News and Analysis (2/2/16)

Obama’s symbolic visit, limited to 150 invited guests would “build support for the president while numbing people to the fact that, under his presidency, … Muslims have been detained, tortured, and extrajudicially assassinated”:

• Too Little, Too Late? Obama to Make First Presidential Visit to American Mosque (Alternet)

“Muslims from other parts of China who come here, especially from Xinjiang, can’t believe how free we are, and they don’t want to leave”:

• Light Government Touch Lets China’s Hui Practice Islam in the Open (NY Times)

The news that the “punishment for apostasy conviction to eight years in prison and 800 lashes” provokes one critic of Fayadh’s persecution to exclaim, “[I]t’s way past time western governments stopped dealing with this pervert regime”:

• Palestinian Poet Ashraf Fayadh’s Death Sentence Quashed by Saudi Court (Guardian)

The move looks like an attempt to pre-empt a proposal by an expert panel for “an international commission to investigate alleged human rights abuses by all sides in the conflict” in the wake of the attack on Doctors Without Borders:

• Saudi-Led Coalition Sets up Body to Probe Actions in Yemen (AP / abc News)

“When there was nowhere for me to study ballet due to my outfit, [my mom] opened a performing arts academy that taught ballet, martial arts and aboriginal arts …, where no one questions children why they dress or look a certain way”:

• Muslim Teen Wants to Be First Professional Ballerina in a Hijab: ‘Dancing Is Like Flying’ (Daily News)

The Saudi backed HNC “won’t take part until a set of preliminary demands are met: releasing detainees, ending the bombardment of civilians by Russian and Syrian forces, and lifting government blockades on rebel-held areas” …

• Syrian Opposition Arrives for Peace Talks but May Not Participate (AP /Christian Science Monitor)

… while “the most powerful groups in northern Syria [who] when they briefly teamed up with other Islamists last year in an alliance called the Fatah Army, the rebels scored one of their biggest victories” fail to merge:

• Syrian Rebel Splits Deepen After Failed ‘Merger’ with al Qaeda Arm (Reuters)

“[R]esidents say there’s not much ethnic tension worth mentioning…. Alice Kopecky, a lifelong resident who emigrated from Poland 50 years ago [says], ‘I want to see what they do, and if they accomplish a lot, then let’s reelect them’”:  

• What’s Life Like in America’s First City With a Muslim-Majority City Council? (Nation)

“Some Muslim women wear hijab, some don’t, and it’s just not an issue — it’s a non-issue. But then you have one person write an engaging article, and suddenly it’s a debate that we’re supposed to be having, that we are not having”:

• American Muslim Women Explain Why They Do — or Don’t — Cover (NPR)

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