A conservative watchdog group has issued a report claiming that religious freedom is deteriorating worldwide and that radical Islam is the largest threat to people's ability to worship according to their beliefs.
Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils ... nor, I think, will the human race.
Islamist terrorism has led the American and British governments in the past month to launch separate public diplomacy programs aimed at engaging Muslims at home and abroad. A quick comparison shows the two initiatives are headed in opposite directions. At least the Brits have finally got it right.
In his recent speech at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush once again stressed the fundamental importance of religious freedom. It is “the very first protection offered in America’s Bill of Rights. It is a precious freedom. It is a basic compact under which people of faith agree not to impose their spiritual vision on others, and in return to practice their own beliefs as they see fit.” He does this repeatedly, and emphasizes its significance through other events, such as his private meeting with Cardinal Joseph Zen, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Hong Kong, something the State department reportedly opposed.
The History of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. Courts
By Jeffrey Breinholt
The most pointed and interesting discussions at the recent NEFA Conference on the Muslim Brotherhood involved the issue that is the subject of so much recent public commentary: whether Western governments should embrace the Brotherhood as an effective counterweight to Al Qaida. Meanwhile, the lawsuit filed by several Arizona-based Muslim leaders against US Airways, after passenger complaints led to their being pulled from a recent Minnesota flight, along with the libel actions filed against those who have dared to write about Islamic charities in the U.S., raises an interesting issue that was not addressed at the NEFA event nor, to my knowledge, by any legal commentatory: what is the Muslim Brotherhood’s history with the American courts?
Cairo - Fifty years ago, no Egyptian would have believed that a fight between two children - a Muslim and a Christian - could ignite violence requiring the presence of truckloads of heavily-armed riot police to contain it. But this happened last month in the once cosmopolitan Mediterranean city of Alexandria, albeit in one of the city's poorer districts. There, a fist fight between two boys in front of a church turned into a full-blown sectarian clash between Muslims and Christians.
Across town from the site of the recent attempted car-bomb attacks, several thousand Muslims gathered in front of the London Central Mosque to applaud fiery preachers prophesying the overthrow of the British government –
Forty-five Saudis have been fighting with the terrorist group Fatah al Islam in Nahr al Bared camp. So far, 23 of them have been killed and were buried in a mass grave, as stated by the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon [Brigadier General Sultan Abul Ainain] in Asharq Al-Awsat last Monday. The names of some of those killed were published in ‘al Hayat’ newspaper.