Minaret of Freedom Weblog

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 Post)

The Egyptian “military chief-of-staff promised local leaders that his troops will ‘not permit any criminal hideouts in the land of Sinai, and current measures taken ensure that no innocent will be harmed'”:

• Egypt Troops Step Up Campaign Against Sinai Militants (BBC)

“I can say without a doubt that I believe my sister was seen as that bulldozer approached her…. As for the intent of the driver, I hope someday he will have the courage to sit down in front of me and tell me what he saw and what he feels” — Sarah Corrie Simpson, sister of the slain human rights activist …

• Israel’s Rachel Corrie Verdict: Court Rebuffs Case of Slain U.S. Activist (Time)

… but it may be prohibited to say that on California campuses where, on the pretext of fighting anti-Semitism, state legislators call for the suppression of criticism of Israeli aggression, apartheid, and atrocities:

•  California Resolution Denouncing Anti-Semitism on Campuses Targets Anti-Israel Protests (AP / San Jose Mercury)

There are no good options in Syria:

• Why No Safe Zone in Syria, Yet? 5 Complications (Christian Science Monitor)
• Syria: the Point of No Return (Guardian)
• Syrian Opposition Group Not Up to Job, Says Ex-member (Reuters)
• Iran Presents Its Own Cease-fire Proposal for Syria at Non-Aligned Summit (Christian Science Monitor)

The Egyptian “military chief-of-staff promised local leaders that his troops will ‘not permit any criminal hideouts in the land of Sinai, and current measures taken ensure that no innocent will be harmed'”:

• Egypt Troops Step Up Campaign Against Sinai Militants (BBC)

“I can’t deal with this by using weapons. These (attackers) are a big force in number and ammunition,” [Libyan interim interior minister Fawzi Abdel-Al] told reporters. “I won’t embark on a losing battle and drag the country to war.”

• Libya’s Interior Minister Withdraws Resignation that Followed Attacks on Sufi Muslim Shrines (Washington Post)

“The exhibition called I Speak For Myself features Muslim women photographed with personal messages challenging convention”:

• Muslim Women Challenge Stereotypes in Exhibition (BBC)

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 (Washington Post)

“The All Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella group of Muslim clerics and scholars, which includes representatives from fundamentalist groups, joined hands with the Pakistan Interfaith League, which includes Christians, Sikhs and other religions, to call for” release of the girl accused of blasphemy and punishment of those falsely accusing her …

• Pakistani Muslim Leaders Support Christian Girl Accused of Blasphemy (Guardian)

… but the law itself is not only unjust, easily abused, and an embarrassment to the Muslim community, it also contradicts the sunnah (practice) of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him):

• Pakistan Should Abolish Overly-abused Blasphemy Laws (Washington Post)

The awesome power of prayer? The government cites a “radical sermon” once given by Lindh as justification  for limiting congregational prayer to Friday, but the ACLU notes that  the sermon in question wasn’t radical, was given on a Friday, and went undisciplined, adding that inmates are allowed to “do basically any peaceful activity except praying” :

• John Walker Lindh, American Taliban from Marin, Seeks to Pray with Muslims in Indiana Prison (AP / San Jose Mercury)

“When she was about their age, she had only one ambition: to be the next Britney Spears. But during a trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia as a teen, the Iranian American experienced an epiphany. At Camp Izza, [Munira Ezzeldine is]  helping those in her wake navigate the often tricky terrain that comes with being both Muslim and American”:

• Muslim American Summer Camp Blends Faith and Fun (LA Times)

“The killing on Monday of Aboud Rogo fits into a pattern of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of suspected terrorists that is allegedly being orchestrated by Kenyan police, say Kenyan human rights groups”:

• Riots in Mombasa After Killing of Muslim Cleric (AP / NPR)

Human rights grou0ps say perpetrators are rarely punished for the ” rising number of crimes by radical Jewish settlers against Palestinians and their property in the Israeli-occupied West Bank”:

• Three Israeli Youths Arrested in Firebombing of Palestinian Taxi (Washington Post)

“Neither incident so far has resulted in criminal charges, something that may fail to satisfy Afghan demands for justice”:

