Month: August 2012

The eye-witness report says Bin Ladin was shot on sight, not because he “might” have been reaching for a weapon: Bin Laden Book No Easy Day ‘Contradicts Official Account’ (BBC) Indonesia’s counterterrorism chief tells Qur’anic schools “Stopping would-be bombers ‘is your job, not mine’”: Indonesian Security Forces Turn to Islamic Clerics to Uproot Terrorism (Washington…

Now that Morsi has appointed a diverse staff … Egypt President Names Copt and Woman Among Assistants (BBC) …. all Morsi needs to do to solve the garbage problem is to repeal Egypt’s secular era-law (inspired by a Swine-flu scare) that prohibits Christians from feeding the garbage to their pigs: Egypt’s Garbage Crisis Bedevils Morsi…

An IR prof explains why two powerful arguments for intervention in Syria, “that the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe befalling the Syrian people mandates international action” and that “[s]upporting the just and winning cause of the Syrian rebels will put the United States in good standing with the regime that emerges from the conflict” are both wrong:…

In “the first law issued by President Mohammed Morsi since he assumed legislative powers this month in the absence of a parliament,” the Egyptian president (who plans to visit the US in September) ” has issued a law that bans imprisoning journalists pending trial for publishing-related charges”:  Egypt’s President Issues Law to Cancel Imprisonment of…

Illinois’s governor tries to undo the damage caused by Republican congressman Joe Walsh’s “controversial comments … that radical Islam had permeated the Chicago suburbs and was a real threat” and which were followed by three apparant hate crimes in the following days … Pat Quinn Attends Ramadan Ceremony, Signs Religious Tolerance Bill During Eid ul-Fitr…

“Pakistanis do this, not to avoid paying zakat, but to make sure the money doesn’t go to the government, which is viewed by most people as incompetent and corrupt”: Pakistanis Dodge Ramadan Tax (AP / Washington Post with Bloomberg) As Tunisia emerges from the near total repression of the secular fundamentalists, will it be able…

Denied the right to confront a key witness against her, a woman must pay $1.2 million plus punitive damages  to be determined on the basis of “testimony of a former employee, … which was read by a stand-in because [the ex-employee] was out of state and could not be subpoenaed”: Muslim Hotel Owner Discriminated Against…

When a soldier shoots and kills a 35 year-old civilian and her 64 year-old mother while they are carrying a white flag, would you call that a war crime? Murder? Manslaughter? When the soldier is Israeli and the victims Palestinians, they call it “illegal use of a weapon” and the penalty is 45 days in…

An end to military rule in Egypt? Morsi cancels the military order stripping him of presidential powers, and Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi and Chief of Staff Sami Enan step down to become “presidential advisers”: Egypt President Mohamed Morsi Forces Top Generals to Retire (Guardian) Egypt’s President Morsi Removes Defense Minister Tantawi, Chief of Staff (Haaretz)…

As the Taliban deny reports that they would kill playboy-cricket-star turned Islamist-politician Imran Khan if comes to their home turf  to protest drone attacks, a defender of the potential of drones to reduce collateral damage denies that he ever claimed that potential has been demonstrated  in the current US warfare in the Muslim world: Taliban…