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AL QUT — Ellen Trowbridge, 35, of Vermont came here to defend Iraqi people against what she calls an unjust invasion of American military might. Now that the war is over, she's staying to protect Iraqi people from minister Franklin Graham. "Apparently, he's coming here in the middle of May," says Trowbridge, the group's leader, who still glances at the sky as if worried about approaching bombers. "We aim to find out his schedule and keep him out." Trowbridge came here two weeks before the war began and took up a post at an Iraqi elementary school, where she's slept...

This is the ONLY photo from the film in the wire coverage I see on Yahoo, everything else is of Geert Wilders or the protesters: A demonstrator holds a banner with a photo of Geert Wilders during a demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008. Wilders released a film criticizing Islam and its holy book the Quran on Thursday, March 27, posting it on a Web site. The Dutch government had warned Wilders that a film offensive to Muslims could spark violent protests in Islamic countries, like those two years ago after the publication of cartoons of the Prophet...

Today's religious map of the Middle East traces to the unification of the Arabian tribes under the banner of Islam in the 7th century, and their subsequent conquest of much of the known world. Muhammad's genius was in finding a way to unite the myriad of fissiparous, feuding Bedouin tribes of northern Arabia into a cohesive polity. Just as he had provided a constitution of rules under which the people of Medina could live together, so he provided a constitution for all Arabs, but this one had the imprimatur not just of Muhammad, but of God. Submission -- Islam --...

President Bush, summing up meetings with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, said today that a peace accord will require "painful political concessions" by each. Resolving the status of Jerusalem will be hard, he said, and he called for the end of the "occupation" of Arab land by the Israeli military. "Now is the time to make difficult choices," Bush said after a first-ever visit to the Palestinian territories, which followed separate meetings with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem the day before. Bush is in the Mideast for eight days, trying to bolster his goal of achieving a long-elusive peace agreement...

The Philippine government is drafting a constitutional amendment that would authorize the establishment of a federal homeland for Muslims in the south of the country. The proposed amendment is part of a complex peace process between the government and a major Muslim rebel group. Douglas Bakshian reports from Manila. Last November, an important agreement was reached between the Philippine government and the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The two sides agreed on the size of a proposed homeland for the country's Muslims in the south of the country. This definition of what is called "the territory" is part of...

It didn’t attract much notice, but the General Assembly of the United Nations ended the year by passing a disgusting resolution protecting Islam from criticism of its human rights violations. Lots of non-Muslims voted for it – a sign that more and more corrupt Third World governments are identifying with the ideology of Islam, even if they don't accept its doctrines. The resolution goes under the innocuous title "Combating defamation of religions" – but the text singles out "Islam and Muslims in particular". It expresses "deep concern that Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism".

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is “Arab”Wednesday, December 19th, 2007Arabs have been unanimous in rejecting the idea of Israel being a “Jewish state.” Their reasons are that, by definition, a Jewish state would be discriminatory against Arabs and Muslims.If you define “Jewish” in purely religious terms, that would mean that any state that defines itself as “Islamic” is, by definition, equally guilty of this discrimination. If you define “Jewish” in ethnic or national terms, then any state that defines itself as “Arab” would be equally guilty of the racism that Israel is being accused of. Time to check out the official hypocrisy...

Widespread concern is again being focused on the present condition and the destiny of the Christians in the Middle East. There are those who, following the Pope, express in this way their anxiety about the tragedy and suffering undergone by the helpless flock of Christ in the lands where Christianity began. In other cases, the great zeal often appears predetermined by factors of cultural-political alignment.       Few listen to the arguments and the reasons of the Arab Christians. Few take as their starting point a look at what is happening in the Middle Eastern powder keg.       Which is why...

A row has erupted over a plan to dig up a third of a million bodies from an historic east London cemetery to make way for a new Muslim burial site. Tower Hamlets council in London is considering reopening the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in Mile End to answer a long-running campaign for a Muslim graveyard in the area. The park, off Bow Common Lane, was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by Parliament in 1966, after being deemed full with about 350,000 bodies buried there. It is not yet clear what the Council proposes to do with the...

What is it with the combination of being a medical doctor and a “Muslim? That’s a very legitimate question to ask, in light of a certain event that unfolded at the end of last week in Virginia. Dr. Esam Omeish, who in addition to being an “M.D.” was, up until last Thursday, a member of the Virginia State Commission on Immigration. He also happens to be president of the Muslim American Society. By all accounts an accomplished professional and a responsible contributor to his community, Dr. Omeish’s world changed, seemingly overnight, when some very damning video was discovered at Youtube...

GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - Female civil servants must wear Islamic headscarves or be fired, the maverick head of Russia's Chechnya region said on Tuesday, an edict that may put him at odds with his secular masters in Moscow. The Kremlin installed 30-year-old Ramzan Kadyrov as Chechnya's president to crush a decade-old separatist insurgency, but some observers say he has turned the region into a private fiefdom where Russian laws are flouted. Russian law separates the state from religion and gives both sexes equal rights. But Kadyrov, who this year made a pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia,...