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Remnants of a Roman statue in North Africa could be the "first-ever depiction of tartan", according to a BBC Scotland documentary. A piece of a bronze statue of the Emperor Caracalla contains the small figure of a Caledonian warrior wearing what appears to be tartan trews. The third century Roman emperor Caracalla styled himself as the conqueror of the Caledonians. A statue marking his achievements stood in the Moroccan city of Volubilis. It stood above a great archway in the ancient city, which lay in the south west of the Roman empire, 1,500 miles from Caledonia -- modern day Scotland....

The removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored, says Tom Gross It is not surprising, given the sheer scale of the Holocaust and its sadism, that it has dominated contemporary discourse among Jews and others. But, while the extermination of European Jews has rightfully (though belatedly) generated a great deal of study and research, the removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored. This ignorance extends to policy-makers at the highest level. Some journalists and politicians I have spoken to have expressed surprise when I even mentioned that Jews...

It feels strange visiting a country like Morocco and listening to people extol the virtues of a political system my country waged a revolution against. Morocco has a king, and he’s a real one too, not some kind of a figurehead. But I went there, I listened, and after almost ten years of visiting Middle Eastern countries wracked by tyranny, terrorism, botched revolutions, and wars, I was perhaps a bit more willing to hear what they had to say than I might have been a decade ago. A monarchy is a tough sell for Americans. The founders of our country...

SNIPPET: "Rabat — Morocco's security forces have broken up a five-member terrorist cell that used to operate in the cities of Salé (near Rabat) and Casablanca, National Police Department said on Saturday in a statement. The statement added that the dismantled cell includes a member linked to the former emir of al Qaeda network in northern Iraq. The cell, which pledged allegiance to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, used Internet to forge close ties with al Qaida, especially in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen and Somalia, it said." SNIPPET: "To carry out their plans, the members of the cell contacted, via Internet, experts in...

While there has been much emotion and argument over the proposed mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, it has largely swirled over issues that miss the nature and significance of the issues involved. Thus we hear endless variations on the theme “How can a moderate imam whose stated goal is to promote healing in the wake of 9/11 be so insensitive to the feelings of those who lost those they loved at the hands of Islamic fanatics?” But, as the public is slowly learning, Imam Rauf is no moderate and bridge-building is not his agenda. The project with which Rauf...

Should there be a mosque near Ground Zero? In fact, what is pro posed is not a mosque -- nor even an "Islamic cultural center." In Islam, every structure linked to the faith and its rituals has a precise function and character. A mosque is a one-story gallery built around an atrium with a mihrab (a niche pointing to Mecca) and one, or in the case of Shiites two, minarets. Other Islamic structures, such as harams, zawiyyahs, husseinyiahs and takiyahs, also obey strict architectural rules. Yet the building used for spreading the faith is known as Dar al-Tabligh, or House...

The CIA has tapes of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists. The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only remaining recordings made within the clandestine prison system. The tapes depict Binalshibh’s interrogation sessions at a Moroccan-run facility the CIA used near Rabat in 2002, several current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the recordings remain a closely...

Mithly means "the same as me" in Arabic; it is also a respectful way to refer to homosexuals. It is a word that the people behind Mithly magazine would like to see replace the more common "shazz," meaning pervert or deviant in Arabic, or "zemel," an expletive to describe gays in the Moroccan Berber dialect. Mithly was launched in the Moroccan capital Rabat earlier this month. Even though the magazine has received partial funding from the European Union, it was printed clandestinely and its first 200 issues were distributed under the counter. In Morocco, as in the rest of...

The title page of Nidal Hasan's PowerPoint demonstration for a medical lecture in June 2007, indicates how little interest he took in medicine and how much in the perceived contradiction between being a Muslim and an American soldier. As the Pentagon and Senate launch what one analyst dubs "dueling Fort Hood investigations," will they confront the hard truth of the Islamic angle? Despite encouraging references to "violent Islamists" by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Democrat of Connecticut), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, there is reason to worry about a whitewash of the massacre that took place on Nov. 5; that is...

