Turkey’s Prime Minister on Mar 6 promised to protect the country’s largest religious minority after 25 houses, mostly belonging to Alevi Muslims, were vandalised, raising fears for their safety. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said an investigation was launched into the vandalism in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman. Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin earlier said children were believed to be behind the marking of the houses with red paint.

The incident has strained...

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) on Mar 5 announced that a lawmaker in that state’s legislature will drop a proposed “anti-Sharia” bill written using a template provided by an anti-Islam extremist.That announcement came following a news conference CAIR-MN held on Mar 5 with interfaith leaders to challenge the threat to religious freedom posed by the bill. In announcing his decision to drop the bill, Republican Stat...

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has urged Libyans to remain united after tribal leaders and a political faction declared autonomy for an eastern region.The statement came as Libyan leader Mustapha Abdel Jalil said he would defend national unity “with force” if necessary.OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged Libyans “to preserve national unity and territorial integrity of Libya”.

Ihsanoglu also “renewed his call fo...

The administration of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was running a covert programme to conceal weapons in Libyan embassies across the globe, a senior official in the new government said on Mar 8. The weapons included handguns, grenades and bomb-making materials and were shipped using the diplomatic bag. They may have been intended for use in assassinations on Libyan dissidents abroad, or for operations against the embassies’ host countries. The scale of the scheme is emerging for ...

Israel on Mar 9 killed the leader of a Palestinian faction in a targeted attack on a car in the Gaza Strip.A second man also died in the blast, and a third was injured. The blast set a small metallic blue car ablaze. At least two of the victims were inside the vehicle when the explosion occurred, witnesses said. One of the dead was reported as Zuheir Al-Qessi, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), which is an umbrella group that draws together activists from different factions....

Syrian security forces on Mar 9 killed one civilian when they deployed in a residential neighbourhood of Damascus Friday to put down an act of civil disobedience, opposition activists said. Previous funerals for slain protesters in the district in the west of the capital, which houses several secret police headquarters and Iranian installations, have turned into large demonstrations against President Bashar Assad.

Mass shouts of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) rang from t...

Canada on Mar 6 imposed fresh sanctions on Syria, banning all dealings with the central bank and seven cabinet ministers as part of a campaign to stop President Bashar Assad’s crackdown against rebels. The measures also prohibit the provision or acquisition of financial or other related services to or from anyone in Syria or those acting on Syria’s behalf. “The continuing, appalling violence perpetrated by the Assad regime on the people of Syria compels us t...

The GCC consultative committee, during a meeting in Jeddah on Mar 8, proposed to change the name of Gulf Cooperation Council to Arab Gulf Union Council. Muhammad Al-Rasheed, chairman of the committee, proposed the new name and hoped the new move would speed up integration of GCC states.

He commended King Abdullah for making his proposal at the last GCC summit to transform the council into a powerful union to confront growing challenges.

The GCC leaders have in...