Month: July 2014

The minute the UN humanitarian truce ended, Israel initiated its threatened ground invasion … Gaza Cease-fire Affords Brief Respite, then a Buzz of Drones (Christian Science Monitor) Israel Starts Gaza Ground Offensive (BBC) … but some “Israelis have chosen to commemorate the dead in the latest Gaza conflict by spray painting surfaces in the southern city of…

With the cease fire truce between Hamas and Israel foredoomed because “the proposal fashioned by Egypt was not discussed with Hamas leaders, who feel it suits Israel far more than them” … Why the Israel-Gaza Cease-Fire Failed (TIME) … the bombardment of Gaza continues … Israeli Strike Kills Four Boys Playing on Gaza Beach (AP /…

Hamas’s inability to halt the impotent rocket barrage while it debated whether or not to accept the Egyptian proposed cease-fire allows Netanyahu to launch at least five Israeli airstrikes just as he makes the announcement blaming Hamas for his continuation of the predominantly civilian massacres: Cease-fire Effort Fails (CNN) Muslims are to boycott the White House…

“Israeli drones are a constant presence in the skies over Gaza, buzzing loudly as they watch and attack targets in the Strip. But the Palestinian drone is a new turn in this conflict, now entering its second week. More than 170 people have been killed in Gaza … with around 1,300 wounded”: Israel Says It…

The Chinese government continues the its hopeless effort to force Muslims to break their fast, even forcing students “to dine with their professors, [so] those who refused risked sanction from university officials”: China’s War on Ramadan Sees Muslim Students Forced to Break Fast (Washington Post) The “ceaseless Israeli bombing campaign, with airstrikes every five minutes, has turned the…

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in the US congress, says that the FBI and NSA tracking of American Muslims is “ troubling” because it shows that they are targeted because of their religion, which undermines the nations progress towards freedom … Ellison: Profiling of American Muslims is ‘ Troubling’ (Star Tribune) … in contrast, “Islam…

Five American Muslims “monitored by the NSA and FBI have all led highly public, outwardly exemplary lives. All five vehemently deny any involvement in terrorism or espionage, and none advocates violent jihad or is … implicated in any crime, despite years of intense scrutiny by the government and … press”: Meet the Muslim-American Leaders the…

[This is the eighth 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…

The racialization of Islamophobia has reached absurd proportions as a Latina Muslim loses her scholarship on the grounds that her Muslim religion makers her ineligible for a Latina scholarship: Muslim And Latina? Coed Claims She Lost Scholarship – And Eventually Got Expelled – Over Religion (Fox News Latino) The purpose of Ramadan is to strengthen one’s…

The caliphate “plagued by intrigue, division and bloodshed. Three of the first four ‘rightly guided caliphs’ were assassinated.” Later, the famous Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates “were constantly at war with one another. Not quite the golden age of the Islamist imagination” … The Hand-Choppers of Isis Are Deluded: There Is Nothing Islamic About Their…