A New York city agency on August 3 cleared the way for construction of a Muslim cultural centre near the site of the September 11 attacks. In a case that triggered national debate, the City Landmarks Commission voted unanimously to deny landmark status for an old building on the site of the planned centre. At least one more legal challenge looms but the commission’s ruling will clear the way for construction of the Cordoba House, which will include a prayer room and a 500-seat auditor...

A coalition of Muslim, Sikh, Asian-American, and other civil liberties groups on August 3 sent an open letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller seeking an explanation of why a leader of an anti-Islam hate group was recently invited to train state and federal law enforcement officers. Robert Spencer, co-founder of the hate group Stop the Islamisation of America (SIOA), claimed in a blog post that he “gave two two-hour seminars on the belief-system of Islamic jihadists to the Tidewater Joi...

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) on August 6 announced that Swedish appliance manufacturer Electrolux has agreed to grant legally-mandated religious accommodation to Muslim employees at its St. Cloud, Minn., plant during the upcoming Ramadhan fast. In July, CAIR-MN assisted employees in filing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint against Electrolux after the company threatened Muslim workers with termination if they were cau...

Hamas said on August 8 that the indirect talks between the movement and Israel to free abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are at a standstill. The movement said the Israeli government is unwilling to make any further concessions in negotiations to free Gilad in exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Gilad has been in Hamas captivity since he was abducted in a 2006 cross-border raid. Egypt and Germany h...

Turkey on August 9 announced a new armed forces head and army chief, days after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan blackballed a general named in a probe into an Internet campaign against his government. Chairing a promotion panel dominated by military top brass last week, Erdogan refused to sanction the commanders’ first choice to become army chief as the general they chose was one of 19 officers summoned by a state prosecutor to give testimony in an investigation into th...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on August 8 ordered Israel’s attorney-general to investigate embarrassing leaks about a feud among generals vying for the role of army chief. He told cabinet ministers Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein would “examine information from media reports regarding the appointment of the next chief of staff,” a spokesman said. Israeli generals have a history of campaigning publicly for promotions and bad blood is nothing n...

Baghdad is getting back on the map of international airlines after 20 years of violence as the prospect of multibillion oil deals lures business travellers. Gone are the days of hair-raising cork-screw landings – dubbed death spirals – as the bloodshed has ebbed from a peak of sectarian warfare in 2006 and 2007, though bombings and suicide attacks still occur regularly across Iraq. Several foreign airlines started or announced plans to fly to Baghdad in recent months as firms sl...

The Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Syed Munawar Hasan and Secretary General, Liaquat Baloch, have strongly condemned the continuous ban on the transmissions of a private channel ARY and said it was sheer contempt of the High Court. In a joint statement on August 9 they said the ARY channel was being punished for showing to the public the true nature of President Zardari’s visit and exposing his corruption. Therefore, Zardari and company felt offended on being shown the mirror...