“You’re thinking, ‘He’s only doing this because he’s a prisoner. He’s got a gun at his head and he’s being forced to do this.’ Right…? Well, it’s true. I am a prisoner…. I have nothing to lose…. Maybe I will live and maybe I will die, [b]ut I want to take this opportunity to convey some facts that you can verify… that might help preserving lives”:
As the U.S. approves $500 million to train the Free Syrian Army in Saudi Arabia …
… France throws the first stone …
- Islamic State: France Joins US Air Campaign in Iraq, Hitting Logistics Depot (Christian Science Monitor)
… but Salam al-Maryaati warns, “Bombs cannot destroy ideas. Decapitating the leadership of ISIS will not stop violent extremism”, as he contrasts Islam and ISIS:
- The Key to Defeating ISIS Is Islam (Huffington Post)
“Gen. Abdel Fata al-Sisi, to the presidency. He follows in the footsteps of dictators Gamal Abdel Al-Nasser, Anwar al-Sadat, and Hosni al-Mubarak.” His regime has murdered an American journalist and the massacre at Rab’a al-Adawiya was worse than Tienneman Square:
Among the allegations, “I woke up to my mother screaming. This pig, this man he tried to take the blanket off my mother when she was dressed like any woman would dress for her husband. They were wearing armour, helmets, balaclavas. They didn’t even knock on the door they just broke it down” …
- Muslim Community Apprehension After Raids Leads to ‘Snap Protest’ (Sydney Morning Herald)
… but Australia’s PM says that the Australian Hizb ut-Tahrir Muslims protesting “allegedly brutal tactics used by police in Thursday’s counter-terrorism raids did not represent their faith and … “the police operation was ‘a show of strength … that we will respond with strength to any threat to our way of life and to our national security” …
- Abbott Dismisses Muslim Protest over Counter-terrorism Raids (Sydney Morning Herald)
… but while one “Muslim leader has called for Hizb ut-Tahrir to be banned … as exasperatation … grows over the extremist group … for drawing Islam into another ‘stereotypical debate’”, solicitor Zali Burrows warns that such a ban “dangerous,” asking, ‘Where does it end? What threat has Hizb ut-Tahrir actually made?’:
Bennett’s bigoted comments were “directed against … people like my family, friends and me…. Instead of dividing the community, Bennett had brought together Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups as well as organizations like the NAACP and the ACLU to stand together at a press conference to denounce Bennett and demand an apology”:
Still happy? Six were sentenced “to six months in prison and 91 lashes. A seventh participant …received an additional six months on her prison sentence for possession of alcohol and her role in distributing the video…. [They]Â will serve their sentences only if they are found guilty of another crime in the next three years” …
… and an “Iranian journalist and activist says freedom of speech and the press have not improved one iota under the new administration.” Iranian intelligence officers “would always say that they know the law but that it simply doesn’t apply to them. They go by their own laws”:
“A report released by the IAEA in September said Iran had failed to answer questions about what the watchdog called the possible military dimensions of its nuclear ambitions by a 25 August deadline”:
“Meeting in Madrid, officials from countries surrounding Libya and to its north across the Mediterranean concluded ‘there is no military solution to the current crisis.’ But Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo warned that the status quo puts Libya in a position where it could slide into a Syria-style civil war”:
- Libya, Neighbor Nations Snub Military Intervention (AP / abc News)
“Mr. Hargey … said the mosque would welcome people from all genders, religions and sexual orientations” and insists that in doing so, he has replicated “the original mosque of the Prophet Muhammad, where there were no barriers. This idea of female invisibility is an innovation that came after Muhammad”:
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