Month: October 2020

Rivals include Turkey, of the abandoned caliphate; Saudi Arabia, of Mecca and Medina; the UAE, of “militantly statist” Islam; Qatar, of “less strict” Wahhabism and political Islam; Indonesia, of “humanitarian, pluralistic” Islam; Morocco, of moderate Islam; and Iran of  “derailed revolution”: The Battle for the Soul of Islam (Hudson Institute) Desperate to get out from […]

“A military court in the Gaza Strip convicted three Palestinian peace activists of ‘weakening revolutionary spirit’ on Monday for their role in holding a video call with Israelis in April, but it ordered the authorities to release the two who remained in jail”: Gaza Court Convicts Peace Activists for Video Call With Israelis (NY Times) […]

Will Pompeo’s support for Nahdlatul Ulama over its rivals taint the movement’s bid “to garner religious soft power and shape the definition of what constitutes moderate Islam?” US Secretary of State Pompeo Set to Boost Indonesian Religious Reform Efforts (Middle East Soccer) Muslims feeling scapegoated for the lockdown in the north of England demand publication […]

“Unlike the U.S., Iran does not interfere in other country’s elections” — Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations: US Officials Link Iran to Emails Meant to Intimidate Voters (AP) State Department careerists call plans to label Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam anti-Semitic “a gift to authoritarian governments that have […]

“They can put locks on our office but they can’t put it on our voice”  — Anuradha Bhasin, the owner and executive editor of Kashmir Times: ‘Vendetta’: Kashmir Newspaper’s Office Sealed by India Officials (Aljazeera) Being neither the head of state nor of government, MbS is not immune to “recourse in U.S. courts for violations […]

Not satisfied with classifying singing Palestinian songs as a form of terrorism within its own borders, Israel is “examining the possibility of calling for the cancelation of all of Assaf’s events in the United Arab Emirates”: Israel to Prevent Artist Mohammed Assaf from Visiting Palestine (Palestine Chronicle) “Al-Aqsa Mosque shall be entered through the gate […]

Existing law forbidding anyone from knowingly contacting the agent of a foreign state or terrorist organization without explanation would be expanded to impose a 15-year sentence on contact with any “foreign political entity,” including human rights organizations: New Israeli Legislation to Criminalize Anti Occupation Human Rights Work (Al-Haq) Feeling “discriminated against by the politicians and […]

By amending its rape laws to punish “anyone convicted of raping a woman or child … with ‘death or rigorous imprisonment for life’” Bangladesh joins four Muslim countries and China in taking a hard line against the most brutal and humiliating crime of aggression: From Bangladesh to Iran, Countries Where Rape Carries the Death Penalty […]

Critics called the BJP-led government imposition of a “property tax in the Union Territory … ‘despotic and anarchic rule’ aimed to ‘harass’ the people of Kashmir economically”: ‘Despotic, Harrassing’: Mainstream Parties Slam Property Tax Imposition (Kashmir Observer) By refusing to accept that a truly secular government would not engage “in what is essentially a community’s […]