From Turkey’s Zaman, Nov. 2: A 92-year-old retired Turkish archaeologist has been acquitted in a rights trial in which she was accused of “inciting hatred by insulting people based on their religion.” Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, an expert on the ancient… Read moreFree speech victory in Turkey
First this, from DPA, Oct. 25: Police protection given to German MP in headscarf row BERLIN – A female member of parliament from the Greens party has been given police protection after calling on Muslim women in Germany to give… Read moreAnti-woman Islamism in the news
Freedom’s on the march in America’s NATO ally and GWOT partner. Perhaps someone will have some well-chosen words for the current US president in the guestbook at Monticello. From the Al-Jazeera, Sept. 27: A Turkish court has fined an elderly… Read moreTurkey: free speech under attack …again
The irony is certainly not lost on Iran. From Business in Africa, Sept. 22: Cairo – The United States ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, said his country has no problem with an Egyptian nuclear programme and was ready to supply… Read moreUS pledges nuclear aid to Egypt
We generally agree with the thrust of leftist Israeli commentator Uri Avnery's argument here, but he makes a few glitches which are all the more embarrassing in a piece which attempts to set the historical record straight (and which actually… Read moreUri Avnery weighs in on papal controversy
You knew that it would. But an interesting glimmer of hope is that in Egypt, where Muslim-Coptic tensions have exploded into violence all too recently, both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Coptic hierarchy are urging people to chill out. In… Read moreAnti-papal backlash gets worse
A military court in Jordan Sept. 13 convicted 10 people in two cases involving conspiracies to kill “Americans training Iraqi police” at the Muwaqqar barracks outside Amman. The court said the defendants were found guilty of “conspiring to carry out… Read moreTerror convictions in Jordan
From London Class War, July 26: HezBollocks and IsRabies: A Class War Federation statement on the War in Lebanon Class War is appalled at the carnage that is occurring in the Middle East. We are also disappointed but not surprised… Read moreUK Class War bashes “leftist” Hezbollah cheerleaders
A radical offshoot from the PKK seems to be emulating al-Qaeda tactics. From Reuters, Aug. 29: Kurdish rebels warn of “hell” ANTALYA, Turkey – A shadowy Kurdish rebel group threatened on Tuesday to turn Turkey into “hell” after a two-day… Read moreKurdish Liberation Hawks take war to Istanbul
Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a supposed Hezbollah stronhold in the Bekaa Valley Aug. 20 in what Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called a “naked violation” of the UN-backed truce. Three Hezbollah guerrillas were reportedly killed in a dawn firefight with… Read moreFighting in Bekaa Valley—despite Lebanon ceasefire
Irshad Manji, the notorious “Muslim Refusenik” who supposedly advocates a principled, pluralist and secular Islam, has an op-ed in the Aug. 16 New York Times—where she once again betrays her disturbing flirtation with the very imperialism that fuels the fundamentalist… Read moreIrshad Manji’s myopia
Lebanese scholar Gilbert Achcar writes via e-mail: “Many of you have certainly seen an interview allegedly done with [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah by a Turkish radical left newpsaper… I have enquired about it, and a source in Beirut in close… Read moreCounterpunch prints “fraudulent” Nasrallah interview
