News and Analysis (10/12/11)

With Holder’s charges that high Iranian officials are involved in the thwarted assassination plot against a Saudi diplomat, the pieces are n play to turn the cold war with Iran into a real war:

• Iran Denies Alleged Plot To Kill Saudi Envoy to the U.S. (AHH / Gant Daily)
• Alleged Plot Is Uncharacteristically Bold (Washington Post with Foreign Policy)
• U.S. Imposes Terrorism Sanctions on Iran’s Mahan Air (Bloomberg)
• Iran vs Saudi Feud Tearing Apart Muslim World (Hindustan Times)

A video of the recent violence proves that Christians and Muslims are united in opposition to the military dictatorship …

• Egyptians Chant “Muslims Christians Are One” as Military Viciously Attacks Protest (RealNews)

…”This is not the Islam we grew up with…. We know Islam, we live among it, it never meant tearing down our churches” — Morkos, a Christian villager; “This is the government’s fault with its paperwork. We have no problem in our hearts towards Christians” — Ibrahim Al-Barsy, coordinator of a group called the Arab tribe coalition in Aswan:

• Row over Village Church Puts Egypt on Edge (Reuters)

Insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood “can be an important part of the solution,” the chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee defended awarding the prize to the founder of “Women Journalists Without Chains” saying, that if “one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy”:

• Nobel Peace Panel Stands Behind Muslim Brotherhood Winner (Jerusalem Post)

Himself a target of religious intolerance, Romney needs to understand why appointing an Islamophobic propagandist as an adviser on Islam is perceived by American Muslims as “akin to turning to David Duke to get advice on race relations”

• Mitt’s Muslim Problem (Daily Beast)

Weiner complained that his in-laws’ religion had “lots of restrictions;” might they have including a prohibition against a married man sexting to strange women?

• Anthony Weiner Sexting Partner Says Politician Criticized Muslim In-Laws (abc News)

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab confesses to staging a revenge attack to deter the continuing slaughter of innocent Muslims, but expect the Islamophobes to ignore that and instead echo his fallacious claims that his actions were not in violation of Islamic law as if this ignorant terrrorist were some kind of Islmaic legal expert:

• ‘Underwear Bomber’: I Wanted to Avenge ‘Innocent Muslims’ (MSNBC)

“Four days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, three innocent men, (Sikh, Muslim and Egyptian Christian) were murdered” but the compassion of a Muslim survivor of a murderous attack tot try to save the life of his would-be killer transformed the heart of his “self-avowed “red-neck patriot” attacker:

• Hate Speech Against Muslims Incites Violence (Washington Post)

Both Palestinians and Israelis celebrate the deal that on the one hand, frees one Israeli soldier and one thousand Palestinians, but that on the other hand, will thousands of Palestinian political prisoners and no Israelis in enemy hands:

• Gilad Shalit: Israel and Palestinians welcome deal (BBC)

The US isn’t the only country committing renditions, torture and assassinations; the security forces of  “Chechnya’s Moscow-backed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov” are accused “systematic abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings”:

• Turkey Detains Man in Attempted Murder of Chechen (abc News)

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