Month: January 2015
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News and Analysis (1/29/15)
“[P]olice prevented anyone from trying to help 32-year-old Shaimaa el-Sabbagh after she was shot. El-Sabbagh, a mother of a small boy, died Saturday after birdshot fired by police hit her in the head during a rally she took part in”: Egyptian Police Criticized over Death of Female Protester (AP /abc News) “Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon targeted…
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News and Analysis (11/27/15)
Dismissing speculation that a retaking of Mosul is imminant, an unidentified U.S. official said the Islamic State “wants to draw security forces into a prolonged, urban, street-by-street combat. We’re not going to fall for that”: US Sees Kobani as Key Win, but Mosul May Require New Tactics (AP / Washington Post) Carson has been congratulated…
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Muslims and Bell-Tower Controversy
Muslims and Bell-Tower Controversy Duke University’s decision to rescind its earlier approval to allow the use of campus bell-tower for a weekly Islamic prayer call has drawn widespread attention. Among the chief opponents of this accommodation to campus Muslims is Reverend Franklin Graham. He says, “It is wrong because it’s a different god. Using the bell tower, that signifies worship…
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News and Analysis (1/25/14)
The late Saudi monarch’s gradualist reform program proceeded at a glacial pace … King Abdullah an ‘Advocate of Women’? What He Did and Didn’t Achieve (Christian Science Monitor) … and his successor “is largely seen as a place-holder king. Two kings from now is when some chance for change may come in. The current crown…
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Reflections on “The Muslim Response to Charlie Hebdo: Understanding the Root Causes of Radicalizationâ€
Reflections on the CSID Conference “The Muslim Response to Charlie Hebdo: Understanding the Root Causes of Radicalization†On Wednesday, January 22, I attended a two hour conference organized by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) at the National Press Club in downtown Washington, DC. The topic was “The Muslim Response to…
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News and Analysis (1/23/15)
“His priority was to counter the influence of rival, mainly Shiite Iran wherever it tried to make advances. He and fellow Sunni Arab monarchs also staunchly opposed the Middle East’s wave of pro-democracy uprisings, seeing them as a threat to stability and their own rule” … Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Was Incremental Reformer, US Ally…
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News and Analysis (1/21/15)
“It’s really sad when we bow down to the threat of violence against those who want to implement freedom of expression. This is not about faith, it is an expression of xenophobia that can do more damage in the long term”: After Duke’s Call-to-prayer Controversy, Muslim Students in D.C. Fear a Backlash (Washington Post) And…
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News and Analysis (1/19/15)
Some see “a double standard …, citing France’s ban on publicly donning the full veil worn by conservative Muslim women” and  the magazine’s firing of “a former Charlie Hebdo cartoonist … for anti-Semitism after he commented on the son of French president Nicolas Sarkozy” … What’s Behind the Anti-Charlie Hebdo Protests? (Christian Science Monitor) ……
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News and Analysis (1/17/15)
In the face of Duke’s reversal of permission for Muslims to give the call to prayer from the bell tower, “Duke’s Muslim chaplain, Imam Adeel Zeb, chanted the adhan over the portable speaker” from its base, saying “he would pray for those who had castigated Muslims, “because that’s what Muslims do”: At Duke, Many CriticizeDecision…
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News and Analysis (1/15/15)
“Yemen’s Al Qaeda branch claimed responsibility Wednesday for the deadly assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo“ but not “for the actions of the third gunman … who killed a policewoman and the four grocery store hostages last week,” a self-described supporter of IS: Al-Qaida in Yemen Uses Video to Claim Responsibility for Charlie Hebdo…
