December

12-31-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) Rape-pregnant women told to abort. AL-AZHAR, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, has said any woman pregnant by rape must abort the baby immediately to maintain "social stability".

12-21-2007 PHILADELPHIA, PA (PCP) The Great Deception: by Bishop T Nasir. In October 2007 a group of Muslim 138 scholars from all over the world including Pakistan circulated a document “A Common Word between You and Us”.

12-18-2007 CANADA (INN) Mark Steyn is Not Alone. Two "human rights" panels, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, have him on trial for his alleged claim that Islam does not square with Western ideals.

12-16-2007 Europe (CT) European Christians to ‘intensify’ cooperation with Muslims. The December 6-9 meeting of the Committee for Relations with Muslims in Europe followed the letter from 138 Muslim clerics, scholars and intellectuals, “A Common Word Between Us and You”, which was sent to the Pope and other Christian leaders in October.

12-16-2007 ANKARA, Turkey (IHT) Catholic priest stabbed in Turkey. A Catholic priest was stabbed in the stomach and hospitalized Sunday in the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in Turkey, officials said.

12-16-2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (BBC) Pakistan probes Briton's escape. The Pakistan government has ordered a high-level investigation following the escape of Briton Rashid Rauf.

12-16-2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Age) UK terror suspect flees in Pakistan. A British man suspected of plotting to blow up US-bound trans-Atlantic airliners has escaped in Pakistan.

12-16-2007 MOSCOW, Russia (IHT) An overflowing of Muslim pilgrims from Russia for the hajj. Russia has about 4,000 mosques now, compared with about 90 in the waning days of the Soviet Union.

12-16-2007 MECCA, SA (Breitbart) Makers of 'House of God' drape sew a heavenly reward. Khaled, 42, has been sewing the precious threads to the silk cover for the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure at the heart of Mecca, for the past 15 years.

12-15-2007 RATHDRUM, ID (AR) Global Banks Embrace Islam. With Great Britain now pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world, the stampede by all global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway.

12-15-2007 LONDON, England (AJC) Empty European pews result in sale of churches. Muslim faith experiencing rapid growth as Christianity wanes.

12-14-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (TZ) UN seeks involvement in Malatya probe. Last week, an investigation was launched into alleged collusion between police officers and at least one of the suspects charged with killing three Christians -- a German and two Turks.

12-12-2007 MARSEILLE, France (CT) Demonstrators to demand mosques in exchange for churches. A demonstration is being organised for the weekend by Stop Islamization of Europe (SIOE) to protest the building of large mosques in Europe while some majority-Muslim countries continue to refuse the construction of churches and other non-Islamic places of worship within their own borders.

12-11-2007 SHELTON, England (Sentinel, UK) Work Starts On Building £1.6m Mosque. Work has begun to prepare a site for the building of a controversial £1.6 million mosque and community centre.

12-11-2007 MILAN, Italy (Times, UK) Muslim lawyer sues over Inter Milan 'Crusaders' kit. A Turkish lawyer is taking legal action against Inter Milan, the Italian football team, for wearing a strip with “Crusader-style” red crosses that he alleges is ”offensive to Muslim sensibilities”.

12-11-2007 MILAN, Italy (FreeRepublic) Muslim sue an european soccer team over wearing a Christian cross on shirt! The shirt's scheme saw a big red cross on a white background, a symbol of the city of Milan, and reminded many of an emblem of the order of the Templars, which is considered offensive in Islamic culture.

12-11-2007 TORONTO, Canada (Breitbart) Father killed daughter for not wearing hijab, her friends say. Friends and classmates of a 16-year-old girl who police say was murdered by her devout Muslim father in a Toronto suburb told local media Tuesday she was killed for not wearing a hijab.

12-11-2007 BAGHDAD, Iraq (IHT, UK) Iraqi Christian woman and brother found dead in city with rise in religious vigilante killings. The bodies of a Christian woman and her brother were found in a garbage dump.

12-11-2007 LONDON, England (Times, UK) UK Muslims warned against 'victim culture'. Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has warned UK Muslims of the dangers of victim culture.

12-11-2007 ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) 11 UN staff among 26 killed in Algeria blasts. Two truck bombs set off in quick succession sheared off the fronts of UN offices and a government building in Algeria's capital today, killing at least 26 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack claimed by an affiliate of Al Qaeda.

12-10-2007 LONDON, England (Times, UK) Death threats can’t stop me being a Christian, says imam’s daughter. An imam’s daughter whose family threatened to kill her after she converted to Christianity at the age of 16 has told The Times that, because of her faith, she is not afraid to die.

12-10-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (WT) Saudis give big to U.S. colleges. Two years ago this month, a Saudi prince caused a media splash — and raised eyebrows — when he donated $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities to fund Islamic studies.

12-10-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) Arab Christians try new ways to sustain spirit. On a November weekend, over 10,000 Arab Christians, mostly from Egypt, boarded hundreds of buses headed to a desert camp outside Cairo for three days of non-traditional worship.

12-10-2007 ISTANBUL Turkey (TDN) Sacrificing animals vs sacrifice of image. These topics and the challenge of adapting ritual tradition to the demands of contemporary living were discussed yesterday at an international symposium on sacrifice in Istanbul.

12-09-2007 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Religious vigilantes have killed 40 women this year in Basra, say police. Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday

12-09-2007 LONDON, England (Telegraph, UK) Muslim apostates threatened over Christianity. When Sofia Allam left the Muslim faith for Christianity, the response from her family was one of persecution and threats. Alasdair Palmer explores the dangers facing Islam's apostates.

12-07-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (WND) CAIR, FBI at odds over hate crimes. Bureau report indicates Muslim group's claims wildly inflated.

12-08-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (WND) Copts plan rally in support of jailed mom. 47-year-old sentenced for fraud for declaring herself Christian.

12-07-2007 Canada (CBN) A Journey from Islam to Christianity. One man paid a heavy price for rejecting Islam to follow Christ, and his suffering came from those who once loved him the most. Adam will never walk again. His legs bear the scars of many operations to repair devastated muscle, tendon, and bones.

12-07-2007 MEDFORD, OR (WND) CAIR's Islamist quizzers featured at prez debates. Activists posing as ordinary citizens influencing national security dialogue.

12-07-2007 NEW YORK, NY (NYT) Islam’s Silent Moderates. The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. (Koran 24:2)

12-06-2007 NEW DEHLI, India (AP) Indian authorities warn Islamic militants looking for targets in New Delhi. Indian authorities warned that six Islamic militants were driving around the capital looking for potential bombing targets Thursday, the 15th anniversary of the destruction of a famed mosque by Hindu extremists in northern India.

12-06-2007 MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) Philippine Muslim rebels jailed for kidnap and beheading. A Manila court sentenced 14 members of a Muslim militant group to life in prison on Thursday for the kidnapping of 20 people from a luxury beach resort in 2001 and the decapitation of three of them, including an American.

12-06-2007 LONDON, England (London) Imam's daughter in hiding after her conversion to Christianity sparked death threats. The daughter of a British imam is under police protection after she received death threats from her family for converting to Christianity.

12-05-2007 RICHMOND, BC (WEA) Turkish nationalism threatens Christians. Cengiz warns: "If state officials keep talking everyday that Turkey is in imminent danger, that there are internal enemies of this country, that missionaries are the agents of foreign states who try to break up Turkey and so on, such horrible crimes are inevitable.

12-05-2007 DENVILLE, NJ (PC) Revisiting The 'Religion of Peace' As Extremists Behead Christians. The savages who practice radical Islam continue their march down the road of seventh century barbarism. No other religion in the modern world has shown itself so vile, so hate-filled, so violently aggressive in the pursuit of its radical goals.

12-05-2007 LONDON, England (CBS News) Teddy Bear Tolerance, Not Totalitarianism. Here are a few teddy bear tidbits for balance: Riot police were deployed to face a carefully orchestrated mob, rushing from mosques to the presidential palace. Numbering in the thousands, some were armed with loudspeakers, others with swords. Most were openly seething with resentment.

12-05-2007 LONDON, England (AS) Religion in Sudan: Lord, have mercy. Anyway, on Monday of this week, the president of Crazyland — excuse me, Sudan — pardoned Gibbons and she flew home.

12-04-2007 LONDON, England (DE) Nurses Told To Turn Muslims’ Beds To Mecca. Overworked nurses have been ordered to stop all medical work five times every day to move Muslim patients’ beds so they face towards Mecca.

12-04-2007 KHARTOUM, Sudan (SMH) Pardon for teacher jailed for insulting Islam. Gillian Gibbons, sentenced on Thursday to 15 days in jail followed by deportation for insulting Islam, was pardoned after an appeal by two prominent British Muslims to Sudan's President for her early release.

12-03-2007 NEW YORK, NY (Reuters) British teacher jailed over teddy bear leaves Sudan. Sudan's influential Council of Muslim Scholars had urged the government on Sunday not to pardon Gibbons, saying it would damage Khartoum's reputation among Muslims around the world.

12-03-2007 NEW YORK, NY (NYT) Lashing Justice. Muslims who wonder why non-Muslims are often baffled, angered, even frightened by some governments’ interpretation of Islamic law need only look to the cases of two women in Saudi Arabia and Sudan threatened with barbaric lashings.

12-03-2007 KHARTOUM, Sudan (Yahoo) Briton pardoned in Sudan Islam insult. Lord Nazir Ahmed, who met with al-Bashir along with Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, said the case was an "unfortunate misunderstanding" and stressed that Britain respected Islam.

