{"id":19732,"date":"2018-11-22T07:20:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T12:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=19732"},"modified":"2018-11-22T07:20:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T12:20:07","slug":"news-and-analysis-11-22-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=19732","title":{"rendered":"News and Analysis (11\/22\/18)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pw-hidden-cp\">\n<p>Thirty years ago &#8220;soft power&#8221; was associated with &#8220;<span lang=\"EN-GB\">the infectious attractiveness of American music, films and youth culture,<\/span>&#8221; but today many associate the term with &#8220;<span lang=\"EN-GB\">religious soft power in the realm of Islam&#8221; projected by Saudi Arabia and Iran&#8221;:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/erasmus\/2018\/11\/20\/the-varieties-of-muslim-faith-become-a-vital-form-of-diplomacy\">The Varieties of Muslim Faith Become a Vital Form of Diplomacy<\/a> (Economist)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Iran resorts to gas rationing instead of ending its absurd gasoline subsidies that push prices at the pump down to under\u00c2\u00a0 2 cents per gallon, but fuel &#8220;very high levels of smuggling &#8230;.\u00c2\u00a0Much of it heads across the border to Pakistan, where petrol costs 10 times, and diesel around 40 times, as much as&#8221; &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"pw-hidden-cp\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/news\/world\/iran-to-cap-petrol-sales-to-curb-smuggling-10950440\">Iran to Cap Petrol Sales to Curb Smuggling<\/a> (Channel NewsAsia)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230; and &#8220;Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s labor law does not recognize the right to create labor unions independent of government-sanctioned groups such as the Islamic Labor Council&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2018\/11\/22\/iran-mounting-crackdown-teachers-labor-activists\">Iran: Mounting Crackdown on Teachers, Labor Activists<\/a> (Human Rights Watch)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>European &#8220;[o]fficials acknowledge that European action against Iran over the Denmark operation could well be stronger if the Trump administration wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bullying them on their policies towards Tehran, and other matters such as trade and defence spending&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/europe\/donald-trump-administration-europe-iran-nuclear-deal-denmark-response-a8644796.html\">Europe Refrains from Harsh Response Against Iran over Terror Plots for Fear of Emboldening Trump<\/a> (Independent)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;The Quran has 6,236 verses, none of which tell the faithful to stifle blasphemy by force&#8221; &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/21\/opinion\/islam-blasphemy-pakistan-bibi.html\">True Islam Does Not Kill Blasphemers<\/a> (NY Times)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230; and &#8220;Datuk Mujahid Yusof Rawa reminded [Malay] Muslims&#8221; that Islamic law requires a system of &#8220;<em>rahmatan lil alamin<\/em>&#8221; under which everyone prospers&#8221; and that &#8220;prohibits any form of discrimination based on faith, descent or differences&#8221; &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.malaymail.com\/s\/1695200\/on-prophets-birthday-minister-says-islam-doesnt-discriminate\">On Prophet&#8217;s Birthday, Minister Says Islam Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Discriminate<\/a> (Malay Mail)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>.. yet &#8220;[p]olice have arrested four Finnish nationals &#8230; for allegedly distributing religious material in a public place&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/news\/asia\/finns-held-in-muslim-malaysia-over--christian-pamphlets--10954182\">Finns Held in Muslim Malaysia over &#8216;Christian Pamphlets&#8217;<\/a> (Channel NewsAsia)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"card collection-item \" data-type=\"text\">\n<div class=\"card-content card-article\">\n<p>Iran&#8217;s FM tweeted that Trump &#8220;bizarrely devotes the FIRST paragraph of his shameful statement on Saudi atrocities to accuse IRAN of every sort of malfeasance he can think of. Perhaps we&#8217;re also responsible for the California fires, because we didn&#8217;t help rake the forests\u00e2\u20ac\u201d just like the Finns do?&#8221; &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/11\/iran-zarif-mocks-trump-shameful-statement-saudi-prince-181121071011664.html\">Iran&#8217;s Zarif Mocks Trump&#8217;s &#8216;Shameful&#8217; Statement on Saudi Prince<\/a> (Al-Jazeera)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8230; in response to Trump statement defending the Saudi dictator in the murder of a journalist, an act by which Trump &#8220;has explicitly done the precise opposite of acting like an isolationist: he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taken a side in the great power struggle in the Middle East&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/feature\/trump-sides-iran-hawks-saudi-arabia-36832\">Trump Sides With the Iran Hawks on Saudi Arabia<\/a> (The National Interest)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a mostly Buddhist nation Muslim woman promotes sex education and in the process &#8220;has also become something of an ambassador for religious understanding&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/11\/muslim-woman-lifting-veil-sex-education-myanmar-181121083020267.html\">The Muslim Woman Lifting the Veil on Sex Education in Myanmar<\/a> (Al-Jazeera)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Catholic convert to Islam &#8220;was granted the exemption after waiting years for approval&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/11\/20\/muslim-airman-granted-air-forces-first-beard-waiver\/\">Muslim Airman Granted Air Force\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s First Beard Waiver<\/a> (Air Force Times)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The High Court decision will allow &#8220;legal proceedings to evict 700 Palestinians from East Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Silwan neighborhood, even though the process by which it received rights to the land was flawed and raises many questions&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/.premium-court-allows-eviction-of-700-palestinians-from-east-jerusalem-neighborhood-1.6677069\">Court Allows Eviction of 700 Palestinians From East Jerusalem Neighborhood<\/a> (Haaretz)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Rouhani was quoted on Friday by state television as saying that he wants to raise bilateral trade between the two countries from the current $12bn to $20bn in the coming year&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2018\/11\/iraq-establish-free-trade-zone-border-iran-181117085912770.html\">Iraq to Establish Free-trade Zone Along Border with Iran<\/a> (Al-Jazeera)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Although &#8220;U.S. sanctions permit Iranian purchases of humanitarian goods like medicines,&#8221; precautions to avoid &#8220;accidentally triggering penalties &#8230;, along with panic buying and hoarding, mean some drugs are increasingly difficult to find&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-11-21\/trump-s-sanctions-are-proving-a-bitter-pill-for-iran-s-sick\">Trump&#8217;s Sanctions Are Proving a Bitter Pill for Iran&#8217;s Sick<\/a> (Bloomberg)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty years ago &#8220;soft power&#8221; was associated with &#8220;the infectious attractiveness of American music, films and youth culture,&#8221; but today many associate the term with &#8220;religious soft power in the realm of Islam&#8221; projected by Saudi Arabia and Iran&#8221;: The Varieties of Muslim Faith Become a Vital Form of Diplomacy (Economist) Iran resorts to gas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19732"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19747,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732\/revisions\/19747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}