News and Analysis (8/1/18)

Although “Trump’s surprise announcement that he is willing to talk to Mr. Rouhani“  fits his impulsive profile, it also fits into a plan Bolton formulated last year at the behest of Steve Bannon intended to put Iran in to an impossible position …

• Talking to Rouhani: Is Trump Shooting from the Hip or Following a Script? (Mideast Soccer)

… but Rouhani “has not publicly responded to the invitation” and told his “parliament that the U.S. has proven it doesn’t keep its promises and that Iran will protect its right to export oil, which is the target of U.S. sanctions”:

• Iran Is Unenthusiastic After President Trump Suggests a Meeting (NPR)

Attorney Diana Butto says, “The entire reason that this bill has been allowed to progress so far is because the Israeli Supreme Court has allowed Israel to be as racist as it wants to be.” Yet Palestinians insist on resisting the law, with MK Ahmad Tibi declaring, “Our story is stronger than their law” …

• ‘Apartheid, Formalised’: Palestinians to Fight Jewish State Law (Al-Jazeera)

… Case in point: “The whole world will hear my story. The whole world will hear what Israel’s democracy is. A democracy for Jews only. Only Arabs go to jail,” she said following her conviction. “More than 150 American literary figures, including nine Pulitzer Prize winners, called on Israel to free Tatour”:

• Dareen Tatour Sentenced to Five Months in Prison over Poem (Al-Jazeera)

… and Palestinians will fight the spread of Israeli suppression of free speech to Britain as well, as “academics and authors … [assert] a right to publicly discuss issues relating to ‘settler colonialism, apartheid, racism and discrimination’ amid the row over how the Labour party defines antisemitism”:

• Palestinians in UK Assert Right to Publicly Raise Issues of Injustice (Guardian)

When an African-American Muslim asked him, “What would motivate white people to stand up for justice?” when they would have nothing to gain in abandoning white privilege, the founder of the Redneck Muslim Facebook page’s reaction was, “You gain your humanity by doing that”:

• Redneck Muslim (The Atlantic)

America’s free market responds to the variety of Muslim definitions of halal:

• For Many Muslim Grocery Shoppers, a Shifting Definition of ‘Halal’ (The Conversation)

The “scholar of American and gender studies at Rutgers University … raised in California by [culturally Buddhist] Chinese immigrants” writes that “A strong desire for women’s empowerment and gender agency has been at the core of women’s engagement with Islam for the past century”:

• ‘Being Muslim’ Offers an Alternative History of Islam in America (Religion News Service)

Israel has long denied Palestinians access to their own land, but it increasingly denies foreign human rights activists entry as well:

• Israel Seeks to Isolate Palestinians from Global Support (electronic intifada)

Upset over allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 elections? Then imagine how Iranians felt when after a century of friendly relations the U. S. overthrew its democratically elected prime minister:

• Iran and America: A Forgotten Friendship (The Conversation)

Iran’s minister of Information and Communications Technology warned that “the Telecommunication Company of Iran will be severely penalized” if the allegations prove true, even if the diversion were accidental:

• Telegram Traffic from Around the World Took a Detour Through Iran (Cyberscoop)

If elected, former state legislator Rashida Tlaib “would join Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) as the second Palestinian American in Congress”:

• Muslim Candidates Band Together in Michigan (Washington Post)

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