However naive she may be about Western intentions, Ayaan Hirsi Ali deserves creds for asking the tough questions about the Muslim establishment. Why—with rare exception—are no voices on the anti-imperialist left asking these questions? From the New York Times op-ed… Read moreAyaan Hirsi Ali calls out “moderate” Islam
Police in Diyarbakir, Turkey, used water cannons, tear gas and batons against Kurdish protesters Nov. 25. The protesters hurled stones and burned tires after being blocked from marching through the city’s center. Protesters chanted slogans in support of the Democratic… Read moreKurds clash with police in Diyarbakir
The only good news here is that is that it has sparked an international outcry—which comes just in time to embarrass the barbaric Saudi regime at the Riyadh OPEC summit. (AFP, Nov. 16) From The Telegraph, Nov. 17: A Saudi… Read moreSaudi Arabia: rape victim gets 200 lashes
An ominous Nov. 2 Jerusalem Post article on September’s apparent Israeli bombing raid on a Syrian nuclear facility uses ambiguous language (highlighted below): the planes “carried” nuclear weapons, and the site was “totally destroyed” by “one bomb”—but it is not… Read moreDid the US nuke Syria?
From BBC News via Sufi News & World Report, Oct. 11: More than 130 Muslim scholars have written to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders urging greater understanding between the two faiths. The letter says that world peace could… Read moreMuslim scholars reach out to Vatican
Turkey reacted angrily to the Oct. 10 vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee approving a measure that condemns the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as an act of genocide. Said President Abdullah Gul in… Read moreTurkish “left” supports official revisionism on Armenian genocide?
Egyptian police detained at least 40 after thousands of angry Bedouins stormed government buildings in north Sinai Oct. 7 to protest police inaction after a shooting by a rival clan. The ruling National Democratic Party headquarters in the city of… Read moreEgypt: Bedouin sweeps follow Sinai unrest
From South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, Sept. 17: Israel has enforced a news blackout on what may be its air force’s most audacious raid since its jets destroyed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor in 1981. The Israeli government has made no… Read moreNorth Korean nuke link behind Israel’s Syria raid?
Shades of the Niger Delta in Yemen. From Reuters, Sept. 1: ADEN – A Yemeni tribe has freed two foreign engineers and their Yemeni driver, a government source said on Saturday, after the military threatened to storm the area to… Read moreYemen: tribesmen abduct foreign engineers
In the July 22 ballot, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured the largest share of votes in a Turkish election since 1965, in a contest which saw heated controversy about the country’s future as a secular republic. His Justice and… Read moreTurkish nationalism loses at polls—Kurdish nationalism wins?
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said initial investigations into the July 2 suicide-bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists indicate that al-Qaeda was behind the attack. Moratinos said the information was provided by his Yemeni counterpart Abu Bakr Abduallah al… Read moreAl-Qaeda behind Yemen suicide blast?
The Egyptian government has refused to allow human rights groups to observe the military trial of 33 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, undercutting the government’s claims that civilians will have a fair trial before military courts, Amnesty International and… Read moreEgypt: secret military trials protested