• U.S. Troops Face Punishment over Koran Burning, Urination Video (Reuters)

“Morsi banned the imprisonment of journalists who face trial for inciting hatred, insulting the president, slander and other related offense” but calling for the murder of the President is a different matter, and the dissident who called for it does not have “the support of the youth and revolutionaries who helped engineer last year’s uprising”:

• Egypt Prosecutor Probes Anti-Brotherhood Critic (AP / US News & World Report)

“An urban area cannot survive without being connected” — Maxwell Gaylard, UN humanitarian chief in Gaza:

• Gaza ‘Will Not Be Liveable by 2020’ – UN Report (BBC)

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:

• Why Intruding on Another Muslim Country Is Ill-advised (Washington Post)

Our legacy in Libya; a student eyewitness reports that “a large group” handing out Wahhabi literature “are the one with the bulldozers, and some military police are also present. They seem to be overseeing the process, rather than preventing it… There are some bystanders who seem to approve”:

• Libya Sufi Shrines Attacked ‘by Islamist Hardliners’ (BBC)

Lessons of the Breivik affair: “[S]ince 1995 extremists on the far right have perpetrated 56% of domestic terrorism attacks in the United States … compared with 12% carried out by radical Muslims. The likes of Breivik, Timothy McVeigh and Wade Michael Page have been responsible for the majority of terrorist incidents in 13 of the [past] 17 years”:

• Anders Behring Breivik: Norway’s Sane Killer (LA Times)

“It is certainly a sobering thought that the Trust would have put in place a ‘Do not resuscitate’ order if the family had not have challenged their stance through the legal system”:

• Muslim Man in Right-to-life Case ‘Moves Eyes’ (Telegraph)

Miffed that the Iranians have invited the winners of the most recent Palestinian election, “President Mahmoud Abbas will not participate at the summit of non-aligned nations in Iran at the end of the month if Hamas also attends”:

• Iranian Invitation Splits Palestinians (AP / abc News)

Beyond the partisan divide on American perception of Muslims is a generational divide:

• The Partisan, Racial and Generational Divide: How We View Arabs and Muslims (Huffington Post)

Only about 2,000 people joined the demonstrations organized in part by opposition parties, as many liberals stayed home;  “Respectable democratic countries elect a leader and then give him time to prove himself,” said one wait-and-see Egyptian. “We must give Mursi a chance because he won the election. We can vote him out again next time”:

• Egypt Opposition Take to the Street, Clash with President’s Supporters (Christian Science Monitor)

“Badruddin Haqqani has been described as a senior operational commander with the Haqqani network – masterminding and directing ambitious attacks on high-profile targets. He was also responsible for training camps, and for extorting funds from contractors”:

• Top Haqqani Network Militant ‘Killed in Pakistan’ (BBC)

Syrian civil war spillover into Lebanon continues:

• Syrian Rebels Free 1 of 11 Lebanese Shiite Pilgrims Held in Syria (Washington Post)
• Sunni Cleric Killed in North Lebanon Clashes (BBC)

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 Chief Editor Charged with Insult (AP / Washington Post)

Sacrifice of American liberty is not a trade-off for security, it is a lose-lose situation …

• The Dangerous, False Trade-off Between Liberty and Security (Atlantic)

… and while the NYPD’s pathetically desperate attempt to defend the program pretends that “evidence of the negative effects of profiling programs like their own” constitutes “critical national security information” …

• NYPD Muslim Spying Program Only Uncovers Complaints About Anti-Muslim Discrimination (ThinkProgress)

… Attorney Jethro Eisenberg calls holding anyone who speaks Urdu as suspect and anyone from southern Lebanon as potentially “dominated by Hezbollah” to be “a terribly pernicious set of policies,”comparable to those to which Japanese Americans were  subjected in World War II and he will ask the courts to shut down the NYPD Demographics Unit:

• NYPD: No Leads, Terror Cases from Muslim Spying (CBS News)

Reasonable argument for shaving Nidal Haassan’ beard: Because he agreed to be clean shaven when he joined the army.  Bigoted argument for shaving Nidal Hassan’s beard: “Because his religious beliefs are associated with the crime”:

