Month: June 2014

ISIL’s declaration of Islamic statehood “and its demand that Muslims swear oaths of fealty to its leader – could prove the most disastrous piece of jihadi overreach since Al Qaeda in Iraq‘s routine use of torture and beheadings spurred a Sunni Arab backlash in 2006″ … Jihadis in Iraq and Syria Declare a Caliphate? Why that’s…

Linda Sarsour, the Director of Arab American Association of New York, rebuts Bridgette Gabriel’s accusations that “anywhere from 180-300 million Muslims worldwide [are] violent extremists”: CNN Guest Battles ‘Pseudo-Expert’ from Heritage Panel over Anti-Islam ‘Fear-mongering’ (CNN) A George Washington University study ranked 208 countries on “ Islamicity Index” … “the ‘Islamicity’ of a country is based on…

“[T]he Sudanese have assured the U.S. that the family is not under arrest and that they are safe…. U.S. officials are continuing to work on getting them out of the country” … Freed Christian Woman, Family Detained While Trying to Leave Sudan (Christian Science Monitor) … while in Malaysia, ‘The highest court has rejected a…

The multiple stabbing death of a Muslim student “has sparked threats of violent revenge on social media websites including Facebook and Twitter, which police officers are monitoring as part of the murder investigation”: Police Urge Caution over Murder of Muslim Student in Essex (The Guardian) “Amnesty International described the verdicts as ‘the latest example of the…

Sara Harvard responds to the question, “Can you tell me who the head of the Muslim peace movement is?” by noting, “there are numerous Muslim organizations that dedicate themselves to peace, non-violence, and interfaith and cross-cultural partnerships”: I Won’t Apologize for Being Muslim (Huffington Post) Councillor claims that she “doesn’t mind Muslims praying in Bendigo, but…

[This is the seventh in a series of my notes on the International Institute of Islamic Thought conference on Islamic Reform Movements After the Arab Spring held in Herndon, VA. It sets the stage for the other papers the presentations and discussions of which will be summarized in the remainder of this series. The official proceedings…

“Politico media critic Dylan Byers has criticized Dana Milbanks’ column about the treatment of Sara Ahmad, concluding that she “was actually treated graciously by the panelists” … Muslim Woman Who Ran for Congress in Oregon Is Center of Attention at D.C. Forum ( The Oregonian) … but an Irish Muslim explains that he is tired of defending Islam,…

ISIS pushes towards Baghdad, but “[t]he Times questions the authenticity of the ‘massacre’ images circulating online…Its deputy picture editor Elizabeth Orcutt cautions that the pictures look too high-quality, too composed and are unusual for being shot by a stills camera rather than on video” … The Papers: Pictures of a ‘War Crime’ Massacre (BBC) … and…

“The condemnations revive a long-standing debate among conservatives as well as militants about the rectitude of the world’s most popular sport”, but “the late Osama Bin Laden, Hamas’ Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah chief sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, … are avid soccer fans”: World Cup Sparks Islamist Debate on Rectitude of Soccer (Huffington Post) “A number of towns…