkok, Iran and Israel point fingers at one another over the attack on a dipl0mat that follows the pattern of the Israeli assassinations of Iranian scientists and Israel signals maintaining its nuclear monopoly in the Middle East is the motive for its drive towards war:

On the occasion of the Bahraini February 14 Movement’s anniversary, a comprehensive and worthwhile analysis on the year’s unfolding in Bahrain:

• Bahrain’s Sunni Awakening (Middle East Research and  Information Project)

The UN sometimes is good at stating the obvious, but the question is what to DO about it?

• UN Report Accuses Israel of Pushing Palestinians from Jerusalem, West Bank (National Post)

Three Canadian citizens abducted last November by Israel during their attempts to challenge the illegal blockade in Gaza are now asking the “conservative government [to] press Israel to return the boat and its contents”:

• Canadians Abducted by Israel to Address Coast to Coast Audiences (Canadian Boat to Gaza)

Syria rejects the Arab League/U.N. peacekeeping mission; al-Qaeda calls for the overthrow of Asad, but international military action is unlikely:

• Syria Rejects New Arab League Peace Mission Proposal (BBC)
• In Complicating Move, Al-Qaida Backs Syrian Revolt (AP /abc News)
• Syria: Why International Action Remains Unlikely Even as Death Toll Rises (Christian Science Monitor)
• Arab Peace Moves on Syria Herald More Diplomatic Wrangling (Reuters)

“[F]or true religion to thrive, for peoples’ affections to be stirred for their Creator, they needed freedom. Freedom from state coercion. Freedom of conscience…. Freedom to accept religion or reject it. When religion, particularly faith in Christ, is mandated by the state … it lulls [people] into thinking they are truly of Christ when in fact they are not”:

• Why Evangelicals Must Defend Muslims (Huffington Post)

After ten years of reflection on arguments over whether and how to celebrate Valentine’s Day, a Muslim woman decides, “I will make every day in my marital life a celebration of love and good feelings towards my husband and my family”:

• Valentine Day’s Evolution of a Muslim Woman (onIslam)

The unity government solution reduces Hamas’s position in government form the unexpected big win in the last elections to something more like what it had expected to win:

• Opposition Mounts to Palestinian Unity Deal as Many in Hamas Loath to Give Up Gaza (AP / Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

In a move aimed “to help restore stability in the Muslim country ahead of presidential elections due next year [, s]ix members from four political parties were sworn in Sunday as ministers“:

• New President of the Maldives Expands His Cabinet (AP / Eureka Times-Standard)

A regime that considers even Jay Leno dangerously controversial is accused of being “a thin-skinned government that gives in to the demands of violent mobs, ostensibly to make political gains but in fact to suppress its critics,” such as the prosecution FaceBook and Google executives and the cancellation of ” the screening of a documentary on Kashmir”:

•  India Debates Limits to Freedom of Expression (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

“Authorities in Iran‘s national telecommunications company declined to comment, saying the outage had no connection to them”:

• Iranian Internet Email Access Returns After Mysterious Four-day Outage (Christian Science Monitor)

“Aero’s operations have spawned a dogged opposition movement in its otherwise conservative, fiercely patriotic back yard. The protests continue to gather steam after six years, despite counter-demonstrations and occasional threats, and amid uncertainty over whether Aero is still involved in what critics alleged was a ‘torture taxi’ business”:

• Ten Years Later, CIA ‘Rendition’ Program Still Divides N.C. Town (Washington Post with Foreign Affairs)

“After the hearing, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance also thanked the Muslim community in Birmingham, ‘which was instrumental in helping law enforcement shut down this threat'”:

• U.S. Attorney: Birmingham Muslim Community Instrumental in Stopping Threat to Kill President (Brimingham News)

Applying the principles of the “maqasad ash-shariah” (higher objectives of the law), Pakistan expands the traditional protections Islamic jurisprudence granted to eunuchs to “transsexuals, transvestites, homosexuals, hermaphrodites and cross-dressers”:

• For Transgender Pakistanis, Newfound Rights (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

“Iran had topped their group in the first round of Olympic qualifiers after going undefeated, however the Asian nation were given 3-0 defeats in their four second round matches because of their failure to” uncover “their dreams of competing in London abruptly ended”:

• Hijab Ban Driving Muslim Women from Soccer (Chicago Tribuune)

“Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, a spokeswoman for the Muslim Women’s League and an OB-GYN who teaches a sex education class at a Muslim middle school … agreed that Muslim families and communities don’t pay enough attention to sexual education and relationships. The results, she said, can include painful sex and dysfunctional relationships”:

• Book Shatters Stereotypes on Muslim Women, Sex and Love (Washington Post)

Naheed dares to object to letting the people resolve the impasse on the grounds that the environment to which he himself contributed is not one “in which you can have free and fair election”:

• Maldives Crisis: New Leader Rejects Snap Election Calls (BBC)

The man who tweeted “” said, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to return to my homeland,” but hours later was detained pending extradition there “against his will”:

• Saudi Writer Hamza Kashgari Faces Charge of Blasphemy After Tweets About Muhammad (Washington Post)

For years we have urged Muslims to return to the sunnah of the gold standard; has the U.S. stabbed the dollar in the back by forcing Iran to go half-way there and paving the way for other Muslim nations (and the rets of the world?) to follow:

• Iran Evades US Sanctions by Paying with Gold (Christian Science Monitor)

“The leaders of rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas signed a deal in Qatar on Monday to form a unity government of independent technocrats for the West Bank and Gaza, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas”:

• Palestinian Rivals Agree to Form Unity Government (Reuters)
• Abbas to Head Palestinian Unity Government (Al-Jazeera English)

Telling his wife “I am striking against humiliation,” Khader Adnan is called a terrorist by his Israeli captors, but they have never charged him with anything:

• Palestinian Prisoner on 55th Day of Hunger Strike to Protest Detention Without Trial (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)

Turkish diplomats and Arab religious schoalrs have had their fill of Asad’s bloodshed:

• Syria’s Homs Bombarded again, Turks Push for Solution (Reuters)
• Muslim Scholars Urge Soldiers to Disobey Assad’s Orders (Today’s Zaman)

A former teacher home-schooling her children enables her to combine lessons about Islam, science, and current events as “after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year. We studied earthquakes and tsunamis and donated” food to the victims in fulfillment of Islam’s charitable obligations:

• Voices in Education: Hagara Emira (Montgomery Gazette)

“A defender of Palestinian rights, a friend of several Lebanese political players, and an former friend of Bashar Assad, Turkey is beginning to be seen as a model of an Islamic democracy, slightly different from the liberal version, but faithful to its most important principles” …

• Iran, Turkey, and Saudi: The Regional Race for the Arab Spring (Madawi AlRasheed)

… and those who “say the Arab Spring [read: political Islam] is a threat to the world” have been “conditioned to view Islamism with anxiety since the Iranian revolution” but it is dictatorship rather  than “political Islam which has been unstable…. Reliance “on the Shah and Mubarak to provide stable allies in the Middle East … was shown to be an illusion”:

• This House Believes the Arab Spring is a Threat to Global Stability (Huffington Post)

A comprehensive analysis of the elections in which not a single woman, not among the incumbents was elected amid worries “about the rising trend of sectarian agitation, derogatory, anti-tribal rhetoric, sexist discourse, and violent clashes among competing camps”:

• The Identity Politics of Kuwait’s Elections (Foreign Policy)

• Egypt Top Islamist Group May Vote Against $3.2 Billion IMF Loan (Business Week)