• Military Judge Asserts Right to Order Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Forcibly Shaved Before Trial (AP / Washington Post)

Talat Asad argues that his famous father should not be seen as a Western intellectual seeking to liberalize Islam, but as a Muslim intellectual concerned  “with immersing himself critically in the tradition of Islam that became his tradition, and with encouraging members of his community (Muslims) to adopt an approach that he considered to be its essence”:

• Muhammad Asad Between Religion and Politics (Islam Interactive)

Motivated by her concern over misrepresentation of Islam, a Catholic turned liberal Quaker tries a mini-Muslim-style fast, and concludes that while self-reflection may be a good idea at any time, “perhaps the fasting, the sense of community, the shared experience and the self-control presented during Ramadan offers a much needed helping hand”:

• I’m Not a Muslim, but Ramadan Changed Me (Huffington Post)

A survey by the Arab-American Institute finds Republicans love Presbyterians and Jews (by margins of 60%), but hate Muslims (by a margin of 31%) and aren’t so crazy about Sikhs either:

• Poll: GOP Really Dislikes Muslims (Salon)

“Ban is ‘fully aware of the sensitivities’ of the visit, but not going ‘would be a missed opportunity'”:

• UN Chief to Visit Iran Defying US and Israel (AlJazeera)

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 (HuffingtonPost)

… while once again events demonstrate “how easily rumor can trump truth in Pakistan, [as] almost everyone in [the accused girl’s] neighborhood insisted she had burned the Quran, even though police said they had found no evidence of it”:

• Pakistan Christian Girl Held, Accused of Blasphemy (Huffington Post)

The end of a double standard? “For the first time, the U.S. State Department has cited violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank under the heading “terrorist incidents” in its annual Country Report on Terrorism”:

• For First Time, U.S. State Department Defines Settler Violence as Terrorism (Haaretz)

“There were also two separate reports yesterday that Britain and Germany have been offering intelligence support to the Syrian rebels” through the US and Turkey:

• UN Observers Pull Out of Syria as Western Intelligence Work Ramps Up (Christian Science Monitor)

A comment of a female Muslim Indian neurosurgeon inspires Eid reflections in a leftist atheist Western journalist:

• Veiled Muslim Women and Boozing Western Intellectuals (Counterpunch)

“This is the new generation of young Muslim parents, which is driving an incredible surge in the quest for education in a community that was always blamed for being backward and conservative, especially with regard to girls’ education.” One parent boasts her “daughters will all become so successful that we will be recognized and respected as their parents”:

• Muslim Girls’ Enrollment in Primary Schools Up 33% Against Average of 5% (Times of India)

Told by a Houston policewoman, ” if you want your religious headscarf, you shouldn’t protest,’ Ilana Alazzah responds, “All of these horrible things that happen to people, are perpetuated by people who say they are just following orders…. When you’re doing your job, there’s a way to do things that’s not infringing on people’s rights and liberties and dignity”:

• Muslim Asks HPD to Revise Frisking Rules on Headscarfs (Houston Chronicle)

“They said they were going to distribute the oil money to the people in a fair way. It didn’t happen” — a customer at an Iraqi gas station:

• Iraqis Wait to See Gains From Country’s Oil Boom (AP / abc News)

“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 to avoid a mirror image repression from Muslim extremists? Laws against “insulting religion” are slippery slope

• Books and Art Pit Freedom of Religion Against Free Speech in Tunisia (Christian Science Monitor)

As charges fly over which side is more insensitive to civilian casualties in Afghanistan …

• US-led Coalition, Taliban in War of Words over Death of Afghans Caught in the Crossfire of War (AP / Washington Post)

… a “new history curriculum … deletes nearly four decades of the country’s war-torn past” putatively to “bring unity,” but “critics accuse ministers of trying to appease the Taliban and other powerful groups by erasing history that portrays them in a bad light. They say the government is trying to win over the Taliban”:

• Why Afghanistan’s Past Is Being ‘Rewritten‘ (BBC)

“[E]xcept for one insult shouted by a passerby, he and his family have been treated respectfully…. The opinions of Muslim immigrants and students … shape how Muslims abroad see America, much more so than the mosques, media, and politicians in their countries, experts say”:

• Muslim Immigrants at Home Key to U.S. Image Abroad (RNS / Washington Post)

Although the new government has not yet filled the vacuum left by the driving out of al-Shabaab, instead of gunfire “you’re more likely to hear the clang of hammers and the drone of drills” in Mogadishu today:

• In Somalia, Optimism Rises (Christian Science Monitor)

A Roman Catholic says she learned much from reading the Qur’an during Ramadan, above all “to have faith, seek the truth, praise God, pray, forgive, be kind, be peaceful and take care of people who are most vulnerable — those who are oppressed and often forgotten”:

• What Catholics Can Learn from the Quran (Washington Post)

As a communal violence threatens to spread panic across India, simplification of the conflict into “Hindu vs. Muslim” masks the fact that in “Assam, the underlying frictions are over the control of land, immigration pressures and the fight for political power”:

• Notes on the World’s Largest Democracy (NY Times)

Morsi’s visit to “the Non-Aligned Movement Summit” in Tehran may “mark a thaw in relations between Egypt and Iran after years of enmity, especially since Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and the Islamic revolution in Iran”:

• Official: Egypt’s President to Visit Iran (AP / abc News)

As the UN observers leave the country and Syria denies Assad’s deputy tried to defect, Lakhdar Brahimi’s conviction “will be put to the test in his new job as the joint United Nations-Arab League special envoy charged with trying to succeed where his former boss Kofi Annan failed — bringing an end to the 18-month conflict in Syria:

• New Syria Point Man Lakhdar Brahimi Believes Every Conflict Can Be Solved (Washington Post)

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 Jewish Group, Jury Finds (LA Times)

Tawfiq “Okasha’s network el-Faraeen, or the Pharaohs, was ordered off the air after he warned Morsi not to attend the funeral of 16 Egyptian soldiers killed in a militant attack this month. He said ‘spilling’ Morsi’s blood would be permissible and alleged the president’s Muslim Brotherhood group was behind the attack”:

• Egyptian TV Presenter, Chief Editor to Go on Trial (AP / abc News)

“Last week, several members of the US Congress wrote to the Bahraini King Hamad al-Khalifa expressing concern over Mr Rajab’s case and urging the release of ‘Bahrainis being held for crimes related to freedom of expression'”:

• Bahrain Activist Nabeel Rajab Jailed for Three Years (BBC)

“[F]ollowing widespread protests staged by Muslims last month, to dispute what they said was unconstitutional government interference in religious affairs,” Human Rights Watch charges the detainees “have had no access to legal counsel or, in several cases, their relatives,” while held “in a prison known for torture”:

• Call to Free Ethiopia’s Jailed Muslim Protesters (AFP / Google)

Motives for the project include less reliance on foreign workers, diversification from oil, and a concession to the “growing cohort of female graduates who were sent abroad on a government scholarship aren’t content with sitting at home anymore”:

• Saudi Plan to Boost Women’s Employment? Create a Women-friendly City (Christian Science Monitor)

“The three provinces are Muslim-dominated and were part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate until annexed by Thailand in 1909”:

• Thailand Holds Peace Talks with Muslim Insurgents (Chicago Tribune)

The Taliban are increasing their violence in Pakistan even Afghan locals are losing sympathy for the increasingly badly behaved movement:

• Taliban Attacks Major Pakistani Air Base, 10 Dead (Christian Science Monitor)
• Is the Taliban Wearing Out Its Welcome in Afghanistan? (Christian Science Monitor)

Suspended by the OIC, Syria remains defiant and violent, while the rebels transgressions not only attract UN attention, but are threatening the stability of neighboring states.:

• World Muslim Body Suspends Syria (Manila Bulletin)
• Syria Lashes Out at Muslim States After Suspension (AFP / Yahoo)
• Syria Crisis: Many Dead in Azaz Airstrike – Thursday 16 August 2012 (Guardian)
• UN: War Crimes on Both Sides in Syria (Christian Science Monitor)
• One Kidnapping in Syria Prompts Kidnapping of 20-plus in Lebanon (Christian Science Monitor)
• Syria’s Civil War and the Geopolitics Overtaking It (Christian Science Monitor)

