Month: June 2016

Turkey observes a national day of mourning after a heinous attack in Istanbul last night. Well over 200 people were injured above the 41 killed. Officials believe Daesh is responsible: Istanbul Ataturk Airport Attack: Deaths Rise to 41 as Turkey Mourns (BBC) The popular conspiracy theory among Islamophobes that all Muslim organizations are fronts for […]

According to the author, the best model is a “[n]eutral, non-interventionist state…that guarantees individual freedom…” Furthermore, modernization is not the same as secularization, contrary to what some may think: Should Islam Have a Role in Politics? (Huffington Post) The state has no right to regulate the religious practice of people. However, a mostly-Muslim country should […]

Michele Flournoy doesn’t deny advocating military intervention, but only insists that she stopped short of boots on the ground”: Hillary Clinton’s Likely Defense Chief Says She Did Not Advocate for Ground Troops in Syria (Intercept) Historical context and analysis shows how America’s “cultural and demographic ignorance” explains why its decades-long political and military geopolitical engagements “exacerbate rather […]

A mosque was destroyed in a village in Myanmar, belonging to the persecuted Rohingya Muslims. The president, Aung San Suu Kyi refuses to recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group, nor call them by their preferred name: Mob Destroys Mosque as Religious, Ethnic Tension Rises in Myanmar (Reuters) A NYPD policeman dismissed from his job because […]

After the Orlando massacre, there have been many claims that Muslims should ‘do their part’ in reporting Terrorism. Well, a former friend of Omar Mateen’s did report him in 2013. Muslims Do Report Extremist Threats. In Fact, This Muslim Man Reported Omar Mateen (Vox) “‘It looks increasingly like this may have been the act of a […]

Bahrain has revoked citizenship for Ayatollah Isa Qasim. He is accused of encouraging sectarian divisions. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards warned the response to this would be armed resistance: Iran Says Bahrain Has Crossed a Line by Stripping Shia Cleric of Citizenship (Guardian) The political rhetoric that blames Muslims for terrorism is “designed to distract the public’s […]

He was an activist against both the Mubarak and Muslim Brotherhood regimes, but nothing could prepare him for the brutality of the Sisi regime: The Egyptians Who ‘Disappear’ (BBC) “There are people who have stopped practicing Islam as a result of being gay and being ostracized. I will not pay that price. But because I […]

Was the Orlando attack an act of self-loathing? “A repeat visitor who used to drink to excess at Pulse, saying he couldn’t at home because his family was ‘really strict,’ Mateen was also on a gay dating app used by other patrons of the club”: Questions Grow on Orlando Shooter, a ‘Regular’ at Attacked Nightclub (antiwar.com) […]

“The suspect, identified as Omar Mateen, died in a gunfight with police. Authorities are looking into whether the attack on the gay nightclub was an act of domestic or international terror”: 50 Dead in Florida Nightclub Shooting, Worst in US History (AP / Christian Science Monitor) M. H. Zaman worries “that this election may be […]