12-02-2007 KHARTOUM, Sudan (HE) Briton pardoned in Sudan Islam insult. It’s madness, mind-boggling madness: what Bush, Brown, Blair, Rice and the rest keep calling a “great religion” brought to its knees by a teddy bear.

November

11-30-2007 KHARTOUM, Sudan (Economist) Islam and the West: No picnic. whether they are prepared in any circumstances to defend the harsh penalties, such as lashing and stoning, which the sacred texts of Islam prescribe, in particular for sexual offences, or blaspheming against the faith.

11-30-2007 KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) Sudanese Protesters Demand Death for Teddy Bear Teacher. "No one lives who insults the Prophet," the protesters chanted, a day after Gillian Gibbons, 54, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation.

11-30-2007 KHARTOUM, Sudan (Yahoo) Calls in Sudan for execution of Briton. Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

11-29-2007 LONDON, England (Independent, UK) Ayaan Hirsi Ali: My life under a fatwa. Ayaan explains: "The letter was addressed to me." It said that Van Gogh had been "executed" for making a film with her that exposed the widespread abuse of Muslim women. Now, she would be "executed" too – for being an apostate.

11-29-2007 LONDON, England (Telegraph, UK) Islamic finance. The financial needs of Britain's 1.6m Muslims have been given a boost after the Government announced that it is looking to launch Islamic-compliant bonds.

11-28-2007 THE HAGUE, Netherlands (IHT) Dutch lawmaker planning film criticizing the Quran. A Dutch conservative lawmaker said Wednesday he is making a film to highlight what he describes as "fascist" passages in the Quran, his latest high profile criticism of Islam.

11-28-2007 LONDON, England (Independent, UK) Islam and the modern world don't mix. Everything seemed to be going well until last weekend, when Ms Gibbons was arrested and found herself in prison in Khartoum, accused of a crime so horrendous that it carries a penalty of up to six months in jail or 40 lashes. Her "offence" was to name the teddy bear after the Prophet, even though the name was chosen by her young charges themselves.

11-28-2007 LONDON, England (CNN) Teacher charged in teddy bear case. A British teacher arrested in Sudan after allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Mohammed" has been charged by authorities with offending religion, state-run media in Sudan report.

11-27-2007 LONDON, England (CNN) Bid to stop whipping over toy bear. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday that officials were working to secure the early release of a British teacher who faces being whipped in Sudan after she allowed her class to name a teddy bear "Mohammed."

11-27-2007 ABU DHABI (Khaleej Times) Christian leaders ask for Muslim forgiveness. Responding to an open letter in October signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals from around the world, the Christian leaders also asked the Muslim world for forgiveness...

11-27-2007 OXFORD, England (OM) Muslims bid for call to prayer. Muslims in East Oxford are asking Oxford city councillors if they can add to the noise of life on Cowley Road by broadcasting a call to prayer.

11-27-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (Yahoo) Iran says it's produced new missile. Iran said Tuesday it has manufactured a new missile with a range of 1,200 miles capable of reaching Israel and U.S. bases in the Mideast, the official news agency IRNA reported.

11-26-2007 KHARTOUM, Sudan (Telegraph, UK) Briton faces lashes in Sudan over teddy named Mohammed. A British primary school teacher in Sudan is facing 40 lashes and up to six months in prison after allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear after the prophet Mohammed.

11-23-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (BBC) Turks in Christian murder trial. The Christians, who included a pastor and a German missionary, were stabbed repeatedly and had their throats cut.

11-23-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Citizen) Saudi women activists furious at gang-rape ruling. "The woman does not have the right to represent herself in a court. She enters the court covered entirely in black. Some judges do not even allow her to speak," she said.

11-21-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) Saudi woman punished after gang rape to fight ruling. A Saudi woman sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang raped has vowed to challenge the ruling in a case that has received wide publicity, embarrassing the Saudi government.

11-21-2007 Saudi Arabia (ABC) Saudi Rape Victim Tells Her Story. I told the individual with me not to open the door, but he did. He let them come in. I screamed. "One of the men brought a knife to my throat. They told me not to speak.

11-15-2007 LONDON, UK (Evening Standard, UK) Women get 'virginity fix' NHS operations in Muslim-driven trend. Women are being given controversial "virginity repair" operations on the NHS, it emerged last night.

11-15-2007 Saudi Arabia (Breitbart) Saudi punishes gang rape victim with 200 lashes. A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

11-14-2007 REDHILL, England (icSurreyOnline) Mega-mosque planned for 10,000 worshippers. Redhill Islamic Centre (RIC) has unveiled its plans for the mosque - which would be one of the biggest in Europe...

11-08-2007 Pakistan (DailyStar) Another Buddha destroyed, and the world answers with silence. In northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked one of the oldest and most important sculptures of Buddhist art.

11-07-2007 GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) Muslim women face worse struggles. Women in predominantly Muslim countries are struggling to compete for jobs, win equal pay and hold political office, falling behind the rest of the world in eliminating discrimination, a report said Thursday. (Global Gender Gap Report, 2007)

11-07-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (AP) National debt hits $9 trillion (€6.1 trillion) for the first time. It was the fifth debt limit increase since Bush took office in January 2001. Those increases have totaled $3.865 trillion.

11-06-2007 Vatican (BBC) Historic Saudi visit to Vatican. Afterwards, the king offered his host a gold sword encrusted with jewels.

11-02-2007 Iran (Persian Journal) Prostitution Behind the Veil in Iran: The film is a sympathetic portrait of the two women, exploring their day-to-day life and the workings of prostitution in a country that bans it and prosecutes adulterers, sometimes with the penalty of capital punishment. (Video: Prostitution Behind the Veil.)

October

10-17-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) 3 Iranian student leaders sentenced. Majid Tavakoli, Ahmed Ghassaban and Ehsan Mansouri received a three, a two-and-a-half, and a two year prison sentence, respectively, for "insulting Islamic sanctities and its authorities" in a student newsletter, their lawyer Mohammed Ali Dadkah said.

10-16-2007 EMEK HEFER, Israel (AP) Bedouin, father of 67, wants to get married again - for 9t time. With eight wives and 67 children, Shahadeh Abu Arrar has given new meaning to the term "family man."

10-16-2007 HOGANAS, Sweden (CNN) Artist defiantly draws Prophet Mohammed. 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.

10-15-2007 North Carolina (SFGate) Home-grown Web site funnels Islam's extremist views to world: North Carolina man one of new breed of online jihad backers. What modern Westerners are doing is eradicating their own culture.

10-13-2007 USA (GP) Fatalism and the Loss of Western Cultural Confidence. What modern Westerners are doing is eradicating their own culture.

10-08-2007 GAZA STRIP (CD) Bible Society Bookstore Manager Murdered. Police found Christian leader Rami Ayyad murdered early yesterday morning near the Christian bookstore that he managed in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. He had been shot in the head and had multiple stab wounds.

10-07-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (WND) Bush: All religions pray to 'same God'. 'That's what I believe. I believe Islam is a great religion that preaches peace'

10-07-2007 BRUSSELS, Belgium (DW) EU Says Turkey Must Improve Freedom of Speech. Brussels has stepped up pressure on EU candidate Turkey to speed up its reform process and in particular move ahead with laws ensuring freedoms of religion and expression.

10-07-2007 GAZA, West Bank (Reuters) Prominent Palestinian Christian killed in Gaza. A prominent Palestinian Christian in the Gaza Strip was found dead on Sunday after being abducted near his home, security officials said, six months after Islamist fundamentalists blew up a religious bookshop he ran.

10-07-2007 STOCKHOLM, Sweden (IHT) Swedish Web sites targeted by Turkish hackers after publication of Muhammad drawing. Hackers in Turkey have attacked more than 5,000 Swedish Web sites in the past week, and at least some of the sabotage appears linked to a Swedish newspaper's publication of a disparaging caricature of Islam's prophet...

10-06-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (BBC) Official Saudi website for fatwas. The situation at present, he said, was fatwa chaos, with Muslim scholars issuing rulings that clash with the official line of the religious establishment, spreading confusion.

10-06-2007 CANBERRA, Australia (Camberra Times) Practice of polygamy reflects badly on modern Muslim way. The barbaric practice of polygamy is legal in Indonesia and protected under Islamic law. Given Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim state, it is unlikely such an uncivilised custom will be easily relinquished. And this week's court decision confirmed that.

10-06-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (TDN) The Night of Power — or the birthday of the Koran. Monday will be very special one for the 1.2 billion Muslims all around the world and many of them will spend the hours between Monday's sunset and Tuesday's sunrise with prayers and recitations of the Koran as this is no ordinary night: It is the “Laylat al-Qadr,” or the “Night of Power,” in which the first verses of the Koran are believed to have been revealed to Prophet Muhammed in Mecca in the year 610 AD.

10-05-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran's president calls wants Israel's Jews moved to Canada, Alaska or Europe. "Canada and Alaska have vast lands, why don't you relocate them over there and keep helping them over there with (aid of) 30 to 40 billion dollars per year for building a new existence over there," Ahmadinejad said during a Tehran rally to mark Al Quds Day, a political holiday Iran created to protest the "enemies of Islam."

10-05-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (PR) Millions of Iranians hold rallies to mark Jerusalem Day. Millions of Iranians attended nationwide rallies Friday in support of the Palestinians, while the country's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel's continued existence was an «insult to human dignity.

10-04-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (WH) President Bush Attends Iftaar Dinner at the White House. "Ramadan Mubarak. Laura and I are pleased to have you here for our seventh Iftaar dinner. Tonight we celebrate traditions of Islamic faith, which brings hope and comfort to more than a billion people."