“A few things make Eid different in Gaza: for starters, there seems to be a truce between the Occupation and the Palestinians on this day”:

• Me, Myself and My Muslim Eid (Huffington Post)

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 jail:

• [Getting] Away with Palestinian Murder? IDF ‘Killer’ Given 45 Days (Russia Today)

The pundits try to sort out what the Islamists in Egypt (and Tunisia and Libya) are doing:

• What’s It Mean that an Islamist Rules Egypt? (Christian Science Monitor)
• Egypt’s Morsi cleans house. But a coup? Hardly (Christian Science Monitor)

“We suffered from the unjust regime of Mubarak that participated in the Israeli blockade of Gaza” — Fathi Hamad, Hamas Interior Minister:

• Egypt Opens Border with Gaza Ahead of Major Muslim Holiday, Says Palestinian Official (Washington Post)

“The Taliban threatens people not to accept development projects with American money…. How are we supposed to build these storage facilities? If we talk about them, the Taliban will kill us” — Mohammad Hasan, a senior sub-governor in Ghazni province:

• Afghanistan War: Can the US Gains Last? (Christian Science Monitor)

The Taliban “want to expand their influence — show that they are everywhere…. They want to show that the Afghan police are not strong enough so they are targeting the security forces and the government” — Jawid Kohistani, Afghan political analyst:

• Bombs Kill 46 Across Afghanistan (AP / abc News)

“Jewish Voice for Peace-Detroit, Pax Christi-Michigan, Detroit Meeting of Friends, Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East,Michigan Coalition for Human Rights,Pointes for Peace and Michigan Coalition for Human Rights” unite against bigotry:

A “‘pillar of the community’ … is charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm and criminal damage to property, both felonies”:

• Islamic Groups Alarmed by Suburban Incidents (Chicago Tribune)

With Syrian rebels takings h0stages and OIC suspending Syria’s membership, the defecting prime minister predicts the collapse of Assad’s regime:

• Syrian Rebels Seek New Leverage With Abductions (AP / abc News)
• Islamic Body Agrees to Suspend Syria: Source (Reuters / Chicago Tribune)
• Syria’s Ex-Prime Minister: Regime on the Verge of Collapse (Christian Science Monitor)

The Israeli media was absorbed with fevered speculation on a pending strike against Iran, but where s the evidence?

• Israel Hasn’t Decided on Iran Strike: Pentagon (Reuters)
• What’s Behind the Latest Israeli Media Frenzy on Iran? (Christian Science Monitor)

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)

Anonymous security officials report that “raids by troops and police backed by armored vehicles targeted the villages near El-Arish of al-Ghora and al-Mahdiyah. They seized landmines, an anti-aircraft missile, heavy machine-guns and grenades”:

• Egyptian Forces Kill Several Militants near Gaza Strip (Christian Science Monitor)

As frustration and apprehension over the Syrian civil war  grow …

• Syria: U.N. Says No One Will Win (Christian Science Monitor)
• Syria Crisis: US and Turkey Consider No-fly Zones (Guardian)

… a Palestinian Christian warns, “The protracted conflict in Syria, and the involvement of various regional players made it unbearable for the neoconservatives to hide behind their new brand and slowly plot a comeback. For them, it was now or never”:

• Neocons vs. the ‘Arab Spring’: Back on the Warpath (Palestine Chronicles)

By deleting the word “principles” of Sharia in the constitution or replacing it with “rulings,” the so-called “Salafists” hope to transform “the constitution from a general text that guides to one that deals with narrow details” and “make any further discussion or interpretation moot”:

• The Islamists and the Writing of Arab Constitutions (Al-Hayat / Al-Monitor)

“[S]ummer violence that has both international and Afghan forces questioning who is friend or foe”:

• Afghan Policeman Guns 10 of His Fellow Officers, a Day After Afghan Gunmen Kill 6 US Soldiers (AP / Washington Post)

“Matt Miller had just converted to Islam and begun worshiping at the mosque when the controversy erupted. He said all of his friends, whom he describes as ‘regular American bar-hopping citizens,’ support the new mosque and are happy for the congregation”:

