News and Analysis (5/24/15)

Arab world is outraged as US blocks an effort to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons:

• UN Nuclear Weapons Talks Fail ‘over Israel Row’ (BBC)
• Israel Thanks U.S. for Stand on Mideast Nuclear Arms Ban at U.N. (Reuters)

“The comments by the Iranian deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, carried by state television, came after he and the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, attended a reportedly stormy closed session of parliament”:

• Iran Will Allow UN Nuclear Inspectors to Visit Military Sites, Negotiator Says (AP / Guardian)

The human toll in Palmyra is the first priority …

• Syria Says Islamic State Kills Hundreds, Including Children, in Palmyra (Reuters)

… “The ruins at Palmyra would not normally qualify for destruction by Isis, but the attention drawn to the site might tempt the group to destroy them as a way to inflict psychological pain” …

• Religious Teaching that Drives Isis to Threaten the Ancient Ruins of Palmyra (Guardian)

… while “[t]he commander of international forces in Afghanistan … said Afghans largely did not agree with the ideology of the [IS], … he contradicted his earlier statement that Isis was not active on the battlefields of Afghanistan by saying it was reportedly fighting the Taliban for control of territory and men”:

• Isis Actively Recruiting in Afghanistan, Says US General (Guardian)

Partially declassified documents demonstrate that US intelligence anticipated the rise of a “Salafist state” in eastern Syria and new it threatened Iraqi stability but welcomed the development because they  believed it would isolate the Syrian regime:

• 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency Document: West Will Facilitate Rise of Islamic State “in Order to Isolate the Syrian Regime” (Levant Report)

“[T]he most vitriolic opposition wasn’t from radical Islamists who couldn’t take a joke … [but from] Islamophobes and anti-Muslim bigots … [who] brought to mind a lot of contemporary and historical accusations of ‘cultural apostasy’ … [as w]hen Lindsey Lohan was snapped carrying a Quran”:

• Are There More Taboos About Pop Culture or Islam? (CNN)

“Most of America’s staunchest allies enforce speech laws much stricter than [anything in the Qur’an] — yet no one accuses such Western nations of being free speech obstructionists”; why do Italy, Switzerland and Canada get a pass?

• These Guys Are Painfully Wrong About Islam: 3 Things that Every Anti-Muslim Zealot Needs to Admit (Salon)

“The Quran does not hide its preference for those who possess knowledge and those whose faith is tempered by reason”, but “Muslims have mistakenly began equating knowledge with a narrowly defined conception of religious knowledge, and scholars with again narrowly defined conception of scholarship”:

• The Muslim World Needs Social Scientists Who Know the Islamic Tradition (Huffington Post)

“Saudi Arabia’s top Sunni cleric on Saturday branded a deadly attack on Shi’ite Muslims a bid to sow chaos, after villagers targeted in the bombing vented their anger at what they saw as the Sunni-dominated government’s indifference to their safety”:

• Saudi Clerics Urge Calm as Village Hit by Islamic State Seethes (Reuters)

ImadadDean