10-03-2007 YALA, Thailand (DT) Beheading video seized. POLICE have found video clips showing the beheadings of a soldier and a Buddhist, while three men were shot dead by suspected Islamic rebels in Thailand's restive south, officials said today.

10-03-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (WP) The jihad way. Dr. Esam Omeish resigned as a member of the Virginia Commission on Immigration after his anti-Israel remarks in support of "the jihad way" were posted on YouTube.

10-01-2007 MALE, Maldives (WP) Islamic terrorism in the Maldives. There were concerns that bombers had deliberately targeted foreign tourists – as Islamic terrorists did on the holiday island of Bali in 2002.

10-01-2007 Texas (KA) The Rise of a New Ottoman Empire: The Trap of Interfaith Dialogue. As mentioned, Gülen’s ultimate aim is to set up a theocratic new Ottoman Empire, as those researching his organization now demonstrate.

September

09-27-2007 GAZA STRIP (JP) Fatah-Hamas mired in tawdry accusations. The Hamas-Fatah power struggle has descended into the gutter over the past few days, with both parties trading allegations about the involvement of their members in homosexual relations and adultery.

09-14-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) Failed suicide bomber turns on al Qaeda. Al Shayea, who was disfigured during the attack, claims al Qaeda tricked him into becoming a bomber by asking him to deliver a tanker truck, which they had rigged with a bomb.

09-11-2007 LONDON, England (Times, London) Young Muslims begin dangerous fight for the right to abandon faith. A group of young Muslim apostates launches a campaign today, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, to make it easier to renounce Islam.

09-11-2007 DALLAS, TX (Dallas News) What the Muslim Brotherhood means for the U.S. Memo lays bare group's plans to destroy U.S. from within.

09-08-2007 NEW YORK, NY (CBS) The Real Threat Isn't "Terror". Third, U.S. leaders must define the enemy appropriately - and that means we must stop referring to our effort as a “war on terror.” This is no more a “war on terror” than the early days of World War II were a war against “blitzkrieg” or a war against “dive bombers.”

09-08-2007 WASHINGTON DC (UCI) Jihad in Washington and Wall Street: here at last. So over at the Pentagon the PC thing to do was to invite radical Muslim Imams and officials of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). ISNA is one of unindicted co-conspirators in the Dallas Federal trial of the Holy Land Foundation. A Muslim chaplain and Navy Lieutenant Commander at the Pentagon Ramadan event had an auspicious last name in Arabic that translated into the “Sword of Islam”.

09-08-2007 DELLYS, Algeria (CNN) Death toll rises after second bombing in Algeria. The death toll kept rising in Algeria on Saturday after a car bomb attack near a coast guard barracks about 50 miles from Algiers.

09-07-2007 LONDON, England (Guardian, UK) Radical sect 'controls 600 mosques'. Nearly half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a radical Islamic sect whose leading preacher strongly opposes Western values, it has been reported.

09-07-2007 LONDON, England (Times, UK) The homegrown cleric who loathes the British. The leading preacher of a hardline Islamic sect which controls almost half of British mosques delivers a message filled with anger at non-Muslims.

09-07-2007 BERLIN, Germany (Spiegel) The Politics of Terror. Foiled terror attacks in Germany this week have confronted the country with a new question: How to combat home-grown terror?

09-07-2007 RABAT, Morocco (NP) Islamists set to boost clout as Morocco votes. Moroccans voted on Friday in parliamentary polls expected to show gains for moderate Islamists pushing an anti-corruption message to voters seeking more vigorous efforts to fight poverty.

09-06-2007 EUROPE (Reuters) European converts to Islam. Below are some estimated figures for the number of converts to Islam in larger European countries alongside total numbers for their Muslim populations.

09-05-2007 BRUSSELS, Belgium (RFE) Protesters Critical Of Islam Cry Foul Over Banned Rally. Officials in Brussels, the capital city of the European Union, have denied activists' request to stage a rally next week under the slogan “Stop the Islamisation of Europe.”

09-05-2007 BERLN, Germany (CNN) 3 planned 'massive airport bombs'. The suspects, two Germans aged 22 and 29 and a 29-year-old Turk, received terrorist training in Pakistan and had close ties to al Qaeda, according to Jorg Ziercke, president of Germany's Federal Criminal Investigation Office.

09-05-2007 BERLN, Germany (Time) Germany Foils 'Massive' Bomb Plot. Three suspected Islamic militants were arrested for allegedly plotting "imminent" and "massive" attacks on the Ramstein Air Base, a major U.S. and NATO military hub, and Frankfurt's busy international airport, German authorities said Wednesday.

09-04-2007 Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ (FSM) Islam: No Compulsion in Religion? (Part 1 of 3). Sura 9:73: "O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them." There are certainly Hadiths, which document oral testimonies of Mohammed's life and deeds, which clearly state that the founder of Islam believed that those who left Islam (apostates) should be killed.

09-03-2007 KANSAS CITY, KS (KCS) European elites appear to be giving in to Islam. Throughout Muslim lands, these laws began to fall away by the late 18th century. But now, a perverse form of dhimmitude is spreading throughout Europe: The leaders of the liberal, non-Muslim majority are searching for ways to subjugate themselves to the Muslim minority.

09-02-2007 STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Local SE) Afghans add voice to Muhammad cartoon row. The war of words over a Swedish cartoon depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad has continued over the weekend.

09-02-2007 Washington, DC (US News) Islam vs. Science: Are Muslim beliefs compatible with critical inquiry? For example, the 57 nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference can boast only 8.5 scientists per 1,000 population, while the world average is 40.7.

09-01-2007 PHILADELPHIA, PA (MEQ) Peace or Jihad? Abrogation in Islam. The Qur'an is unique among sacred scriptures in accepting a doctrine of abrogation in which later pronouncements of the Prophet declare null and void his earlier pronouncements. (Scholarly article)

August

08-30-2007 Sydney, Australia (Daily Mail) The religious art show where Jesus Bin Laden meets Mary in a burqa. They include a portrait of Osama Bin Laden which, viewed from an angle, morphs into an image of Christ. And just for good measure there is a figure of the Virgin Mary, hands clasped in prayer, with an Islamic burqa concealing her upper body apart from the eyes.

08-30-2007 KAMPALA, Uganda (AllAfrica) Uganda: 34 Schools Get Islamic Books. A total of 34 schools in Makindye Division in Kampala have received Islamic religious literature from Charity International in a move to promote Islam in the country.

08-29-2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Malaysia Sun) Christian children in Pak are being converted to Islam through forcible marriage. The recent incidents of two missing children's forcible marriage and their forced conversion to Islam in Pakistan have brought focus to growing religious intolerance in the country where the minorities are being issued deadlines to convert to Islam.

08-29-2007 QOM, Iran (AP) Iran Shiites Celebrate Hidden Imam. Shiite Muslim pilgrims wept, applauded and handed out sweets Wednesday to mark the birthday of Mahdi, a revered 9th century saint known as the Hidden Iman who they believe will reappear before judgment day to end tyranny and promote justice.

08-28-2007 NEW YORK, NY (MSNBC) Arabic school opening draws criticism, support. New York officials say school will teach language, culture but not religion.

08-23-2007 SCOTLAND (Scotsman) Muslim warns of Scotland's 'home-grown' terror threat. SCOTLAND could face attacks by "home-grown" terrorists unless urgent action is taken, according to a prominent Muslim community leader.

08-22-2007 Netherlands (MDJ) 'Allah is great, Allah is good ...' Roman Catholic Bishop Tiny Muskens of the Netherlands has decided that the way to ease Muslim-Everybody Else tensions is to start using "Allah" instead of "God."

08-15-2007 WASHINGTON, D.C. (WT) U.S. agents accused of aiding Islamist scheme. A criminal investigations report says several U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees are accused of aiding Islamic extremists with identification fraud and of exploiting the visa system for personal gain.

08-15-2007 NEW YORK, NY (PO) Take Islamofascists at their word. Give Islamic extremists this: They are as clear as the desert sunshine about their plans for us infidels.

08-15-2007 WASHINGTON, D.C. (FT) Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned. The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

08-08-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) Christians held in Egypt for work on Web site. Egyptian police have detained two Egyptian Christians for their work on the Web site of a Christian Arab group based in Canada, police sources said on Thursday. Named as Adel Fawzi and Peter Ezzat, the two worked for the Middle East Christian Association, which has its headquarters in Ontario and has a Web site with the address www.m-e-c-a.com.

08-07-2007 Afghanistan (FrontpageMag) Killing Korean Christians. The mercurial politics and convoluted theology of Western church officials contrasts with the simple faith that transported the Korean Christians to Afghanistan. Their suffering may not deeply touch politically correct hearts in the West. But their suffering is heard in far more important quarters, on earth, and above.

08-07-2007 AMSTERDAM, Holland (News) Ex-Muslim to get protection after attack. AN Iranian-born politician who heads a Dutch group for "ex-Muslims" will get extra protection after he was attacked near his home, a spokesman for the National Co-ordinator for Counterterrorism said today.

08-01-2007 HAMMOND, LA (HS) Judgment Day - Operation Al Qiyamah. In the April 27, 2006 edition of the Saudi-owned newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, details of Iran's "secret plan" of attack were published in an "exclusive article" by Ali Nouri Zadeh. The code name for the operation is al Qiyamah the Islamic word for "Judgment Day."

08-01-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran sentences two journalists to death. The Iranian judiciary confirmed that two journalists from the country's Kurdish minority have been sentenced to death, state media reported Tuesday.

