Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, July 31, www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/01imams.html

A recent spate of arrests of Muslims accused of terrorism in the United States has revealed that many of them were radicalized by militant preaching they found on the Internet.  Now nine influential American Muslim scholars have come together in a YouTube video to repudiate the militants’ message. The nine represent a diversity of theological schools within Islam, and several of them have large followings among American Muslim youths.

The video is one indication that American Muslim leaders are increasingly engaging the war of ideas being waged within Islam.

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Dan Wooding, ASSIST News Service, Aug.1, www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10080004.htm

Following news that an Evangelical church in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, was robbed three weeks ago and a church member badly beaten by the assailants, comes news that six other churches in the city have since been attacked.  Sending details of the original attack, Jed Courley, the church’s pastor, told the ASSIST News Service, “Some of you may have already heard — our church was broken into last night. At about 1:00 in the morning four men climbed over the fence and broke into the back door of the church. A woman, Valya, who was there was badly beaten, tied up with tape, and then beaten more when very little money was found. Rooms trashed, safe demolished. Some music equipment, a computer, and other things were taken.”

Now in follow-up message, Courley, an American, said, “Since the time our church was robbed a few weeks ago, we have heard of six other churches who were robbed recently and a couple of other people also beaten in the process. We heard that it was also four men, which is a similar story to what happened at our church. The police seem to be doing nothing. In one case, they never even arrived on the scene. Please pray against these obvious attacks of the enemy.”

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US evangelicals pan church’s Quran-burning plan

Ahmed Alsheeti, Associated Press, Aug.1, www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/08/01/115438.html

Christian evangelical churches in the United States blasted a Florida church’s plans to burn copies of the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.  The Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida had called for repeating its “Everybody Burn Quran Day” it celebrates “in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam.”

Dove World Outreach Center, shame on you,” responded Angel Nuñez, vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, according to Christianity Today, an Evangelical Christian magazine.

“If I want to win a Muslim to Christ, I surely won’t do it by burning the Qur’an in public and provoking them to hate us more,” said Nuñez. “The greatest weapon a Christian has is godly love.”

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Michael Ireland, ASSIST News Service, Aug.1, www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10080001.htm

In a pre-planned and coordinated effort by government security forces, a group of new Christian believers were rounded up and arrested in a northern province of Iran.  According to reports received by Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), on Thursday, July 18, a group of 15 newly-converted Christians, who were travelling to the provincial town of Bojnoord to meet and to fellowship with the believers of that town, were arrested in the city of Masshad, the capital of the North Eastern province of Khorasan.

According to informed sources, the government security forces had pervious knowledge of this trip and in a pre-planned and coordinated effort forced the bus, carrying the 15 Christians, to be stopped en-route to their destination and after boarding the bus arrested everyone.

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WCC News, July 29, www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/young-muslims-jews-and-c-3.html

While peace is a commonly held value within Judaism, Islam and Christianity, other religious values can often become sources of conflict. In order to build community beyond faith boundaries a group of young adults from each of the three faith groups spent a week focusing on the common value of peace recently.  The result? Each of them will return to their homes as qualified peace facilitators.  Participating in the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland month-long summer course called “Building an Interfaith Community” the 32 participants from 20 countries forged a sense of community out of their religious diversity.

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The Economist, July 29, www.economist.com/node/16705501?story_id=16705501&CFID=134576810&CFTOKEN=15096655

Morocco’s king unamused by Christians who proselytise

Evangelical Christians in the poor world are rarely accused of undermining public order. All the more surprising, then, that in recent months around a hundred have been deported from Morocco for just that. The Christians, mostly from the United States and Europe, have been accused of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, a crime punishable by imprisonment under Moroccan law, which protects the freedom to practise one’s faith but forbids any attempt to convert others.

Rules against proselytising are quite common in Muslim countries but Morocco has long enjoyed a reputation as a bastion of religious tolerance in the region. Almost all the country’s 32m citizens are Sunni Muslims but churches and synagogues exist, alongside mosques, to cater for the 1% of the people who are Christian or Jewish.

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Jerusalem Post, July 25, www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=182538

Popular Saudi cleric, Sheik Aedh al-Garni, says women can reveal faces in countries where the Islamic veil is banned to avoid harassment, while deploring the effort to outlaw the garment in France.

His religious advice, delivered in response to a question from a Saudi woman in France, generated some opposition from those less compromising. One cleric said it was better for Muslim women to avoid travelling to such countries unless absolutely necessary.

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Big News Network, July 26, feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=664530

Hindus have sent early greetings to Muslim communities world over for the upcoming blessed ninth month of the Islamic year.

Acclaimed Hindu and Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a release in Nevada (USA), expressed warmest greetings on holy month of Ramadan which ends with Id al-Fitr, wishing that it brought joy, happiness and cheer to all the Muslims.  Rajan Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, stressed that all religions should work together for a just and peaceful world. Dialogue would bring us mutual enrichment, he added.

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Valérie Hartwich, Open Democracy, July 19, www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/val%C3%A9rie-hartwich/dangers-of-burqa-ban

Since the end of 2009 a number of European countries have made moves towards a banning of the burqa, or hijab, the full Islamic headdress for women. Belgium has passed a law to be ratified by its Senate. France is pondering the constitutionality of such a legal decision, whilst Italy has seen its implementation at a local level. Various justifications have been put forward: national security, integration and women’s liberation.

As has been pointed out by Sara Silvestri in her piece “Europe’s Muslims: burqa laws, women’s lives” much unease is felt by the public, civil society and decision-makers in relation to the ban, yet the idea seems to appeal to a large portion of the electorates. She argues that it is because to debate about the burqa or niqab is to debate about much deeper and larger matters, many of which she exposes. However, the affair can be disentangled further, and we should also pragmatically consider whether a ban would be an efficient solution given the aims declared. So is this wave of burqa banning really about the burqa? And is banning it the best way to tackle these issues anyway?

Women’s liberation is a battle that has been fought for over a century, and will have to continue through sheer dedication, advocacy and dialogue. Equally, ensuring national security and cohesion is a tedious task, which requires enormous amounts of personnel, intelligence and dialogue. In neither cases will a law banning the burqa truly help. It might give the illusion of political action, and reassure some that ‘sacred Western values’ are being preserved. But in fact, it will go a long way towards entrenching positions further, rendering dialogue harder, and making tensions run higher. A law will not resolve the identity crisis many European countries are going through, nor will it help towards the integration of European citizens. The burqa is but a crystallisation, an expression of these tensions.

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Martin Hickman, The Independent, July 20, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/faith-leaders-accuse-eu-of-discrimination-over-compulsory-labelling-of-halal-foods-2030348.html

Jewish and Muslim leaders have accused the European Union of “naked discrimination” by ordering the compulsory labelling of all kosher and halal meat.  An advisory group of imams and rabbis at the Office of the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, said it was wrong to single out meat acceptable to some communities while not requiring the identification of conventional methods of slaughter.

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