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President Barack Obama says supporting transitions to democracy in unstable regions like the Middle East will remain a key part of his strategy for fighting terrorism. … He cited as an example the need to support those in Syria who are fighting to overthrow the government. He cautioned, however, that ending tyranny in Syria must not give way to “the tyranny of terrorism.” …

"Radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed threatens Syria with a wave of suicide bombs" SNIPPET: "Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical cleric banned from Britain for glorifying terrorism, has told The Daily Telegraph from his base in the Middle East that al-Qaida is poised to wage war against the Syrian regime. Bakri, once nicknamed the Tottenham Ayatollah, said hard-line Salafi Muslim groups, including al-Qaida, and his al-Ghuraba group were ready to help their "Muslim brothers" with a campaign of suicide attacks against Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president." SNIPPET: "Speaking from his new home in Lebanon, the self-styled cleric, who caused controversy after...

The underlying premise of the democracy project is the former sense of “civilization.” As I argued at the time, the real world is the latter. And now, five years removed from the Abdul Rahman case, five more years of intensive, costly American entanglement with Afghanistan, Paul Marshall gives us the harrowing plight of Said Musa. When he told the Afghan court he was a Christian man, no Afghan defense lawyer would have anything to do with him — except the one who spat on him. He was thrown in jail as an apostate among 400 Afghan Muslims, and he has...

While analysts ask who or what is behind the sustained protests in Egypt, one group is now seeking political legitimacy. Technically banned under Egypt's constitution that forbids religious based parties, the Muslim Brotherhood is now throwing its support behind Mohammed el Baradei as an opposition leader. But many fear that if Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak goes, the real replacement will be either the Muslim Brotherhood itself, or an Islamic fundamentalist group. El Baradei insisted on Sunday talk shows that the fear was unwarranted. “This is total bogus that the Muslim Brotherhood are religiously conservative,” El Baradei told ABC’s “This Week.”...

In a span of a week, Turkey’s socio-political landscape featured the following examples of social engineering: First, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Israel to remove its foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who Mr. Erdoğan says poses an obstacle to Middle East peace. Mr. Lieberman is probably not the most qualified man for peace anywhere in the world, but he, like Mr. Erdoğan, is a democratically-elected politician. Mr. Erdoğan thinks it would be most appropriate if Mr. Lieberman were to be removed, but that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and the Hamas chaps stay in power – for peace! Second,...

THE U.S. AGENDA to promote democracy in the Middle East appears fatally wounded. The results of recent elections in Iraq, Egypt and especially Gaza and the West Bank have led many to conclude that this agenda is terribly misguided: wonderful in theory but disastrous in practice, enabling the most dangerous and antidemocratic elements in the region to gain power through democratic means. If true, this is certainly a worrisome turn of events. Can the skeptics be right? Is it simply too dangerous to promote freedom in the Arab world? Must the United States give up on promoting democracy and go...

This week's attacks on churches in Iraq are a reminder of a small community that has lived for years with the term "beleaguered", but has the potential to re-establish a more tolerant way of life in the Middle East. It might easily be assumed that Iraqi Christians are a colonial implant that any self-respecting nationalist would view with suspicion. But in fact they are among the oldest religious communities in the world. Protected for most of their long history by Islam's tradition of tolerance, they are honoured for their own great gift to mutual understanding: Syriac, a version of Jesus's...

A major international petition calling on Islamic leaders to allow Muslims to convert to another faith was presented to the United Nations. The petition, signed by 88,890 people from 32 countries, says "Muslims who choose to convert to another faith" should be "free to do so without having to face a lifetime of fear as a result." Under Sharia, or Islamic law, Muslims who convert to another faith and refuse to repent must be put to death. The British charity Barnabas Fund presented the petition to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour July 28. The group said it...

Two Blasts Hit Separate Churches in Iraq 11:23 AM EST - August 01, 2004 The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq Two car bombs exploded just minutes apart outside two nearby churches in central Baghdad during Sunday evening services, injuring at least 20 people, witnesses said.The attacks appeared to be the first targeting churches during the 15-month violent insurgency.U.S. military officials said at least one and possible both of the blasts appeared to have been booby-trapped cars in the city's Karada neighborhood.U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police patrolled the area as emergency workers raced to evacuate the wounded. The first blast hit outside...

Bush: People of Islamic World Must Choose Democracy By Kathleen T. Rhem American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, June 29, 2004 – The "struggle between extremism and civilized values" is unfolding around the world, President Bush said today in Istanbul, Turkey. He cited Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Israel as places where people are struggling for reform and peaceful, democratic states. "For citizens of the broader Middle East, the alternatives could not be more clear," Bush told an audience at Galatasaray University. "One alternative is a political doctrine of tyranny, suicide and murder that goes against the standards of justice found...

