News and Analysis (6/15/16)

Was the Orlando attack an act of self-loathing? “A repeat visitor who used to drink to excess at Pulse, saying he couldn’t at home because his family was ‘really strict,’ Mateen was also on a gay dating app used by other patrons of the club”:

• Questions Grow on Orlando Shooter, a ‘Regular’ at Attacked Nightclub (antiwar.com)

“Muslims are less accepting of homosexuality than most religious groups in [a recent] study” but more accepting than evangelical Christians and Mormons:

• Orlando Shootings Highlight Debate About Acceptance of LGBT People in Islam (Washington Post)

“The LGBTQ community has stood in solidarity with the American Muslim community in challenging Islamophobia, on college campuses and beyond, and today we stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community”:

• MSA National Statement on Mass Shooting in Orlando (Muslim Students Association)

Sissi, who has no tolerance for criticism, tries to blame his regimes inflation (under which the Egyptian pound has dropped was recently devalued aby 14%, while the actual value is almost 30% lower yet) on “dishonest traders”:

• Price Hikes in Egypt Bite Hard During Holy Month of Ramadan (AP / abc News)

“No legal system among nations, including Islamic law that forms the basis of the legal system in the Islamic Republic of Iran, justifies the punishment of citizens without due legal process. Placing political dissidents under house arrest is a transparent example of such persecution”:

• Academics Urge Rouhani to Speak Out over House Arrests of Iranian Critics (Guardian)

“‘[R]adical’ can mean not only ‘extreme,’ but also, by extension, ‘genuine.’ After all, the ‘radical’ Islamist considers himself to be the ‘true’ Muslim just as the ‘radical’ feminist might consider herself more devoted to her cause than someone who would shirk that label”:

• The Big Problem with Calling It ‘Radical Islam’ (CNN)

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