Iran FM calls on Lebanon to drafts U.N. Resolution on Israeli provocations

Iran has called on the Islamic World to stop Israel’s use of force against Palestinian protesters enraged by Israeli provocations in East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made the request by forwarding official letters to Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC); Amr Moussa, the Arab League Secretary-General, plus Walid al-Muallem, Ali al-Shami, Nasser Judeh and Marty Natalegawa, the respective foreign ministers of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Indonesia. (more…)

‘Jihad Jane’ pleads not guilty

Colleen LaRose, the so-called “Jihad Jane” from Pennsburg, PA accused of conspiring with foreign terrorists to kill a Swedish cartoonist who insulted Islam, pleaded not guilty during a minutes-long hearing in federal court this morning. (more…)

Up to 300 feared dead in central Nigeria clashes

Nigeria’s acting president Sunday ordered the security forces to hunt down those behind clashes involving Muslim herders and Christian villagers in which more than 300 people may have been killed.

The latest unrest in Nigeria’s central Plateau state comes at a difficult time, with acting leader Goodluck Jonathan trying to assert his authority while ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua remains too sick to govern the oil-producing nation. (more…)

Interview:Like Israel Hezbollah should investigate its conduct in 2006 war

Kuwaiti Author Dr. Ibtihal Al-Khatib said during an interview with LBC that like Israel, Hezbollah should investigate its conduct in the 2006 war.

Rashad Hussain, a bridge between two worlds

“A lot is made about American misperceptions about Muslim communities, but there’s a lot of misperceptions that Muslim communities have about the United States,” says the new U.S. envoy to the Muslim world

Voting age issue unites the Maronites in Lebanon

The move to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 has united the Maronite Christians in Lebanon. For the first time rival Maronite leaders Michel Aoun , Amin Gemayel and Samir Geagea are united in their opposition to lowering the voting age .
It is all about numbers… Analysts estimate that lowering the voting age would add about 50,000 Christians to the electorate, mainly Maronites, and about 175,000 Muslims, roughly equally split between Shiites and Sunnis.
“Christians fear the numbers,” Paul Salem, who heads the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Centre, told AFP.
“Mainly it is a fear that lowering the voting age might be the first step in rethinking the entire political structure.”
The issue will be put to the test at a parliament session on Monday, almost one year after MPs approved draft legislation to cut the age from 21 to 18.
“With the realization that their community in Lebanon is shrinking, many Christians are considering whether, in a few generations, Muslims will start questioning why they should continue to give Christians half when they are a minority ( based on Taef accord).”
The Christians want to link lowering the voting age to allowing Lebanese expatriates to vote. Lebanon’s diaspora is estimated to number at least double its population and at least a third are Christians.

Pope praises Christian, Druze, Muslim coexistence in Lebanon

Pope Benedict XVI in a meeting Saturday with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, praised the peaceful coexistence in Lebanon between various religious communities, including Druze, Christians and Muslims.
Hope was expressed “that the country (Lebanon), through the exemplary coexistence of the various religious communities … may continue to be a ‘message’ for the region of the Middle East and for the whole world,” the Vatican said in a statement issued after the morning talks.
Benedict received Hariri at the Vatican Apostolic Palace where, “in an atmosphere of great cordiality,” their talks focused on Lebanon and the broader situation in the Middle East, the Vatican statement said. DPA

Photo by Dalati & Nohra

Clinton:We have a lot in common with Muslim World

An interview with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton by Michel Ghandour of Al Hurra

Saudi Arabia bans Valentine’s Day

In Saudi Arabia, this Sunday is Valen-ban Day.
Religious cops from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are cracking down on stores selling red roses, heart-shaped products or red gift wraps, confiscating all symbols of love, and destroying them.
“Those who don’t comply will be punished,” they warned in ads placed in newspapers.
“As Muslims, we shouldn’t celebrate a non-Muslim celebration, especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women,” Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari, a scholar in Islamic studies, told the Saudi Gazette.
“I think what they are doing is ridiculous,” said the writer of a local blog called Saudi Jeans. “What the conservatives in this country need to learn is something called ‘tolerance.’” NY daily news

Shiites targeted in 2 Karachi bombings

Two bomb explosions in southern Pakistan have left at least 25 people dead and wounded scores of others. Police have yet to determine whether one of the attacks was the work of a suicide bomber. Ayaz Gul reports for VOA from Islamabad.
Police say that minority Shi’ite Muslims were the target of the two deadly bombings in Karachi, the country’s largest port city and commercial capital. VOA