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President Obama addresses United Nations General Assembly Video at link

The cover story is written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a well-known Somali-born rights activist and former Dutch lawmaker whose criticism of Islam has earned her death threats. In it, she describes her own experience of renouncing Islam as well as making a short film with Theo van Gogh about Muslim women that saw the Dutch filmmaker shot and stabbed to death. The article comes as Muslims in at least 20 countries have staged angry demonstrations outside US embassies and other American symbols in protest against an anti-Islam film called "Innocence of Muslims."

A blind man has been turned away from a fashionable Indian restaurant because his guide dog offended Muslim staff. Alun Elder-Brown, a recruitment executive, said he was left feeling “like a piece of dirt” after being barred from bringing the animal into Kirthon Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on religious grounds. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the decision was illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act and Mr Elder-Brown, 51, is now considering suing the establishment in The Pantiles. It follows a series of successful prosecutions of Muslim taxi drivers who refused to carry guide dogs in their...

So much for nuance, or elevating the dialogue. Locked in a political death match with 52 days to live, the presidential campaigns went nuclear on what looked to be a quiet Saturday, with stumping curtailed because of Hurricane Ike's catastrophic overnight hit on Houston. Sen. Barack Obama's national press secretary, Bill Burton, accused Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) of "cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history. His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office his is seeking." That was prompted by...

An exhibition by Danish artists in Berlin has been closed because of threats received over a photo deemed to be offensive to Muslims, organizers said on Thursday. The exhibition, which opened in central Berlin on February 22, has been closed to ensure the safety of staff and visitors, Ralf Hartmann from the artists' collective Kunstverein Tiergarten said. The show by Danish art group Surrend is aimed at depicting what they say is the absurdity of extremism in all religions. One of the 21 photos is of the Kaaba – the cube-shaped building inside the Grande Mosque in Mecca – with...

Dutch Islam film 'nearly ready' Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has said that this week he will finish a film about Islam which has already triggered Muslim outrage. Mr Wilders said he was determined to release the film despite government warnings that this would damage Dutch political and economic interests. Mr Wilders says the film is about the Koran, without giving details. In the past, he has called for the Koran to be banned and likened it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The Dutch Muslim Council has attacked far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders' politics as "racist and fascist". The council, which includes 200 organisations, appealed for calm ahead of the planned release by the MP of a controversial film. Mr Wilders says his film will show the Koran as an inspiration for murder.

If you are in need of a laugh this morning click on the following link. The Howard Dean scream along is worth the effort. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEw9UeDEBbs

Nicolas Sarkozy, the man they call the hyper-president, moved back into hyper-drive after the new outbreak of riots in the Paris suburbs. First thing Wednesday morning, barely off the plane from a state visit to China, he was at the sick-bed of the police chief badly beaten by a mob on Sunday night.

Sweden's largest direct marketing company has joined the national postal service in refusing to distribute a political newspaper containing a caricature of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Earlier this week Posten decided not to distribute SD-Kuriren - a newspaper produced by the far-right Sweden Democrats - in Svedala in southern Sweden. As the newspaper contained a reproduction of Lars Vilks's controversial illustration of Muhammad as a dog, the postal service said that to distribute the publication would constitute a security risk. "We want to protect the safety of our mail carriers. This illustration has provoked reactions that have led to death...

A passage where the controversial Hagen calls the prophet Mohammed a warlord, man of violence and abuser of women has, unsurprisingly, caused offense. "That the Islamic council is disappointed and angry and furious is as expected. I had more or less counted on this to happen when I wrote that," Hagen told newspaper Vårt Land. Norway's Islamic Council asked Norwegian Muslims to refrain from reacting to Hagen's book. Hagen's remarks come in connection with the massive trouble linked to the publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. Hagen writes that the government's handling of the matter led to freedom of...

What actually happened when a Swedish newspaper published a picture of the prophet Mohammed as a dog? The Swedish Emergency Management Agency wants to find out, and is to give funding to Örebro University to look at reaction to the controversial publication. The university will also compare the reactions around the world to what happened following a similar publication by a Danish newspaper 2 years ago, but which reached much larger proportions. And the artist that first drew the pictures of Mohammed is taking his own look back at the controversy, by writing a musical about the events. Lars Vilks...

The decision by the Danish Folkeparti (People's Party) to use the highly controversial caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in their election campaign has resulted in terrorist threats. The Islamist terrorist organization the al-Aqsa Brigade threatened the DF in an interview with Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. "This party is dealing in the blood of the Danish population. It is dangerous," said al-Aqsa Brigade spokesman Khaled al-Jabbari. "We do not wish to see the Danish people as an enemy, but this could lead to actions." DF Party leader Pia Kjærsgaard told Jylland-Posten that they would not give way to terrorists under any circumstances,...

This week Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called elections for November 13, and today Danish People’s party announced that they will place election posters around the country with a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. They do not hide that they are inspired by the cartoon crisis in 2006 that put Denmark in the headlines around the world. Demonstrations and violence in the Muslim world erupted. The cartoon is drawn from a portrait of the prophet from a book about Islam by Alexander Ross published in 1683. Ross was behind the first translation of the Koran into English (1649)....

HOGANAS, Sweden (CNN) -- Swedish artist Lars Vilks... 1 of 3 Al Qaeda has put a $100,000 price on his head and offered an extra $50,000 for anyone who murders him by slitting his throat after the eccentric artist and sculptor drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog. One Swedish Muslim woman who lives just an hour-and-a-half drive from Vilks said she hopes to make good on the al Qaeda threat and slaughter Vilks like a lamb.http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/16/artist.controversy/?iref=mpstoryview

Websites run by militant Islamists have listed the names of over 100 Swedish companies as possible targets in the ongoing row surrounding the publication in Swedish newspapers of a caricature of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Detailing the addresses, maps and logos of Swedish businesses, the websites called for their readers to boycott these firms and "take revenge" on Sweden for the publication of a controversial cartoon by artist Las Vilks. SAS, H&M, Alfa Laval, TV 4 and Arla were among the companies listed, according to SVT news programme Rapport, which based its report on a study carried out by the...

(Sweden:) ”Nerikes Allehanda”, the local newspaper that published a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, has been given support by the World Association of Newspapers. More than 18,000 newspapers around the world are members of the organistation, which says in a statement that it condemns the death threats made against artist Lars Vilks and the Editor-in-Chief of Nerikes Allehanda Ulf Johansson. The W.A.N says it understands that the publication may have caused offence to Muslims, but adds that the newspaper enjoys full freedom of expression and can print what it likes.

Sweden has denied reports that a diplomat apologized to Muslim leaders for the publication in Sweden of a cartoon depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad as a dog.

Sweden's Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, has met ambassadors from 22 Muslim countries in an effort to defuse a row about a Prophet Muhammad cartoon. The cartoon, published in a Swedish newspaper last month, showed Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body. Several Muslim countries protested.

Swedish Muslim group to sue newspaper over Muhammad drawing Published: 09.04.07, 18:57 / Israel News A Swedish Muslim group on Tuesday said it plans to sue a local newspaper for publishing a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. The Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in Orebro printed the cartoon made by artist Lars Vilks in an August 19 editorial that criticized Swedish art galleries for not displaying Vilks' art. Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the Swedish Muslim Federation, said the group would sue the newspaper for inciting hatred against ethnic groups. "It ridicules our religion. This is discriminating and insulting......