9/11 Panel Questions Two Hijackers' Help Sept. 11 Commission Wonders Why Two Hijackers Got Help From Two Muslim Men When in U.S. The Associated Press WASHINGTON June 27, 2004 — The FBI long has contended that not a single al-Qaida operative in the United States collaborated with the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks. Yet the commission investigating the attacks has identified two Muslim men who may have had advance knowledge of the plot. The commission found that two hijackers got substantial help from Mohdar Abdullah and Anwar Aulaqi after settling in California in 2000. The bipartisan panel created...

An attempted suicide bomb attack in Morocco missed its intended target, a bus-load of foreign tourists, but seriously wounded the suspected bomber... The explosion, which occurred in the former imperial town of Meknes in a central square popular with foreign visitors, ripped off the arm of the 30-year-old Moroccan man who was carrying the gas cylinder. "He tried to get in the bus where tourists of several nationalities were staying, but the driver had the presence of mind to close the door in his face," ... The bomber, Hicham Dokkali, was an engineer who worked in the tax office... Morocco...

Unique flagstones of Rabat Tepe Raise QuestionsThe discovery of 3000-year-old flagstones in Rabat Tepe has surprised archaeologists. Tehran, 20 October 2005 (CHN) -- The first season of archaeological excavations in Rabat Tepe led to the discovery of 3000-year-old 180x180 cm flagstone, which have never been seen before in any Urartu historical sites. Similar flagstones have been found in Ancient Rome and Ancient Iran historical sites. Rabat Tepe is located near the town of Sardasht in West Azarbaijan province of Iran. It is believed that hill used to be the capital of Musasir government about 3000 years ago. Before setting on...

Matt Damon and George Clooney come back together for political thriller Matt Damon and George Clooney, who are currently working together on Steven Soder-bergh's Ocean's Eleven sequel - Ocean's Twelve, will reteam for the Stephen Gaghan-helmed political thriller Syriana. In addition, Amanda Peet is in final negotiations to join the project. Set up at Warner Bros., Clooney and Soderbergh's studio-based Section Eight will produce the project with shooting slated to begin during the summer. Gaghan adapted the script, which is loosely based on the Robert Baer non-fiction novel See No Evil: The True Story of a Foot Soldier in the...

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia, engaged in a crackdown on Islamist extremists blamed for a string of bombings, said it had extradited two Moroccan militants to Rabat in exchange for three Saudis jailed in Morocco on al-Qaeda linked charges. "Security forces today received three Saudi citizens convicted and jailed in Morocco on security-related charges," said an interior ministry official quoted by the state SPA news agency. He named them as Abdullah bin Misfer al-Ghamdi, Zuhair bin Hilal al-Thabiti and Hilal bin Jaber al-Assiri, who were sentenced by a Casablanca court in February last year to 10 years in prison for...

RABAT, 23 November 2003 — A court in Rabat sentenced 15 militants to 20 years in prison yesterday for plotting terrorist attacks while 26 other defendants were given jail terms ranging from two to 15 years, a judicial source said. Three of the 45 defendants in the so-called “Agadir terrorist cell” were acquitted and another one was fined 3,000 dirhams (33 euros). The defendants, all from the southern city of Agadir, were accused of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, offering lodging to a criminal, failure to denounce and attempting to collect funds to commit a terrorist attack. Prosecutors had requested...

RABAT, 15 July — Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd, state minister and chief of the court for the Presidency of Cabinet affairs, yesterday inaugurated here the Center for Andalusian Studies and Dialogue between Civilizations. At the opening ceremony, he announced the center’s plan to institute an international annual prize for best research on Andalus. He also stressed the importance of bringing out an encyclopedia on Andalus. Prince Abdul Aziz commended the center’s efforts to organize seminars and studies on Andalusian culture and translate books and documents related to Islamic culture in the Spanish city. "The main objectives of the center...