by Jeffry Halverson In the September 10 cover story on ForeignPolicy.com Jarret Brachman warns the Obama administration to pay careful attention to al-Qaeda’s new Libyan-born media darling, Abu Yahya al-Libi. He writes: Whether he’s shown traipsing through valleys, target shooting with his buddies, reciting poetry on a mountaintop, or breaking bread with his students, Abu [...]

by Mark Woodward* Over the last year it has become increasingly apparent to progressive Indonesian Muslim intellectuals and political leaders that there is a clear association between the spread of Wahhabi religious teachings and political extremism. In the weeks following the Ritz-Carlton and J. W. Marriott bombings in Jakarta, discourse about the dangers of Wahhabism [...]

by Steven R. Corman Nothing you can do will hurt me, I am indestructible. Black Sabbath, “Kiss of Death” One of the more interesting stories I’ve heard lately is about Heavy Metal music becoming big in the Muslim world.  Earlier this week, Mark Levine posted a guest blog on the subject at Post Global.  Levine, [...]

Z. S. Justus Today I restructured the Palestinian police force. Earlier in the day I launched a joint cultural initiative between Israelis and Palestinians, but not before I eased travel restrictions in Gaza. Of course I did not actually do any of these things, but an innovative simulation by Impactgames allowed me to try out [...]

by Steven R. Corman An anti-Islam Member of Parliament from the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, has produced a short film that portrays the Quran as an inspiration for terrorist attacks and violence. A recent story in the New York Times on Wilders and his effort reported that He routinely equates the Koran with Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” [...]

by Bud Goodall In a New York Times article today entitled “Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics,” evidence gathered by investigative reporters on the scene strongly indicates that the appeal of violent extremism may be waning. Are we at a new “tipping point?” Reasons given in the article for believing we may be at a [...]

By Bud Goodall Pardon my rant. I say that in advance but without apology. Today’s New York Times article about the United States Senate vote to approve President Bush’s plan to grant legal protection to telephone companies for cooperating with illegal wiretaps on American citizens as well as to expand existing government spy powers on [...]

It takes some time to get the hang of blogging. So far Sean McCormack’s wished-for “conversation” has not materialized. To be successful the State Department needs to give users more of the dialog they want.

The latest video from Osama Bin Laden sounds less like a threat from a terrorist responsible for the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans and more like the speech of a leftist university professor or populist politician.

If the U.S. government wants to promote the value of Radio Sawa it should consider amending laws to allow broadcast within the U.S.