Ex-MP Hirsi Ali seeks protection after bodyguards stand down
Times (UK) Oct 3, 07 10:42 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch parliamentarian who has lived in exile since 2006, has returned home after Holland's government stopped paying for her security. The Times of London writes that Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee known for criticizing Islam, has been under round-the-clock protection since the 2004 murder of the director of a film on which she collaborated.
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Aliens in America is sweet, not edgy tale of Pakistani fish out of water
Slate Oct 2, 07 4:42 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The new sitcom Aliens in America courts controversy by planting a Muslim Pakistani in an American high school—but it ends up just another suburban comedy. A mom orders a foreign exchange student as an insta-friend for her dorky son, only to find the equally dorky Raja Musharaff waiting at the airport. The setup all but ensures “post-9/11 hijinx,” Slate says.
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$100,000 for murder
of Swede who drew offensive image
ABC News Sep 16, 07 5:01 PM CDT
(Newser)
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An al-Qaeda affiliate is offering a reward to slaughter a Swedish cartoonist who drew an image offensive to Muslims. In an online statement, Islamic State in Iraq offered $100,000 for Lars Vilks' murder and $50,000 for that of the newspaper editor who published the cartoon. The reward escalated to $150,000 should Vilks "be slaughtered like a lamb."
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Freed Koreans describe harrowing 6-week Afghanistan ordeal
BBC Sep 12, 07 5:46 PM CDT
(Newser)
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South Korean aid workers held captive by Taliban militants in Afghanistan recounted being urged at gunpoint to convert to Islam during at a news conference in Seoul today, the BBC reports. They were often beaten and forced to work "like slaves" during a six-week ordeal, which ended last month and left two of the 23 hostages dead.
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'I expect more from a terrorist mastermind,' says National Review
National Review Sep 9, 07 5:27 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Osama’s latest tape is “a great disappointment,” as sophomoric as it is bizarre, says James Robbins in the National Review . The terrorist’s invitation for Americans to convert to Islam – which would force “warmongering corporations” to spend energy converting people back – is as odd as his critique of JFK’s killing or US credit problems. “I really expect more from a terrorist mastermind,” says Robbins.
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Americans are no safer, says commission head; foreign policy a disaster
Washington Post Sep 9, 07 3:05 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Six years after 9/11 and three years after the 9/11 Commission report, commission chairman Thomas Kean assesses the nation's progress in protecting itself against the threat of terrorism. On the domestic front, our defenses are better, he writes in the Washington Post. , but internationally we have lost ground to a "rising tide of radicalization" that the war in Iraq has helped foster.
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Afghans don't like prophet's name being kicked around
Fox News Aug 28, 07 4:16 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The US military apologized to Afghans today for soccer balls it distributed to young Muslim Beckhams in “good will.” The balls sported the Saudi flag, which carries the Islamic declaration of faith—including the names of Allah and Muhammad. An Afghan governor said villagers wanted to demonstrate against the US for suggesting their feet come into contact with holy text.
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Fears of a coup return as former Islamist ascends to top job
BBC Aug 28, 07 8:50 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Turkey is heading for a showdown over the relation of the state and Islam as Abdullah Gul, who has been the subject of bitter protests, was named president of Turkey in a parliamentary election today. The nomination of Gul, the foreign minister and a practicing Muslim whose wife wears a head scarf, led to massive secularist protests across Turkey last spring.
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Deadliest terror attack since fall of Hussein
Time Aug 16, 07 12:35 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The death toll from Tuesday's series of suicide truck bombings in northern Iraq may exceed 500, with scores more lying injured in hospitals, CNN reports. The attacks were reportedly launched by al-Qaeda against the Yazidi, a pre-Islamic sect, spotlighting the religious warfare that US troop surge sought to quell.
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Defense charges prosecutors play on jurors' post-9-11 fears
Reuters Aug 14, 07 5:20 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A lawyer for one of Jose Padilla's co-defendants accused prosecutors of turning the terror suspects' trial into a "US versus Islam" crusade to conceal a lack of evidence. Padilla, a US citizen, and two other men face charges of conspiring to murder and injure people in Afghanistan and Eastern Europe, as well as providing material support to Al-Queda.
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Critics fear extreme religious shift for nation
Times (UK) Aug 14, 07 2:22 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Turkish secularists are bracing for another clash over the presidential candidacy of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a devout Muslim and one-time Islamist party member who critics fear plans to enforce extreme religious principals in public life. The last time he was nominated as the ruling party's candidate, just three months ago, the army threatened a coup, and thousands took to the streets.
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Turkish anti-evolution tract
distributed worldwide
Christian Science Monitor Aug 2, 07 6:31 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A Muslim group in Turkey is widely disseminating a 768-page tome that slams evolution and promotes Islam-inflected creationism, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The Council of Europe has issued warnings—particularly to schools—against the "Atlas of Creation," which has been published in 80 countries and 59 languages.
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Owner told to serve breakfast sandwiches
or lose stores
Chicago Tribune Aug 1, 07 4:49 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The owner of two Chicago-area Dunkin' Donuts is locked in a legal dispute with the company over conflicts between his religious beliefs and his breakfast menu, the Chicago Tribune reports. A franchisee since 1979, Walid Elkhatib has never served pork products; it wasn't until 2002 that Dunkin' Donuts insisted he toe the line or lose stores.
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