08-01-2007 NEW YORK (HE) Flushed Qur’ans and Double Standards. Now, if he had submerged a Bible in urine or coated a Torah in cow dung and submitted it for a federal grant, he’d be sitting pretty–and facing rave New York Times editorials instead of time behind bars.”

July

07-27-2007 AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) Doctor describes torture in Libyan jail. The Palestinian doctor who was freed from a Libyan jail this week along with five Bulgarian nurses said his captors tortured him by tying his hands and legs to a metal bar and spinning him like a chicken on a rotisserie.

07-27-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (Guardian) Violence won't work: how author of 'jihadists' bible' stirred up a storm. In a prison cell south of Cairo a repentant Egyptian terrorist leader [Sayid Imam al-Sharif, 57, was the founder and first emir (commander) of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organisation] is putting the finishing touches to a remarkable recantation that undermines the Muslim theological basis for violent jihad and is set to generate furious controversy among former comrades still fighting with al-Qaida.

07-27-2007 VIENNA, Austria (AP) Report warns against too many 'Net rules. Among those are Malaysia, where a government official said this week that laws would be drafted for bloggers and authorities would not hesitate to prosecute those deemed to have insulted Islam.

07-26-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (IHT) Top Muslim cleric raises controversy by coming out against killing of apostates. One of Egypt's most senior Muslim clerics has raised controversy by saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion, prompting an outcry from conservatives insisting Islamic law requires such apostates be killed.

07-26-2007 BERLIN, Germany (IHT) Pope's private secretary warns of Islamization of Europe. Pope Benedict XVI's private secretary warned of the Islamization of Europe and stressed the need for the continent's Christian roots not to be ignored, in comments released Thursday.

07-26-2007 WIESBADEN, Germany (CSM) In Europe, skylines reflect the rise of Islam. After decades of worshiping in basements and courtyards, Muslims are building hundreds of new mosques across the continent.

07-25-2007 LONDON, England (BBC) The Battle for Islam — Video. Tonight on Newsnight we're devoting the whole programme to exploring the struggle within Islam.

07-15-2007 KABUL, Afghanistan (AT) Pardon for child 'suicide bomber'. A 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan, caught while on a mission to blow up an Afghan provincial governor, was pardoned on Sunday by President Hamid Karzai.

07-10-2007 WASHINGTON, D.C. (AT) 'Christian' Nations Dominate World’s Best Religious Freedom Spots. Officially atheist countries were joined at the bottom of the religious freedom pole by countries with Islam background such as Pakistan, Palestinian areas, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkmenistan.

07-07-2007 MARGARETVILLE, NY (AT) Islam's Global War against Christianity. From Nigeria to Indonesia, Christians are under siege in virtually every single country in the Muslim world, the victims of countless acts of discrimination, depredation, brutality, and murder that are so widespread and systematic that it can rightfully be called the new Holocaust.

07-07-2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) Pak Christians told to convert or face death. Islamist militants in Pakistan have threatened to kill 10 Christian clerics in Southern Punjab's Khanewal district if they did not "embrace Islam and stop preaching Christianity."

07-05-2007 LONDON, England (Alt Muslim) A Sacred Triumph: Sir John Tavener's The Beautiful Names. They were here to listen to the world premiere of composer Sir John Tavener's The Beautiful Names - a meditation on the 99 names of Allah performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and sung in impeccable Arabic by the BBC Symphony Chorus with tenor John Mark Ainsley.

07-04-2007 KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) Pakistani forces topple walls of radical mosque. The attack came hours after the mosque's top cleric was arrested while trying to slip away wearing a traditional woman's burqa. ... Brigadier Gen. Tareen of the Pakistan Rangers, head of the military operation at the mosque, said the older students inside were using young boys and girls as human shields.

07-04-2007 KARACHI, Pakistan (AT) Pakistan in crisis over mosque attack. The government of President General Pervez Musharraf is deeply concerned that the brothers have considerable influence within the establishment, not to mention the masses and jihadist circles.

07-03-2007 LONDON, England (AP) Experts: Terror Suspects Not Brainwashed. The general public often is shocked to see that doctors — the world's healers — can become militants or even terrorist killers. But some experts believe it is part of a socio-economic trend in which wealthy families highly educate their sons, who sometimes become radical and have the education they need to become leaders.

07-03-2007 LONDON, England (Australian) Tanveer Ahmed: Islam must face its uncomfortable truths. But the question is impossible to avoid and I believe that theology is central and not peripheral to the problem. It is grounded in history, but the sparks have been generated by the information age.

07-03-2007 WASHINGTON, D.C. (WP) The Pakistan Time Bomb. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is widely viewed as a military strongman who should be pressed to hold free and fair elections this year. Both the characterization of Musharraf and the policy recommendation are misguided.

07-03-2007 LONDON, England (CNN) 'Dr. Evil' terror plot shocks UK. British newspapers reacted in shock on Tuesday as it emerged that the prime suspects behind the weekend's attempted terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow had been doctors and medical workers employed by the UK's National Health Service.

07-03-2007 LONDON, England (Independent UK) Terror plot hatched in British hospitals. Five of the eight people under arrest last night are said to be doctors. Another of those detained is the wife of one of the doctors, who is a medical assistant working for the NHS. The home of a sixth doctor is said to have been searched by police.

07-02-2007 SAN DIEGO, CA (UT) Muslim prayers in school debated. But critics continue to assail Carver for providing a 15-minute break in the classroom each afternoon to accommodate Muslim students who wish to pray.

07-01-2007 LONDON, England (Guardian UK) My plea to fellow Muslims: you must renounce terror. By blaming the government for our actions, those who pushed the 'Blair's bombs' line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

07-01-2007 RAMLE, Israel (AP) 9 women from Israeli Arab clan killed for 'dishonoring' family. Hamda Abu Ghanem feared for her life, but there was no one to protect her. Shortly after returning home from a battered women's shelter, she was shot to death while she slept — the ninth woman in her clan killed for dishonoring the family.

June

06-30-2007 CAMBRIDGE, England (Cambridge University) Islam and Muslims in the World Today. In cooperation with the Weidenfeld Institute for strategic dialogue and the Coexist Foundation, The Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme was delighted to host the conference ‘Islam and Muslims in the World Today’ to which we invited academics and policy makers to listen to Muslim academics, community activitivists, religious leaders and scholars from Britain and abroad discuss issues affecting Muslims in the world today.

06-28-2007 LONDON, England (Economist) An author and his subject. The 99 names of God, taken from the Koran, were sung in Arabic and the inspiring, guttural sounds of the language had been diligently mastered by English singers more used to Bach or Handel. The work had been commissioned by Prince Charles, who will one day succeed his mother as head of the Anglican church but cherishes a deep interest in Islam.

06-27-2007 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (IHT) Malaysian state stiffens penalties to stifle Muslim conversions. The Kelantan state legislature approved changes to the law Tuesday providing for a maximum punishment of six lashes with a rattan cane, five years in prison and a fine of 10,000 ringgit (US$2,800; €2,080) for non-Muslims who preach to Muslims, said Hassan Mohamood, who heads the state's Islamic affairs government committee.

06-27-2007 LONDON, England (Australian) Rediscovering our backbones. Turning Salman Rushdie into a sir has been a handy health check on whether the West has learned the costs of appeasement. Her Majesty would have known that bestowing a knighthood on Rushdie would also elevate him to the world’s biggest collector of Islamic death edicts. The question was whether this time the West would do a better job of defending itself. So far the signs are good.

06-26-2007 DEARBORN, MI (AP) More Muslim women defy stares and prejudice by wearing head scarves. A generation ago, hijabis, or those who wear hijab, were a distinct minority among Muslims in metro Detroit. But a national survey found that 43 percent of Muslim women in the United States usually wear hijab or head coverings in public, with an additional 8 percent wearing them sometimes.

06-22-2007 LAHORE, Pakistan (DT) Church slams rape of 14-year-old. The Women Desk Church of Pakistan condemned the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old Christian girl and urged the government to immediately arrest the culprits and provide security to the victim’s family.

06-21-2007 CHAK, Pakistan (CT) Christians Attacked with Axes, Guns in Pakistan. An attack on a Salvation Army church in a Pakistani village in Punjab has forced Christian villagers to flee from their homes.

Top of Page.

06-20-2007 WASHINGTON, D.C. (WT) Journey into Islam. To the first group he says that the "moderate" voice is in near hopeless retreat across the Muslim world. Don't count on them. To the second group he says, whatever Mr. Bush's intentions, our aggression only strengthens our enemies.

06-19-2007 GUA MUSANG, Malaysia (SVM) Government Authorities Demolished Church in Malaysia. Malaysian Government authorities Demolished a Christian Church Building in an Orang Asli settlement in Gua Musang in Ulu Kelantan on June 4.

06-19-2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (BBC) UK envoy summoned in Rushdie row. On Monday Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz-ul-Haq caused uproar in parliament when he was accused of inciting violence during a debate of Sir Salman's knighthood. "If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, his act is justified," he said, according to the translation by the Reuters news agency.

06-18-2007 KHARIAN, Pakistan (JC) Pakistan police shot dead publisher accused blasphemy. 'I have no regret over what I did,' said the police constable was quoted as saying. Publisher Mian Qasim was arrested last week along with three other people in a nearby city of Gujrat over charges of printing two books that contained derogatory remarks about the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.

