News and Analysis (12/2/07)

New television and Internet media outlets allow space for young preachers like American Muslim Moez Masoud to promote “ ‘a sweet orthodoxy, which stresses the humane and compassionate’ as an alternative to ‘unthinking rage’”:

• Younger Muslims Tune In to Upbeat Religious Message (Washington Post)

Forced to mount a defense with their hands tied behind their backs, the defense for Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr and other legal experts and slam a military commission judge’s order to withhold all the names of government witnesses and decry “‘the absurdity of characterizing an alleged former child soldier’ as a dangerous terrorist”:

• Witness Names to Be Withheld From Detainee (New York Times)

Despite the coverage given to the protests over the “Muhammad” teddy bear—which some believe to be orchestrated events—many Sudanese hold strong reservations about the debacle, meanwhile British Muslim MPs, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, jet to Khartoum to have the detained teacher safely released and brought back to Britain:

• Sudanese Views Differ in Teddy Row (BBC News)

• UK Muslim Lawmakers Seek Sudan Teacher’s Release (Reuters/Washington Post)

Reversing an earlier position, the US begins to push the Iraqi government toward fostering reconciliation, however key issues such as de-Baathification laws, the current walkout of Sunni MPs as well as dealing with overall inefficiency and corruption, “that [cost] $18 billion in Iraqi government money…to various stealing schemes since 2004.”:

• US Calls for Iraqi Reconciliation (BBC News)

• Nonstop Theft and Bribery Are Staggering Iraq (New York Times)

In a move that could further bridge the impasse between the ruling March 14 coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition, both Hezbollah and their Christian allies, the Free Patriotic Movement, agree “in principle” to army head Michel Suleiman’s presidential candidacy:

• Hezbollah Backs Army Chief’s Candidacy (Al-Alam)

After instituting some of its harsher aspects with the return to democracy in 1999, Nigerian Muslims have gradually been reinterpreting Islamic law “from the punishments and prohibitions to a softer approach that emphasizes other tenets of Muslim law, like charity, women’s rights and the duty of Muslims to keep their environment clean”:

• Nigeria Turns From Harsher Side of Islamic Law (New York Times)

Alejandro

Alejandro Beutel is program assistant for the Minaret of Freedom Institute with expertise in religious freedom, democratization and security issues.