Cardinal: Christians Second-Class in Muslim Lands Few non-Muslims in America seem to recognize the realities of the institutionalized oppression that non-Muslims must endure under Islamic law. But the Vatican seems to be becoming quite aware of these realities: "Too many Islamic countries treat their Christian minorities as second-class citizens and bar them from building churches while Western states let their Muslims build mosques freely, according to a senior Vatican official." This from Reuters, with thanks to Nancy Block. "Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who recently retired as the Vatican's foreign minister, told the French Catholic daily La Croix Wednesday that Christianity and...

Ontario will soon have Canada's first Sharia court. That is, a court where legal disputes are judged by Muslim imams according to the law of the Koran. As its proponents describe it, the Sharia court will be a voluntary, private court. Non-Muslims, and Muslims who prefer Queen Elizabeth's laws to Mohammed's, can still go to regular courts instead. But there is a new wrinkle. According to the Law Times newspaper, Ontario's Arbitration Act will apply to the Sharia court's judgments. Once the Sharia court issues a decision, it will be legally binding upon those who appeared before it. The Sharia...

If militant Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the solution, as I often argue, how does one differentiate between these two forms of Islam? It’s a tough question, especially as concerns Muslims who live in Western countries. To understand just how tough it is, consider the case of Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent American figure associated with 16 Muslim organizations. FBI spokesman William Carter described one of those, the American Muslim Council, as “the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States.” The Department of Defense entrusted two of them, the Islamic Society of North America and the American...

Muslim Football Team Names Spark Protest Sunday December 7, 2003 3:46 PM IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - It was planned as a way to bring young athletes together for a weekend of fun, but when participants in the Muslim Football tournament started naming their teams Intifada, Soldiers of Allah and Mujahideen, Jewish leaders took offense. Intifada, ``uprising'' in Arabic, is the term used by Palestinians for their revolts against Israeli occupation from 1987 to 1993 and over the past three years. The recent intifada has seen numerous suicide bombings by Palestinian militants. Mujahideen means holy warrior. Rabbi Bernie King, who lives...

<p>KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A bomb exploded in the center of Kandahar (search) on Saturday, causing an undetermined number of injuries, an official said.</p> <p>The blast happened in Chawk Shida (search) district, the commercial center of the southern Afghan city.</p> <p>"There are casualties, but we don't know how many," said Khan Mohammad, the city's military commander.</p>

What are the Saudis up to in the Balkans?THE MUSLIM HOLY MONTH of Ramadan came and went in the Balkans without serious incident. Nevertheless, the ancient town of Skopje, war-weary and impoverished after local fighting between Albanians and Slavs in 2001, buzzed with rumors of terrorist conspiracies. In a mild, foggy late-autumn, under a skyline dominated by impressive Ottoman mosques, residents spoke anxiously of the recent suicide bombings in Istanbul and of "special measures" against possible attacks on U.S. and other foreign personnel in Kosovo, Albania, and Macedonia. It is said that Islam has "bloody borders," but in the Balkans...

Researchers who found that young Muslims were to blame for many attacks on Jews were told several times by the European Union to change their conclusions, they said yesterday. The charge helped fuel a furious row between the two sides as they traded accusations of bias, incompetence, and lying. The Anti-Semitism Research Institute of Berlin's Technical University was asked last year by the EU's anti-racism body to examine the increase in attacks against Jews across Europe. But the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia has now refused to publish it, claiming that it was too badly written and based...

Islamic Civil Rights Group Seeks On-Air Apology WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling for an on-air apology from syndicated radio commentator Paul Harvey who said on his Thursday program that Islam "encourages killing." Harvey, who has 24 million weekly listeners on some 1,600 radio stations in this country and around the world, made that claim during his Thursday noon commentary. In that segment, Harvey described the bloody nature of cock fight gambling in Iraq and said: "Add to the thirst for blood a religion which encourages killing, and it is entirely understandable if...

WASHINGTON America has encountered many surprises since it invaded Iraq, but now that the political process is under way the biggest surprise may be just around the corner, and it's this: The first post-Saddam Hussein democratic government that the United States gives birth to in Iraq may be called "The Islamic Republic of Iraq" - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The challenge of reforming any of the 22 nondemocratic Arab states comes down to a very simple question: How do you get from here to there - how do you go from an authoritarian monarchy or a military...

Receive FREE updates by email: | Author Reveals Depths of Hatred in Muslim World By Sean GrindlayNovember 25, 2003 Anyone trying to make sense of the situation in the Middle East must understand the mindset that pervades most of the Muslim world, says Kenneth Timmerman, author of Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America. This mindset, he says, is characterized by an extremely intense and deep-seated hatred of all things Jewish-and, by extension, all things Western. Timmerman discussed this and other aspects of his book at a November 20 luncheon held by Accuracy in Media. Drawing on...