06-18-2007 Australia (AC) Muslim Man Who Raped Muslim Woman as "Punishment" for Reading the Bible Sentenced to Five Years. Abdul Reda Al-Shawany , age 52, raped the unidentified Muslim woman as "punishment" for her reading the Bible. The Campbelltown District Court in Sydney heard how Abdula Reda Al Shawany sexually assaulted the woman, who was a practicing Muslim herself, and then said to her, "Let your Jesus help you."

06-15-2007 AFGHANISTAN-IRAN BORDER (AP) Iran forcibly deports 100,000 Afghans. Dumped at this frontier outpost alongside hundreds of weary Afghan laborers, Khalil Jalil stepped out of Iran and back into Afghanistan only days after he said Iranian authorities beat him, threw him in the trunk of a car and locked him in a detention center.

06-13-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (FoxNews) Marriage In Iran: 'Til Death, or Contract Expiration, Do Us Part. Earlier this month, Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Muhammadi declared that "temporary marriage is God’s rule," and encouraged Iranians to accept the notion of men and women entering into legally binding, but temporary, unions.

06-13-2007 BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) Police find Buddhist man's head. Police have found the head of a man believed to be one of three Buddhists killed in a village known for Islamic militancy in Thailand's strife-torn south.

06-11-2007 WASHINGTON, D.C. (WT) CAIR membership plummets. According to tax documents obtained by The Times, the number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006, a loss of membership that caused the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues to drop from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35.

06-11-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (IHT) A fatwa free-for-all in the Islamic world. First came the breast-feeding fatwa: It declared that the Islamic restriction on unmarried men and women being together could be lifted at work if the woman breast-fed her male colleagues five times. Then came the urine fatwa: It said that drinking the urine of the Prophet Muhammad was deemed a blessing.

06-11-2007 KUFR NAMEH, West Bank (CNN) Hamas is taking control of Palestinian schools. Palestinian children spend more of their school day studying Islam. Critical jobs in public education are filled by Islamic stalwarts. A once-banned social studies reader, crammed with hard-line rhetoric, is now in classrooms.

06-10-2007 LONDON, England (IHT) A look at the playbook for Islamic militants. We were in a small house in Zarqa, Jordan, trying to interview two heavily bearded Islamic militants about their distribution of recruitment videos when one of us asked one too many questions.

06-06-2007 LONDON, England (Times) Muhammad is No 2 in boy's names. Muhammad is now second only to Jack as the most popular name for baby boys in Britain and is likely to rise to No 1 by next year, a study by The Times has found.

06-05-2007 LONDON, England (Sun) Muslims: 'Bombers innocent'. Nearly a quarter of British Muslims believe the 7/7 bombers were NOT responsible for the attacks, a shock new poll shows. And more than two-thirds (68 per cent) think the Muslim community has NO responsibility for the emergence of extremists wanting to target Britain.

06-04-2007 JAKARTA, Indonesia (TP) Muslim hardliners storm Indonesia church. Muslim hardliners stormed a church in Indonesia during services, smashing images of Jesus Christ and demanding that it be closed down, the pastor said on Monday.

May

05-30-2007 KUALA, LUMPUR, Malaysia (BBC) Malaysia rejects Christian appeal. Malaysia's highest court has rejected a Muslim convert's six-year battle to be legally recognised as a Christian. ... Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert.

05-29-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Al-Qaida video threatens attacks on U.S. An American member of al-Qaida warned President Bush on Tuesday to end U.S. involvement in all Muslim lands or face an attack worse than the Sept. 11 suicide assault, according to a new videotape. Video

05-28-2007 AMMAN, Jordan (TN) Militants Widen Reach as Terror Seeps Out of Iraq. The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond, ...

05-27-2007 LONDON, England (Telegraph) Allah's name to ring out in Westminster. Where in London will you soon be able to hear the 99 names of Allah, sung to solemn music? Why, Westminster Cathedral, of course!

05-27-2007 ASBURY PARK, NJ (APP) Survey of U.S. Muslims shows too many accept Islamic extremists' acts. Sixty percent of the young group consider themselves Muslim first, American second. Among all young Muslims, 26 percent think suicide bombings are justified often, sometimes or rarely. Another 5 percent said they "don't know" or refused to answer.

05-27-2007 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Christian convert fights Malaysian law. Lina Joy has been disowned by her family, shunned by friends and forced into hiding - all because she renounced Islam and embraced Christianity in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

05-24-2007 HOLLAND (Het Vrije Volk) September The Eleventh, the day on which Islam was overthrown. On September the eleventh, 1683, Vienna is lost. The cannon shots by the army of Karà Mustafà have created craters in the defence bastions. ... At the dawn of September the twelfth, the Christian troops attack. And against all odds they win.

05-23-2007 LONDON, UK (AP) UK Lesson Plan Concerns Muslim Educators. Britain is funding a curriculum aimed at teaching children in Muslim religious schools how to steer clear of extremism, but some of the lessons are worrying Muslim educators.

05-22-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (MSNBC) Some young U.S. Muslims approve suicide hits. One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances, though most Muslim Americans overwhelmingly reject the tactic and are critical of Islamic extremism and al-Qaida, a poll says.

05-10-2007 LAHORE, Pakistan (Daily Times) 84-year-old arrested for blasphemy. The police have arrested an 84-year-old Christian man on charges of blasphemy, but the man’s family says he is the victim of a conspiracy to take control of his land.

05-08-2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Breitbart) Music Crackdown in Pakistani Region. Islamic militants are confiscating music cassettes from public buses and ordering shops to only sell CDs promoting jihad in the latest push to Talibanize a lawless Pakistani frontier region, residents said Tuesday.

05-08-2007 MOUNT LAUREL, NJ (MSNBC) 6 held on terror conspiracy charges in N.J. Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack the Army's Fort Dix and massacre scores of U.S. soldiers.

05-06-2007 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Iraq's Christian Minority Flees Violence. As many as 50 percent of Iraq's Christians may already have left the country, according to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal monitoring and advisory group in Washington D.C.

05-02-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (J. Chretien) Turkey : German Seminary investigates Malatya murders. Martin Bucer Seminary (MBS) Dean for International Programs, Titus Vogt, led an investigation into the tragic events of 18 April 2007 by means of putting together the statements from all the witnesses. MBS remains close to the victims, survivors, and witnesses to the brutal murder in Malatya through its Turkish branch, as one of the victims, Necati Aydin, was their student.

05-03-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (Time) Divided They Stand. But secularist Turks have been quick to raise the alarm. An overwhelming majority distrusted Erdogan anyway, despite his repeated insistence that he supports a secular, democratic state. As evidence against him, these skeptics cited comments he made before he was elected that democracy is "like a streetcar—you ride it to the end and then you get off." The party has often been judged less for its performance than for what it represents.

05-02-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (TDN) Enough with Christophobia. It should also start punishing those who spread hatred against the Christian — or Jewish, Armenian, Kurdish etc. — citizens. That hatred not only ends in horrible bloodsheds, but also puts shame on us Turks more effectively than any insult could do.

05-01-2007 JERUSALEM, Israel (Ynet) The Sanhedrin’s peace initiative. Jewish group devoted to rebuilding Temple in Jerusalem to send letters to all world leaders, including Arab ones, inviting them to take part in project, attend conference on Temple Mount in Israel.

April

04-30-2007 ANKARA, Turkey (MSNBC) Crisis in Turkey as secularists, Islamists face off. Secularists suspect Erdogan and Gul, both ex-Islamists whose wives wears the Muslim headscarf banned from state institutions, of wanting to subvert Turkey’s strict separation of state and religion.

04-30-2007 BERN, SWITZERLAND (Swiss Politics) Swiss Muslims plan giant Islamic centre. One of the largest Islamic cultural centres in Europe could be constructed in the Swiss capital, Bern. The 23,000 square metre centre, the concept of which has been proposed by Umma, an Islamic coordination centre, will comprise a museum on Islam, a mosque, a convention centre, offices and a four-star hotel.

04-27-2007 CHICAGO, IL (CT) Is the war on terror over? But despite the efforts at denial, the war against Islamic terrorism remains real and deadly.

04-26-2007 LOS ANGELES, CA (FP) Europe's Suicide? We are seeing over the entire continent how the extreme groups of Islam are trying to impose their fundamentalist ideology, which has created awful results in the Middle East, to our part of the world.

04-23-2007 OXFORD, England (OS) Exiled extremist boasts 14-year Oxford recruitment campaign. “When visiting universities we always had a variety of names – ‘Peaceful Society’, ‘Shisha Society’, ‘Intellectual Society’. We never held a function under the name of al-Muhajiroun.” Bakri added that the University campus was the ideal place to recruit new members. “We used to discuss freedom, democracy, the New World Order, radicalism, globalisation, those types of things.” “No-one paid attention to us. They didn’t see us as extremists but as intellectual students”.

04-22-2007 NEW YORK, NY (Capital Times) Religious pluralism suits a more diverse Madison. Speaking in Madison last week, the Harvard professor described how a Knights of Columbus Hall in Cambridge, Mass. — a gathering place for some of the most loyal Roman Catholics — is now an Islamic mosque.

04-22-2007 MOSUL, Iraq (CNN) Police: Gunmen line up, execute 23 Kurds in Mosul. Gunmen in northern Iraq stopped a bus filled with Christians and members of a tiny Kurdish religious sect, separating out the groups and taking 23 of the passengers away to be shot.

04-24-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (Al-Ahram) Jihad on the horizon. The fragmentation of the jihadist movement is likely to re-ignite religious violence in the region in a more brutal form than anything we've seen so far. And once things calm down in Iraq, a whole generation of jihadists will be ready to seek adventure elsewhere.

