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The video of ISIS barbarians burning to death a Jordanian pilot sure makes one empathize with Israel. Thirty years ago, Israel was an oasis of sanity surrounded by nation-states essentially hostile but essentially tamed. Now, Israel is surrounded by an exploding movement of bloodthirsty ISIS murderers. Contrary to what President Obama would have you believe, the I in ISIS doesn’t stand for International. What is exploding around Israel in the Middle East is now a modern death cult. Only in a culture as warped and backwards as the Middle East could a video of a human being burned alive in...

Women should "remain hidden and veiled", only leaving their homes in exceptional circumstances, according to an Islamic State manifesto intended as a recruitment tool. The document includes a curriculum for teaching young girls how to be homemakers and mothers who are "sedentary, still and stable" - and condemns the notion of gender equality. Circulated widely on jihadist forums, the text was apparently released in an attempt to recruit women living in Saudi Arabia. A plan for "the ideal education of our girls" is also included, which takes place when they are between seven and 15 years old. Religious studies, knitting,...

The head of a UN inquiry into potential war crimes committed during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict has resigned amid allegations of anti-Israel bias. William Schabas acknowledged he had previously done work for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and did not want this to compromise the probe. Israel had accused Prof Schabas of "clear and documented bias" against it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the investigation should now be scrapped. The inquiry's panel, which was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR), is due to issue its findings in March. Mr Netanyahu said council was "an anti-Israel body" whose...

One of the best 30-or-so minutes on radio since I've been listening beginning in the early 1940s. One caller and one scheduled guest. KSFO Morning Show Podcast It's a four hour show. Pick the 30 January hour 0500 - 0600. The caller (27:30) is a military Afghanistan vet who explains the Taliban in concise and precise language. (Hint: there are two kinds of 'em.) The scheduled guest Jan Morgan (36:20) owns a shooting range in Arkansas who will not permit Muslims as customers. She describes an incident when she did permit 'em but no more.

The State Department hosted a delegation of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned leaders this week for a meeting about their ongoing efforts to oppose the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, who rose to power following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Brotherhood, in 2013. One member of the delegation, a Brotherhood-aligned judge in Egypt, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom in which he held up the Islamic group’s notorious four-finger Rabia symbol, according to his Facebook page. That delegation member, Waleed Sharaby, is a secretary-general of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council and a spokesman for...

In the wake of the most recent attacks in Paris, the airwaves have been full of myths about Muslim communities in Europe. However, history tells a rather different tale: Muslims are far from alien from European culture; in fact, they are central to it. The links between Europe and Islam date back to the very first generation of Muslims. We know of the famed rule of Muslim Iberia (now known as Spain and Portugal), which created a thriving multi-religious society, something that was then a novelty in Europe. Several hundred years earlier, after Muslim Spain had begun, you might have...

The release of the film American Sniper has led to an increase in threats against Muslims in the US, according to an Arab-American civil rights group. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has written to director Clint Eastwood and star Bradley Cooper. Their film is based on US soldier Chris Kyle's service in Iraq from 2003-09. The ADC said a "majority of the violent threats we have seen over the past few days are result of how Arab and Muslims are depicted in American Sniper". The organisation, which describes itself as the largest Arab civil rights organisation in the US, said...

NEW DELHI: The latest census data on the population of religious groups, set to be released shortly, shows a 24% rise in the Muslim population between 2001 and 2011, with the community's share of total population rising from 13.4% to 14.2% over the 10-year period. While the growth rate of the Muslim population has slowed from around 29% between 1991 and 2001, it is still higher than the national average of 18% for the decade. The data accessed by TOI showed that the most rapid rise in the share of Muslims in the total population was witnessed in Assam. Muslims...

In France, no-go zones are officially called Zones Urbaines Sensibles, or Sensitive Urban Zones. According to some reports, there is hardly a city in France that does not have at least one ZUS. There are estimated to be more than 750 such zones in France. According to the Washington Times, “France has Europe’s largest population of Muslims, some of whom talk openly of ruling the country one day and casting aside Western legal systems for harsh, Islam-based Shariah law.”

