News and Analysis (11/16/17)

As foreseen by German intelligence, Saudi Arabia has adopted a reckless interventionist foreign policy …

• The Reverse Midas Touch of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Is Turning the Middle East to Dust (The Intercept)

… and the Saudi-led coalition “faced widespread international criticism over the closure, with the UN and over 20 aid groups saying it could bring millions of people closer to ‘starvation and death’”:

• As Saudis Reopen Borders with Yemen, Rebels Promise Retaliation (Christian Science Monitor)

Muslims are less “than 0.02 percent of the total population,” yet the  SPD became the third most powerful party in parliament with no “discernable policy other than to drive Islam completely out of the Czech Republic”:

• Czech Republic’s Tiny Muslim Community Subject to Hate (Al-Jazeera)

“A Greek court has sentenced two Muslim clerics to seven months in prison after they led prayers at a funeral service” on the charge of “usurping authority” for not using a state-appointed preacher:

• Greece: Muslim Clerics Convicted After Funeral Spat (AP / WTHR)

In less than 30 years, the “fertility rate across all 49 Muslim-majority countries fell from 4.3 [to 2.9] children per woman” while some Western European countries nearly a century to transition from” 6 per woman to 3:

• The Muslim Overpopulation Myth that Just Won’t Die (The Atlantic)

This year “the largest annual religious pilgrimage on earth, …  ​held special resonance, as ISIS in Iraq has been all but defeated in recent months by Iraqi security forces – supported by Iran-backed Shiite militias”:

• Why Shiite Pilgrimage to Karbala Had Special Meaning This Year (Christian Science Monitor)

As “a Muslim girl involved in the sport of fencing, there were people who made me feel like I didn’t belong. For all those people who didn’t believe in me, this Barbie doll is for you“:

• Ibtihaj Muhammad, Muslim U.S. Olympian, Inspires Hijabi Barbie Doll (Huffington Post)

“Dressed as a priest, a member of the extremist group Pegida planted a wooden cross on the site of a new mosque in the Dutch municipality Enschede … and then proceeded to rub the cross with pig’s blood”:

• Mosque Attacked With Pig’s Blood by Far Right Anti-Islam Group Pegida (Newsweek)

Ballooning participation in the “annual far-right marches to celebrate Polish independence … [coincides with the] stripping away [of] Polish democratic institutions … since the most recent [2015] general election”:

• White Nationalist and Anti-Muslim Sentiment Prevail at Poland’s Independence Day March (SPLC)

“I await the return of PM Hariri to Beirut so we can decide on the situation of the government – if he wants to resign or rescind his resignation” — Lebanese President Michel Aoun:

• Lebanon’s Hariri to Fly to Paris Within 48 Hours: Source Close to Hariri (Reuters)

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