04-24-2007 SCOTTSDALE, AZ (Global Politician) An Apology for Koranic Antisemitism? Muhammad himself, in both the sira (early, sacralized Muslim biographies) of Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd, referred to the Medinan Jews of the Banu Qurayza as "apes" just before orchestrating the slaughter of all their post-pubertal men.

04-21-2007 JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Times, UK) How a British jihadi saw the light. Though it grieves me to admit it, the driver was right. In Saudi Arabia women indeed did do worse jobs. Many of the African women lived in an area of Jeddah known as Karantina, a slum full of poverty, prostitution and disease.

04-21-2007 KILI FAQIRAN, Pakistan (Kerala Next) Jihadist video shows boy beheading man. The boy with the knife looks barely 12. In a high-pitched voice, he denounces the bound, blindfolded man before him as an American spy. Then he hacks off the captive's head to cries of "God is great!" and hoists it in triumph by the hair.

04-21-2007 SCOTTSDALE, AZ (Global Politician) Is European Civil War Inevitable by 2025? In addition, the Muslim population, with its birth rate of 3.5 children per women effectively doubles its next generation, whilst the European birth rate of 1.5 children per woman ensures the next generation is 25% smaller than that of its parents.

04-20-2007 MOSCOW, Russia (TDN) Islam's rapid rise giving Russia growing pains. Russia's population has been in free-fall since the Soviet collapse in 1991, dropping by five percent to 142.5 million and sparking forebodings of the collapse of the state along with multi-billion-dollar programs to raise birthrates.

04-20-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (TDN) Ten suspects detained in publishing house attack. "The killing is a result of provocations in Turkey against minorities," said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a lawyer for one of the victims, Necati Aydin. "Intolerance in general has been rising sharply in Turkey," he said, according to The Associated Press.

04-20-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (Post, IE) Turkish Christians in new torture fear following murders. "There were so many stab wounds that we couldn't count them," Hurriyet quoted Dr Murat Ugras as saying. "It was clearly torture."

04-19-2007 ISTANBUL, Turkey (IHT, UK) 5 held in Turkey after killings in Bible publishing house. Five men were detained for police questioning after three people were found with their throats slit in a publishing house in eastern Turkey that prints Bibles and other Christian literature.

04-18-2007 MALATYA, Turkey (Times, UK) Workers' throats slit at Turkish bible house. One of the murdered men was a German national, one was Turkish and the identity of the third has not been confirmed. All three were in the office of a publisher that distributes Bibles and prints other Christian literature when they were set upon.

04-18-2007 MALATYA, Turkey (AP) 3 Killed in Turkey Bible Attack. Assailants on Wednesday slit the throats of three employees of a publishing house that distributes Bibles, the latest in a series of attacks targeting Turkey's small Christian minority.

04-18-2007 MALATYA, Turkey (BBC) Three killed at Turkish publisher. Three people have been killed at a publishing house in Turkey that produced bibles, in an apparent attack on the country's Christian minority.

04-17-2007 MINNEAPOLIS, MN (Star Tribune) Ritual-washing area for Muslims at MCTC may be only the beginning. The task force's eventual objectives on American campuses include the following, according to the website: permanent Muslim prayer spaces, ritual washing facilities, separate food and housing for Muslim students, separate hours at athletic facilities for Muslim women, paid imams or religious counselors, and campus observance of Muslim holidays.

04-17-2007 ARLINGTON, VA (FSM) PBS Silences Filmmaker on Radical Islam. The road to the inclusion of his film Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center in the popular PBS series America at a Crossroads has been rocky from the beginning.

04-16-2007 Iran, TEHRAN (IQNA) launching an Islamic Union with Executive Power Solves Islamic World's Problems, says Harun Yahya.

04-16-2007 MAKKAH, Saudi Arabia (Arab News) Vice Cops Arrest Woman in Makkah for Practicing Witchcraft. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice recently arrested a 40-year-old African woman who was dabbling in the dark art of magic and charging people thousands of riyals for her services..

04-15-2007 KARACHI, Pakistan (Zee News) Massive rally in Karachi against 'talibanisation' of Pak. Braving scorching heat, tens of thousands of people staged a rally in the city on Sunday to reject the "talibanisation" of Pakistani society by militant clerics.

04-15-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (Fox News) Serial Killers Cleared by Iranian Supreme Court as Victims' Activities Were Un-Islamic. The Iranian Supreme Court has vacated the murder convictions of a group of serial killers because their victims were engaging in un-Islamic activities, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.

04-13-2007 ANKARA, Turkey (BBC) Turkey's secularism 'threatened'. Turkey's outgoing president has warned the country's secular system faces its greatest threat since the founding of the republic in 1923.

04-12-2007 Algeria ALGIERS (SMH) Algeria in shock after suicide bombs kill 24. Algeria reeled from the aftershock of two suicide bombings that killed at least 24 people and fuelled fears of an increasingly powerful al-Qaeda front in the North Africa region.

04-12-2007 India (MOG) Why Are So Many Priests & Preachers Entering Islam? However, does really Islam has anything to offer or bring any impact on this world?. Does it really meet the social needs of people better than does Christianity? As I come from a Muslim background, do not find any logic to support such views.

04-11-2007 Jerusalem, Israel (JPost) Jesus tomb film scholars backtrack. The dramatic clarifications, compiled by epigrapher Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem in a paper titled "Cracks in the Foundation: How the Lost Tomb of Jesus story is losing its scholarly support," come two months after the screening of The Lost Tomb of Christ that attracted widespread public interest, despite the concomitant scholarly ridicule.

04-11-2007 LONDON, England (Daily Mail) War on terror 'raising attack risk'. The authors say support for political Islam is increasing worldwide, and action such as the war in Iraq has actually boosted the risk of further terrorist atrocities on the scale of 9/11.

04-06-2007 Palestine (Judeoscope) The New Hamas Government: Between Tactical Pragmatism and Al-Qaeda Jihadism. This was the first time that the Muslim Brotherhood has used the electoral process successfully to take virtually exclusive control of an Arab regime in the very heart of the Arab world..

04-04-2007 NEW YORK, NY (WSJ) Islam's Imperial Dreams. Muslim political ambitions aren't a reaction to Western encroachments.

04-03-2007 NEW YORK, NY (WSJ) The Trouble With Islam. Sadly, mainstream Muslim teaching accepts and promotes violence.

March

03-30-2007 JIMMA, Ethiopia (J. Chrétien) Militant Wahabbi Islamists Drag Ethiopian Christian Evangelist into Mosque and Beat him to Death. An Ethiopian evangelist named Tedase was beaten to death by militant Muslims on Monday, March 26, as he and two young women were on a street evangelism assignment in Jimma, Ethiopia.

03-30-2007 ABUJA, Nigeria (Catholic Online) Tough love with Islam – Church in Nigeria may be model of dialogue. Whatever rough peace exists today, however, comes with a sobering footnote. Most Christians, as well as some Muslims, believe it has been achieved in part because Christians learned to fight fire with fire – in other words, because the Christians answered violence from the Muslim side with violence of their own.

03-26-2007 KABAL, Afghanistan (e-Ariana) Afghanistan taking back madrassas: education minister. Afghanistan's government is setting up its own madrassas, or religious schools, to counter the Taliban's use of education as a "weapon of terrorism," Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar says

03-24-2007 MINNEAPOLIS, MN (Star Tribune) Minnesota Muslims and culture clash. But the Minneapolis teenager braced for a question about scanning pork products. "I'm going to say 'no' and stick to my religion and not change who I am for $7 an hour," Omar said.

03-24-2007 LONDON, England (BBC) Seized sailors 'taken to Tehran'. The 15 Royal Navy personnel seized at gunpoint in the Gulf by Iran are reportedly being questioned in Tehran.

03-24-2007 LONDON, England (Press Telegraph) U.K. moves to restrict veils. British authorities proposed new rules on Tuesday to allow schools to forbid Muslim students to wear full-face veils in class, reflecting a wider debate over Britain's relationship with its Muslim minority.

03-22-2007 FRANKFURT, Germany (Spiegel) A German Judge Cites Koran in Divorce Case. He beat her and threatened her with murder. But because husband and wife were both from Morocco, a German divorce court judge saw no cause for alarm. It's a religion thing, she argued.

03-22-2007 PARIS, France (Fox) French Court Acquits Paper That Printed Prophet Cartoons. A French court on Thursday cleared a satirical newspaper in a case brought by Muslim groups angered by its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

03-21-2007 BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) Insurgents used kids as cover, then killed them. Iraqi insurgents used two children as cover to get through a checkpoint in Baghdad and then blew up the car while the kids were still inside, a U.S. general said Tuesday.

03-21-2007 SUDAN (Daily Telegraph) Women to be stoned to death. Two Sudanese women have been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after a trial in which they had no lawyer and which used Arabic, not their first language.

03-21-2007 NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (Reuters) Slavery still exists in Mauritania. Historians say slavery developed in Mauritania from the 7th century, when Arab invaders pushed south into Sub-Saharan Africa, bringing their Islamic religion which explicitly allowed the enslavement of non-believers.

03-18-2007 Belgium, ANTWERP (AINA) Islamicization of Europe. "The Salafists know how to debate and they know the Qur'an by heart, while the elderly running the mosques do not," she said They also have money. "One of them told me that he gets Saudi funds."

03-15-2007 PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Sentinel) 3 Pakistanis Stoned, Shot to Death. The trio then were taken to an open field near the village, their hands tied behind their backs, where more than 100 people had gathered. Some members of the crowd stoned them, then others stepped forward with assault rifles and shot them to death, Mehmood said.

