Month: March 2015

Shades of Andalusia! The best example of religious freedom and peaceful coexistence in Europe today may be its only Muslim majority state, Albania: ‘A Hardliner’s Nightmare’: Religious Tolerance in Europe’s Only Majority-Muslim Country (Newsweek) “[H]is wife was imprisoned for two years for wearing a burqa….  As part of the efforts to eliminate extremism, people of…

Why no sanctions on Israel? “The 1987 report’s confirmation of Israel’s advanced nuclear weapons program should have immediately triggered a cutoff in all U.S. aid to Israel under the Symington and Glenn Amendments to the US Foreign Assistance Act of 1961″ … US Confirmed Existence of Israeli H-Bomb Program in 1987: Report Raises Questions over US…

“[W]hile the threat of Muslim-related terrorism attracts headlines, per a 2014 report, only 37 Americans have been killed by such terrorism since 9/11. Meanwhile, in just the last six years, 63 Americans have been killed: ‘Patriot’ Terrorist Frames Muslims with Quran Bomb (Daily Beast) “From conversations about headscarves to how religious teachings regard women, we…

“It is one thing for the US and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal US secrets and play them back to US legislators to undermine US diplomacy” — an unnamed senior White House official: Obama White House Accuses Israel of Spying to Undermine Iran Talks (Christian Science…

“The Islamic Tribunal, a panel of Dallas-area imams, offers to mediate disputes between Muslims for a fee. Catholic dioceses and Jewish synagogues have run similar tribunals for centuries. But the Muslim version is portrayed on websites as the country’s first ‘Shariah court’” … Irving City Council Backs State Bill Muslims Say Targets Them (Dallas Morning News)…

“Cotton proved his absolute fealty to Likudist policy on Iran by sponsoring [legislation] … that would have punished violators of the sanctions against Iran with prison sentences of up to 20 years and extended the punishment to ‘a spouse and any relative, to the third degree’ of the sanctions violator”: The Real Story Behind the Republicans’…

If “his arrest – and that of other people, some of whom were sent straight to jail for one to four years – raised questions about free speech in France”, the sentencing of the comedian who “condemned the attacks without any restraint and without any ambiguity” shows France has no meaningful free speech: French Comedian Found…

“News of the imminent fall of Tikrit on Tuesday were exaggerated. On the east bank of the Tigris, Iraqi forces took the town of al-Alam, 6 miles northeast of Tikrit, from Daesh (ISIL or ISIS). But Daesh fighters blew up the bridge over the Tigris, stranding a lot of Iraqi forces to the east” ……