From ‘Nominal Catholic’ to Clarion of Faith
NY Times: GREAT FALLS, Va. — Rick Santorum was, in his own words, a “nominal Catholic” when he met Karen Garver, a neonatal nurse and law student, in 1988. As they made […]
Iran increasing ‘secret aid’ to Syria
TEHRAN: Iran is stepping up its military and intelligence support for Syrian government troops in their crackdown against opposition strongholds, The Washington Post reported late Saturday. Citing three unnamed US officials with access to intelligence reports from the region, the newspaper said Tehran had increased supplies of arms and other […]
Iraq militia hands over last missing US soldier’s remains
By PETER GRAFF AND SUADAD AL-SALHY | REUTERS ARABNEWS BAGHDAD: A Shiite militia has handed over the body of the last US soldier missing in Iraq, closing a final chapter of the war two months after US troops left and more than five years after the soldier vanished while secretly […]
Burning of the Book and the Great game
By AIJAZ Z. SYED ARABNEWS Are the Americans really that dumb? I mean after spending 11 years in the world’s most dangerous battlefield and dealing with the fiercely proud and famously hot-blooded Afghans you have to be stark, raving mad to be doing what the Americans were found doing last […]
Florida mulls outlawing Shariah, other foreign laws
Associated Press: WEST PALM BEACH: A measure to ban the use of foreign laws in US courtrooms is progressing in Florida’s statehouse. Critics call this one of the many unwarranted […]
Pakistan Builds Web Wall Out in the Open
PARIS — Many countries censor the Internet, but few spell out their intentions as explicitly as Pakistan. The government published a public tender last month for the “development, deployment and operation of a national-level URL filtering and blocking System.” Technology companies, academic institutions and other interested parties have until March […]
Reinforcing the church-state wall: Lesson for Muslims
Los Angeles Times: American conservatives are deeply divided about Thomas Jefferson. His Democratic-Republican Party embraced many bedrock conservative principles, favoring states’ rights, opposing attempts by the Federalists to strengthen the federal government […]
Tough US warning on Iran gas pipeline
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned on Wednesday that the Iran gas pipeline project was “inexplicable” and could invoke US sanctions that would further ‘undermine’ Pakistan’s ‘already shaky’ economy. Source: Anwar Iqbal, DownCom Earlier, Congressman John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, drew Secretary Clinton’s attention to the Pakistan-Iran gas […]
Radical theory of first Americans places Stone Age Europeans in Delmarva 20,000 years ago
Credit: Washington Post: When the crew of the Virginia scallop trawler Cinmar hauled a mastodon tusk onto the deck in 1970, another oddity dropped out of the net: a dark, tapered stone blade, nearly eight inches long and still sharp. Forty years later, this rediscovered prehistoric slasher has reopened debate […]
Egypt arrests man mistakenly thought to be Al Qaeda chief
AFP | Feb 29,2012 | JORDAN TIMES CAIRO — Egyptian police arrested a man on Wednesday who they thought had been a top lieutenant of Osama Ben Laden, only to discover that the man they had nabbed had the right name but the wrong identity. An Egyptian known as Seif […]
Insight: How the Greek debt puzzle was solved
(Reuters) – Wolfgang Schaeuble was playing Sudoku on his iPadas he waited to hear whether Greece’s negotiating team had persuaded private creditors to accept a bigger loss on their Greek bonds. Germany’s finance minister needed this last piece of the debt restructuring puzzle to fall into place. Without the private […]
The Genesis of a church’s stand on race: All revelations are not from God
By Jason Horowitz, Published: February 28 On Dec. 25, 1964, as Mitt Romney enjoyed his last Christmas break as a high school student in Michigan, two Mormon missionaries visited Darius Gray in Colorado […]
U.S. Rule Set for Cameras at Cars’ Rear
On average, two children die and about 50 are injured every week when someone accidentally backs over them in a vehicle, according to KidsAndCars.org, a nonprofit group that pushed the government to begin tracking such tragedies. And more than two-thirds of the time, a parent or other close relative is […]
Police Monitoring and a Climate of Fear: Muslimophobia by NYPD
NY Times: The counterman at the Jordan Halal Restaurant, a greasy spoon of a greasy spoon on South Orange Avenue, tossed up his hands as I pulled out my press […]
The religion and politics of division
Washington Post: By Lisa Miller, Published: February 24 Last week, the Christianity police, in the persons of Rick Santorum andFranklin Graham, came forward to discredit the president’s religious beliefs. First, Santorum called President Obama’s […]
G-20 Meeting Focuses on Euro Firewall Fund
MEXICO CITY — As finance ministers from the Group of 20 countries began a two-day meeting here dominated by the European sovereign debt crisis, the United States was adamant that European nations must do more to buffer their economies. At the center of the dispute is the reluctance of cash-rich […]
Ahmadiyya Muslim conversation ends now
Source: World Muslim Congress. Thanks to ya’ll for the extensive responses on the topic. Most of us agree on certain basics, some don’t, and it is time to close with the following notes and move on: 1. Whether the Pakistani right wingers believe Ahmadies are Muslims or not, they need […]
The Separation of Church and State Is Impossible: Unless of course it is divinely sanctioned
Tea with Simon Critchley: The Separation of Church and State Is Impossible The New Yorker (blog) February 15, 2012: by Rollo Romig “Religion is the basis and Foundation of Government.” That’s […]
New home sales exceed expectations
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — New home sales exceeded forecasts in the latest government readings Friday, another sign of a long-awaited recovery in the battered housing market. The Census Bureau reported that the pace of new home sales hit a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 321,000 in January, up from the previous […]
Two Forms Of Slavery That Still Exist In America: Time to understand what Qur’an says about slavery
Businessinsider.com: It is almost surprising that the concept of slavery is very foreign to those living in the developed world, especially the U.S., since it was extensively practiced as recently […]