03-14-2007 Yemen (Iran Quran News) Rare Quranic Manuscripts Found in Yemeni Mosque. A Yemeni-Italian team doing archaeological and historical research in Yemen found more than 150 ancient rare manuscripts beneath a minaret of al-Jaami’a al-Kabeer, the Grand Mosque, on March 10.

03-13-2007 Yemen (Yemen Observer) Rare manuscripts found in al-Jaami’a al-Kabeer. Some of these rare manuscripts are semi-completed copies of the Holy Quran called al-Sultania and al-Mutawaseta, ... A preliminary analysis of the age of some of the manuscripts, written in Kufic script without dots, revealed that these manuscripts are quite old, dating back to the first, second and third centuries after the Hegira (the eight, ninth and tenth centuries in the Western calendar).

03-13-2007 DALLAS, TX (KRT) A tragic hero: Hirsi Ali's defense of freedom is admirable, but to what end? With their terrifying confidence, Islamic believers understand something about human nature that the West has forgotten - but will soon relearn, the hard way. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, if Europe will not have the God of the Bible, it should pay its respects to Allah.

03-12-2007 BAKERSFIELD, CA (Catholic) Public Reason and the Truth of Christianity. Public reason is not possible in a culture that is dominated by the "dictatorship of relativism,"[1] for a very simple reason: Relativism is a dogma and therefore it a priori rejects rational argumentation, even toward itself. Those with a taste for paradox could say that relativism is a fundamentalism.

03-12-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (AP) House GOP try to halt Muslim seminar. House Republicans said Monday that Democrats should retract an offer to let the nation's largest Islamic civil liberties organization use a Capitol conference room for a seminar.

03-08-2007 Kyrgyzstan (RFE) Kyrgyzstan: Debate On Legalized Poligamy Continues. The debate on legalizing polygamy has returned to Kyrgyzstan.

03-08-2007 NEW YORK, NY (NY Post) Killing Muslims. But when Sunni suicide bombers murdered 118 Shia pilgrims (and wounded almost 200 more) on Tuesday, Sunnis around the globe looked away: Shias only count as Muslims when America can be blamed for their suffering.

03-06-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (Christian Post) New Book Claims that America is 'Religiously Illiterate'. America is one of the most religious countries in the world, but shamefully one of the most religiously illiterate places.

03-05-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (Defense Links) Jihadists Use Internet As Recruiting, Networking Tool, Intel Official Says. The Internet is the most important venue for the radicalization of Islamic youth, the head of intelligence at U.S. Central Command, said in an interview aired yesterday.

03-05-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (AKI) Iran: 70 Bahai Students Expelled From University. Iran's education ministry has ordered the expulsion from university of 70 students of the Bahai religion who have refused to convert to Islam.

03-04-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (BBC) Iran women arrested over protest. Iran's authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.

03-02-2007 DUBAI, UAE (DPA) Dubai's Grand Mufti accredits divorce through SMS. Muslim authorities in Dubai, acknowledging the synergy of technology and tadition, Thursday confirmed that a Muslim divorce can be carried out via a mobile phone text message or SMS.

03-02-2007 RIYADH, SA (MET) Saudi book fair under religious attack. Saudi Arabia's semi-official Al Watan daily said Thursday the religious police tried to remove exhibited books on love and different religions at the Riyadh International Book Fair that opened Tuesday.

February

02-27-2007 ROCHESTER, NY (DC) Don't blame terrorism on poverty. Secondly, if terrorism is the inevitable result of poverty, oppression and injustice, where are the Haitian, Tibetan, Greek Cypriot, Dashmiri Pandit and Sindhi terrorists?

02-21-2007 NEW YORK, NY (Times UK) Anti-American feelings soar as Muslim society is radicalised by War on Terror. The War on Terror has radicalised Muslims around the world to unprecedented levels of anti-American feeling, according to the largest survey of Muslims ever to be conducted.

02-21-2007 PHILADELPHIA, PA (Sun Herald) A troubling look inside radical Islam. There are two deep insights in "My Year Inside Radical Islam." The first is an illumination of one of the pathways to radicalism.

02-21-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Scotsman) Saudis put bodies of beheaded Sri Lankans on display. The al-Riyadh newspaper reported that the men had been "crucified" - tied to wooden beams after beheading - as part of moves to deter other foreigners from crime.

02-20-2007 Pakistan (FoxNews) Female Pakistani Minister Shot Dead for Refusing to Wear Veil. A Pakistani minister and woman’s activist was shot dead Tuesday by an Islamic extremist for refusing to wear the veil.

02-20-2007 LONDON, England (FoxNews) Prosecutors: London Bombing Suspect Fled in Burka. A jury was shown surveillance footage Tuesday of bombing suspect Yassin Omar apparently dressed in a burka after the attempted attacks in London.

02-20-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (Daily Star) Mufti's 'Hymen Fatwa' Causes Shock Waves Among Scholars. Reconstructive hymen surgery for women who lost their virginity before marriage is halal (religiously permissible), said to Aly Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt.

02-19-2007 JERUSALEM, Israel (CNSNews) Muslims Dig Under Temple Mount, Don't Want Jews Digging Nearby. What is astonishing is that the very same people that are responsible for the destruction of the antiquities are the same people that dare to blame Israel," Mazar said.

02-19-2007 CANADA (Canada Free Press) Understand the mind of the Jihadis. It is important to understand that the goal of the Jihadists is -- following in the footsteps of Muhammad to create the "Islamic kingdom of God on Earth." The primary goal is not primarily to conquer lands but to Islamize the world.

02-19-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (NYT) Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power. Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

02-18-2007 LONDON, England (FT) Study sees harmful hunt for extra oil. All the world’s extra oil supply is likely to come from expensive and environmentally damaging unconventional sources within 15 years, according to a detailed study.

02-17-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (AP) Outspoken Critic of Islam Finds Refuge in Conservative American Think Tank. Considering van Gogh's death, and her continuing outspokenness about Islam, Hirsi Ali said she no longer can feel safe without bodyguards in the presence of even moderate Muslims.

02-16-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (Fox News) Congressman Goode Says Iraq Resolution Would be Boon for Muslim Extremists. Goode told his colleagues that Islamic jihadists would want U.S. currency to say "in Muhammad we trust," with an Islamic flag flying over the White House and U.S. Capitol.

02-16-2007 AUSTRALIA (Australian) Australia 'must limit Muslim immigration'. He said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance. “Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence,” he said. “When there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence, you are in trouble.

02-15-2007 ISRAEL (IHC) The Peaceful Majority. We are told again and again by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant.

02-15-2007 NEW YORK, NY (National Review) Marriage and the Terror War. The real root of the terror war, says D’Souza, is that, like many other traditional peoples throughout the world, Muslims are being shocked into anti-Western radicalism by the decadent post-Sixties culture nowadays aggressively spread across the globe by the secular Left.

02-13-2007 BEIRUT, Lebanon (WND) Terror attacks 'campaign to drive out Christians'. "These bombings are intimidating Christians and also Lebanese in general," said Gemayel. "Ninety percent of all the assassinations the past two years and most of the bombings have occurred in Christian population centers.""You don't hear this on the news too often, but I'm telling you, Christians are fleeing Lebanon. It's a major problem," Gemayel said.

02-12-2007 LONDON, England (LSE) Mice-Ridden Mosque Kitchen Costs Firm Dear. The filthy kitchens at Europe's biggest Mosque were found crawling with mice and cockroaches by horrified health inspectors, a court heard today.

02-12-2007 DENVER, CO (RMN) After testy meeting, books remain closed at Denver mosque. The session was punctuated by "heavy conflict," according to Khadija Senesac, owner of a tax- preparation service. "Honestly, we could use a mediator," she said.

02-12-2007 CAMBRIDGE, England (Guardian, UK) Religion edition sends student newspaper editor into hiding. The editor of a Cambridge University college newspaper is in hiding after his attempt at religious satire backfired.

02-12-2007 OAKLAND, CA (AltMuslim) The Death Of "Progressive Islam". Islam, like Judaism, is a juridical religion. The primary sources of Islam - the Quran and Sunnah - are pulled together to create religious law (Shariah) which provides guidance to Muslims. I was faced with the stark fact that there was no such thing as a "Progressive" Muslim jurisprudence, neither in theory nor practice; nor would there ever be one.

02-09-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (MSNBC) Blogs transform Mideast social dialogue. Egyptian authorities arrested a string of prominent bloggers last year, including one who remains jailed and is on trial for allegedly defaming Islam by posting criticism of Islamic institutions on his Arabic-language blog.

02-09-2007 LONDON,England (AP) Militant Islamic groups turn to YouTube. In another video entitled "Qanaas Baghdad Episode II," a man purporting to be an Iraqi sniper offers tips on attacking U.S. soldiers. As music plays, a group of soldiers stand at the side of a bustling, dusty street. The sniper locks on to one of them. A second later, the soldier falls to the ground.

02-07-2007 LUEDENSCHEID, Germany (WND) Descendant of Muhammad converts to Christianity. A Turk who claims to be a descendant of Islam's prophet Muhammad has converted to Christianity while living in Germany.

02-06-2007 JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) Israel Begins Renovation Near Holy Site. "The continued Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem require all Palestinians to unite and remember that our battle is with the occupation," said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

02-05-2007 BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) U.S. military: Iraqi lawmaker is U.S. Embassy bomber. A man sentenced to death in Kuwait for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies now sits in Iraq's parliament as a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition, according to U.S. military intelligence.

