The Iraqi government tries to solve the crisis by holding parliamentary meetings to resolve differences and form a new government, but to no avail. “[T]he meeting quickly descended into farce, with Sunnis and Kurds using an unscheduled recess to withdraw their legislators, ensuring the session collapsed” …
- Iraqi Parliament Session Collapses Amid Political Standoff (The Guardian)
…amid these unresolved differences, Massoud Barazani, president of the Regional Kurdistan Government, “publicly declared he would schedule a referendum on independence”  from Iraq …Â
… and “the surge in unrest in Iraq has caused [political pundit and hitherto military interventionist Glenn] Beck — like so many others — to change his opinion on what was one of the most important foreign policy issues the United States has faced in decades”:
“In Syria these guys are fighting and killing U.S.-backed Sunni rebels. In Iraq we are deploying advisors alongside them,”‘ said Michael Knights, a former U.S. government advisor in Iraq…. ‘There area lot of strange contradictions in the U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria, but this is the starkest’”:
Unsatisfied with one life for a life, the Israelis, who have already killed at least five Palestinians since three young men, subsequently found murdered, first disappeared, is accusing Hamas and is reeking random retaliation on Palestinians:
- Israeli Air Strikes Destroy Buildings in Gaza, and Palestinian Teenager is Shot Dead (The Guardian)
… but Hamas denies involvement in the kidnapping and murder and and responds to the Israeli violence with threats of its own …
- Israel Bombs Gaza After Teens Found Dead (Sydney Morning Herald)
… while the kidnapping and of a Palestinian teenager as well as the differences between Israeli and Arab coverage of the crisis demonstrate that in the Middle Eats sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander:
- Palestinian Youth Killed in Possible Revenge Attack (Reuters)
- How Israeli Teen Murders Are Portrayed in Arabic and Hebrew Media (Christian Science Monitor)
The Muslim American journalist who stirred a controversy by attending a Republican convention wearing a headscarf says, “[T]his is not about me; it is about three things: the desensitization of hate towards Muslims, the Constitution and misconceptions”:
- A Muslim American Journalist Explains How She Became the Story at a Texas GOP Event (Washington Post)
A European court has shocked human rights activists by insisting that French women have no right to decide for themselves whether or not to display their face in public:
- Europe’s Top Human Rights Court Upholds French Ban on Muslim Veil (VoA)
- French Muslim Women on Burqa Ban Ruling: ‘All I Want Is to Live in Peace’ (Guardian)
In Nigeria, the acts of violence by “insurgent group in the country was a common enemy and was not representing Islam in any way” :
- Nigeria Muslim Leader: Boko Haram Does Not Represent Islam (World Bulletin)
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