• Islamic Center of Murfreesboro: After Long Fight, Opening Day For Tennessee Mosque (Huffington Post)

Deploring the violence that erupted at a “rally to protest the killing of Muslims in Assam and Myanmar,” Mumbai Muslims have issued a statement that “[u]sing violence in a protest against violence is an insult to the suffering victims in whose support the protest was purportedly called”:

• Raza Academy, Muslim Groups Apologize for Violence (Twocircles.net)

“Thomas Jefferson once held a sunset dinner here … — perhaps the first Iftar at the White House, more than 200 years ago. And some of you … may have seen our special display … — the Koran that belonged to Thomas Jefferson[,] …a reminder, along with the generations of patriotic Muslims in America, that Islam … is part of our national story”:

• President Obama’s Remarks at Iftar Dinner (examiner)

“Romney might be duped into thinking that oranges, falafel and hummus — staples of Palestinian cuisine for generations — are Israeli products. But how dare he claim that a state built at the expense of another people’s history and accomplishments is guided by ‘the hand of providence’”?

• The Palestine Romney Doesn’t Know (Washington Post)

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 Spokesman Says Group’s Leaders Will Decide if Pakistani Cricket Star Can Hold Protest (Washington Post)
• The Morality of Drone Warfare Revisited (Guardian)

Although Gaza is suffering from the border closing in the wake of the Sinai attacks …

• Gaza Closure After Egypt Border Attack Sends Prices Soaring, Leaves Medical Patients Stranded (AP / Washington Post)

… “Gaza merchant Abdel Dayem Abu Medain said Thursday he is giving money to the victims’ families ‘to reflect the depth of our relations with Egypt’:

• Gaza Merchant Promises $10,000 Each to Families of 16 Egyptian Soldiers Killed in Sinai Attack (AP / Washington Post)

Libya’s “first peaceful transition of power in its modern history … comes amid heightened violence” …

• Libya’s Ruling Council Hands over Power to New Assembly (Reuters)

… but unsatisfied with the chaos his intervention into Libya has wreaked on Africa, Sarkozy wants to do the same for the Arab world, as Assad takes back the Salah-al-Din district and Iran tries its hand at the diplomatic route:

• Sarkozy Ignites Furor with Push for Foreign Intervention in Syria (Christian Science Monitor)
• Syria Crisis: Rebels Lose Key District of Aleppo (BBC)
• Iran Convenes Conference on Syria, Vowing to Preserve the ‘Axis of Resistance’ (Christian Science Monitor)

Already under pressure in the aftermath of the Sinai violence …

• Egypt Buries 16 Soldiers Slain in Border Attack (AP / Boston Herald)
• Egypt Fires Intelligence Chief Over Sinai Attack (AP / abc News)
• Egypt Mounts Airstrikes Against Sinai Sites Where It Believes Militants Are Active (Washington Post)
• Gunmen Attack Police Station In Egypt’s Sinai (AP / NPR)

… Morsi is is now taking heat for everything from power outages to press appointments:

• First India, Now Egypt: Massive Power Cut Has Hit Large Parts of Cairo  (NY Daily News)
• Muslims Petition Egypt Not to Include Shariah (Washington Post)
• Egyptian Journalists Condemn Brotherhood Influence (AP / UPI / Al-Akhbar)

Religion is less important to Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa, most Muslims believe there is only one way to interpret Islam but most American Muslims disagree, and 10% of the world’s Muslims are converts:

• New US Study Finds Diverse Views in the Muslim World (AFP / Yahoo)

“The issue of Muslim extremism is a hot topic wrought with potential political pitfalls, and yet here is a guy on the short-list for GOP vice-presidential candidates who is directly confronting the topic in the backyard of his own house”:

• Christie Calls Anti-Muslim Conservatives “Bigots” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

A splinter Philippine rebel group’s violent rampage provokes Muslim condemnation and a government crackdown:

• Muslim Leaders Slam BIFM Attacks (Tempo)
• Philippine Troops Assault Breakaway Rebel Lairs (AP / Seattle Times)