02-05-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Fox News) Saudi Court Orders Lashing, Jail for 20 Foreigners for Drinking, Dancing at Mixed Party. A Saudi Arabian judge sentenced 20 foreigners to receive lashes and spend several months in prison after convicting them of attending a party where alcohol was served and men and women danced, a newspaper reported Sunday.

02-05-2007 Iran (CP) Iranian Christians Face Wave Of Persecution. How difficult is it for Christians to practice their faith in the Islamic nation of Iran? Unbelievably hard! Let me relate just a few examples of the growing persecution of believers.

02-05-2007 SAN FRANCISCO, CA (SFGate) How and why we Shiite Muslims mourn for Husayn. It was also the first time that I had personally witnessed the blood-letting ritual of the beating of the chest, a gruesome sight that made me faint in disgust. The ritual prompted me to ask the question to Pakistani Shiites: Why mourn for Husayn in a manner that is off-putting to non-Muslims, Sunnis, and even Shiites themselves, not to mention dangerous?

02-05-2007 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (CNN) Swapped Malay baby: I'm not Muslim. An ethnic Chinese Malaysian mistakenly given by doctors to a Malay Muslim couple at birth nearly three decades ago is bracing for a possible legal battle so he can renounce Islam, an action that can be considered a crime in parts of Malaysia.

02-04-2007 LONDON, England (Daily Mail) Radical cleric praises bin Laden. In another sermon he said Christians and Jews were "kuffaars" (non-believers) and the enemies of Islam. "No one loves the kuffaar, not a single person loves the kuffaar. We hate the kuffaar," he said.

02-03-2007 WILLIAMSBURG, VA (WND) Imam leads Democrats in prayer of conversion. With heads bowed reverently, Democrats were led in prayer yesterday by a Muslim imam who essentially asked Allah to assist in converting the party members to Islam, according to a scholar and author.

02-02-2007 MACON, GA (AP) Ga. mayor converts to Islam. Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is working to change his legal name to Hakim Mansour Ellis.

02-02-2007 GAZA (UPI) Seven Iranians arrested in Gaza raid. Seven Iranian weapons experts were arrested in Gaza City during a raid on a Hamas stronghold by Palestinian security forces affiliated with Fatah.

January

01-31-2007 LOS ANGELES, CA (LA Times) Hollywood afraid to show simple truth of terrorism. Which is a shame. It's a shame for so powerful an art form to become irrelevant because we can't find a way to dramatize the central event of our time.

01-31-2007 NABATIYEH, Lebanon (News 91.9) Kicking and screaming Shiite children brought into bloody rite of mourning. The six-year-old boy screamed and shook his head to avoid the razor blade. But his father held him firmly as Hajj Khodor parted the boy's black hair and sliced his forehead three times with the blade.

01-31-2007 HEROUXVILLE, QC (MG) You can't kill women, town tells immigrants. Immigrants who want to live in the small Canadian town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released by the local council.

01-30-2007 NEW DELHI, India (MG) The Ummah (Muslim Community) is Hemorrhaging. In my view the biggest reason for this are the huge dichotomies and contradictions between our statements and our actions. People listen to us speak and then they see how we behave and they are asking questions.

01-29-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) Saudi appeals court upholds enforced divorce. A Saudi couple have been forced to divorce against their will by a top court because of arcane tribal customs which allowed the woman's family to seek a split, the pair's lawyer said on Sunday.

01-29-2007 NAJAF, Iraq (BT) Iraqi cult leader killed during major gunbattle in Najaf. Al-Yemeni was allegedly claiming to the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam, and his fighters included Sunni and Shi'ite militants from Iraq and abroad.

01-29-2007 LONDON, England (MET) Growing rift of Britain's young Muslims, says poll. Evidence that Britain is beset by a growing societal rift emerged Monday with a poll showing large minorities of young Muslims in favor of Islamic law and inspired by political Islam.

01-29-2007 DUBAI, UAE (AKI) UAE: Brides Seek To Regain Virginity. Private clinics, operating to help unmarried girls "regain" their virginity in the United Arab Emirates, are charging up to 10,000Dirham (2,700 dollars) per operation, local daily Gulf News reports.

01-27-2007 BEIJING, China (Yahoo News) China's state TV bans pig images to avoid offending Muslims. China's national state-run television network has banned all images of pigs from advertisements to avoid offending Muslim minorities, according to a company official.

01-25-2007 PAKISTAN (Assist) Pakistani Christian Accused of Blasphemy for Asking for Her Property Back. Martha Bibi, who lives in Kot Nanka Singh, a small village of 400 families in Pakistan’s Kasur District, was accused of blasphemy after she requested the return of building materials she had lent to a group of Muslims building a mosque. She was taken into custody on Monday, January 22.

01-22-2007 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Top Dissident Cleric Slams Ahmadinejad. Iran's most senior dissident cleric said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's aggressive nuclear diplomacy had harmed the country, joining a chorus of criticism that has included even the hard-line leader's conservative allies.

01-22-2007 SANAA, Yemen (Gulf News) Militant's supporters threaten Yemeni Jews. A group of Yemeni Jews have left their homes for a hotel after receiving warnings to leave Yemen from supporters of a militant in the northern province of Sadaa.

01-21-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Shocking Egypt Police Video Stirs Debate. The footage is shocking: A man lies screaming on the floor of a police station as officers sodomize him with a wooden pole.

01-20-2007 LONDON, England (Daily Mail, UK) I cannot shake your hand, sir. I'm a Muslim and you're a man. A Muslim woman police officer has sparked a new debate by refusing to shake hands with Britain's most senior police chief for religious reasons. ... "There was a great deal of discussion about it afterwards. People were asking how the hell is she going to make an arrest if she refuses to touch men."

01-20-2007 Malaysia (Daily Times) THE OTHER MALAYSIA: You can’t bake an Islamic state. One cannot simply inject religion into politics like one mixes flour, sugar and eggs to make a pudding. One does not, and cannot, add 100 kilograms of Islam to 100 kilograms of constitutionalism and hope to bake an Islamic state.

01-18-2007 USA (AINA) What Thomas Jefferson Learned From the Muslim Book of Jihad. Jefferson's victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine Hymn, with the line, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country's battles on the land as on the sea."

01-18-2007 Sydney, Australia (ABC News) Federal police investigate Sheikh's DVD. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) are making inquiries about a DVD in which a Sydney cleric refers to Jewish people as "pigs" and says children should be taught a love of martyrdom.

01-18-2007 USA (ATB) CAIR's big lie on America's Muslim population. Investors Business Daily gives us yet another invaluable editorial today, deconstructing the lie that America's Muslim population has soared to 8 million.

01-07-2007 DUBAI, UAE (MSNBC) Peace in Somalia to be a failure for Al Qaeda. Stirring as it might sound, an Internet appeal from Al Qaeda for Muslims to go to Somalia and wage holy war is unlikely to amount to much, experts on Islamic extremism say.

01-03-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (MSNBC) First Muslim in Congress to use historic Quran. The first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, attacked for planning to use the Quran at his swearing-in instead of a Bible, will use a copy of the Muslim holy book once owned by Thomas Jefferson, an official said on Wednesday.

01-03-2007 WASHINGTON, DC (Human Events) Keith Ellison: Lying to the Infidels? Reinforcing his pro-Islamist stance, was Ellison’s celebration speech in Dearborn, Mich.—the hotbed of Hezbollah supporters. He promised allegiance to Allah before a crowd cheering, “Allahu Akbar!” (Allah is great!)—the final words of the 9/11 hijackers before crashing into the Twin Towers.

01-03-2007 KUWAIT (Arab Times) Philosophy is not taboo. Historically speaking, philosophy has become taboo in our educational policy because of extremist thinking inherited from a radical understanding of philosophy in Islam from the 11th and 12th centuries. Under this precept, philosophy is viewed as hostile, baseless, and corruptive of youth's minds.

01-02-2007 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Adnkronos) Saudi Arabia: Wahabi Imam Issues Fatwa Against Shiite. A top Sunni Muslim religious leader in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Rahman al-Barak, one of the top several Wahabi clerics in the country, has issued a fatwa or religious decree declaring that Shiites be considered infidels.

01-02-2007 Sujan Tanchangya, Thailand (Daily News) Bangladesh: The next Taliban State – additional comment. The starting point of Bangladesh towards a Taliban-like state was imminent when the Bangladesh constitution adopted Islam as the only religion of the country.

01-01-2007 NAZARETH (WND) Muslims shout at Jesus' home: 'Islam will dominate the world' — March through town of Nazareth 'meant to intimidate Christians'. "It's part of the methods used by the Muslims in very obvious ways to create an atmosphere where the Christians should know the Muslims are the main power and we are not welcome anymore," Saleem said.

01-01-2007 GAINESVILLE, FL (Gainesville Sun) Tolerance must be shown by Muslim community first. The Danish friends I have spoken with are getting fed up with Muslims coming into their tolerant society, taking full advantage of their social welfare programs and then openly practicing intolerance, acts of violence and excluding themselves from mainstream Danish Society, including not learning Danish.

01-01-2007 CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Al-Qaida's No. 2 decries moderate Arabs. The deputy leader of al-Qaida accused moderate Arab leaders of being traitors for cooperating with the United States and its allies in a taped message posted on militant Web sites Saturday.

01-01-2007 LONDON, England (Foreign Affairs) A Battle for Global Values. To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is. I write with great humility as a member of another faith. As an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, much as reformers attempted to do with the Christian church centuries later. — Tony Blair is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.