Prosecutors in southern France say five Russians from the Chechnya region have been detained on suspicion of preparing an attack. Local prosecutor Yvon Calvet said the suspects were detained January 19 in the town of Beziers near the Mediterranean coast, around 70 kilometers from Montpellier. French media reports say the five are also suspected of hiding a cache of explosives that was found near a stadium in Beziers

The U.N. Security Council condemned the recent escalation of attacks by the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram on Monday and expressed deep concern that its activities are undermining peace and stability in central and west Africa. The statement was sponsored by Nigeria, which had been reluctant to have the council discuss the Islamic militant group despite being a member of the Security Council. The Security Council has previously responded to specific terrorist acts by Boko Haram with press statements that do not become part of its official record. The militant group seeks to impose Islamic Shariah law across Nigeria, Africa's...

Orchestrated by the government, which obliged all its employees to attend, Chechens have held a huge demonstration in their capital Grozny to protest against the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed carried by French satirical magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’. Officials said over a million people gathered for the occasion. “What is happening in France, these cartoons, is an unbearable pain for each Muslim. We just want to show people that we should live in peace,” said one man. Protests continue throughout the Muslim world, but were much smaller in Tehran, where some 500 people answered a call to protest near the French...

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris prompted millions to take to the streets to show national solidarity and to pay tribute to the 17 people murdered. The attacks have also inspired a lot of soul-searching, as the French struggle to understand how three men, born and raised in France, could have trained the murderous intent of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State on their own countrymen. Prison was the crucible of their radicalization. There are five million to six million Muslims in France, less than 10 percent of the total population, but 60 percent of France’s prison inmates are of...

It's time for Muslims to take a stand. Egypt may be showing the way The terror attack in Paris last week represents Islamism’s most explicit declaration of war on free society. Non-Muslims were slaughtered in a non-Muslim country to avenge a so-called crime against a blasphemy law that is not even Islamic — but merely Islamist. If there’s any blasphemy here, it’s that of Islamism itself against my religion, Islam. At last, on New Year’s Day, the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, did what no other leader of the Muslim world has done to date: he named Islam’s real...

BRUSSELS -- EU High Representative Federica Mogherini met here Monday Nabil Al-Araby, Secretary General of the Arab League and discussed how to increase counter-terrorism cooperation. Speaking to reporters before the meeting, she underlined that terrorism "is not an issue between the West and Islam, terrorist attacks are targeting most of all Muslims in the world so we need an alliance and a dialogue to face the issue together." "We also need to take full responsibility for what we do and say, I think respect is one of the core values of the EU, drawing the line between freedom and respect...

Raising doves and pigeons is a deadly pursuit in ISIS-controlled Iraq. The popular hobby is in the sights of extremist Islamist fighters, who this week rounded up 15 boys and young men in the eastern province of Diyala for pursuing a pastime now deemed un-Islamic. Three have already been executed. The recent crackdown on bird breeders stems from ISIS' need for new fighters to battle the Iraqi and Syrian governments, as well as residents' growing desperation, according to the security official. Suspicion of bird-breeders stems from the fact they tend to feed their animals at the same time devout Muslims...

About 500 protesters gathered at an anti-Islam demonstration in Prague on January 16. The demonstrators carried signs and banners with slogans like “Europe, wake up!” “Islam is evil,” and “Moderate Islam does not exist.” The organizers of the rally were from a group that calls itself “We Do Not Want Islam In The Czech Republic.” About 20 people attended a counterdemonstration against racism and xenophobia that was held nearby.

Op-ed: The distorted mutation that is Islamic fundamentalism has to be acknowledged; many Muslims recognize there is a problem, which is not just a handful of Jihadists involved in terrorism. Any debate on Islam in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in the West is like stepping into a minefield. When it comes to the media outlets and academe, for the most part, the subject of Islam sparks a convoluted and apologetic discourse; on the social networks, on the other hand, the discourse it prompts is a racist one. The thing is there's a problem. It's hissing and bubbling. Many...

There is "heightened concern" about the risk to the UK's Jewish communities following last week's terror attacks in France, counter-terror police say. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said police were holding talks over "more patrols in key areas" after "anti-Semitic rhetoric from extremists". Authorities are also considering enhanced security measures to protect police officers, he added.

The International Criminal Court has begun considering whether to investigate alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Hague-based ICC said on Friday it had "opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine". It is an automatic step taken by the court upon a referral. The Palestinians have asked the ICC to investigate Israeli "crimes" since June 2014. Israel and the US have strongly criticised the Palestinians' move. After the Palestinians applied to join the ICC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had chosen "a path of confrontation" and that Israel would "not sit idly by". Israel...