News and Analysis (6/2/08)

Sait Sanli stress the Qur’an’s emphasis on forgiveness to end many of Turkey’s cultural blood feuds:

• In Turkey, a Lone Peacemaker Ends Many Blood Feuds (Christian Science Monitor)

Cries of “collective punishment” force Fulbright to reinstate their scholarships to Gazan students…

• Gaza Fulbright Grants Reinstated (BBC News)

…but not Israel’s occupation and further expropriation of Palestinian land:

• Israel Plans More Settler Homes (BBC News)

Egyptian “playwrights-turned-anthropologists” explore social issues affecting Muslim women in a series of humorous, but serious dramatic monologues:

• In Egypt, ‘Dramatic’ Push for Women’s Voices (Christian Science Monitor)

Denmark’s embassy in Pakistan gets rocked by a terror attack…

• In Pakistan, Danish Embassy Bombing Kills at Least 6 (Washington Post)

…meanwhile the only anti-Taliban strategy Islamabad can come up with a state-controlled
“conservation corps”, funded with U.S. foreign aid:

• Taliban Leader Flaunts Power Inside Pakistan (New York Times)

Extremists threaten war against liberal Indonesian Muslims defending the rights of a minority sect of a few hundred members in a country of 220 million:

• Indonesia Hardliner’s War Threat (BBC News)

Alejandro

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