Ayaan Hirsi Ali came to the attention of the wider world in an extraordinary way. In 2004 a Muslim fanatic, after shooting the filmmaker Theo van Gogh dead on an Amsterdam street, pinned a letter to Mr. van Gogh’s chest with a knife. Addressed to Ms. Hirsi Ali, the letter called for holy war against the West and, more specifically, for her death.

S ince September 11, 20 01, promoting democracy has been a cornerstone of the Bush administration’s Middle East policy. The best antidote to radicalism and terror, as President Bush has said, is the tolerance and hope kindled in free societies. To promote this vision, in December 2002 the administration established the Middle East Partnership Initiative, or MEPI, an office in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs assigned the task of promoting democracy in the region. Since then, Washington has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to advancing Middle Eastern civil society. From 2002 to 2005, the administration also pursued an active policy of challenging regional allies and adversaries to liberalize and democratize.

Dear Madame Secretary: The American Jewish community owes its existence to the welcome which first generation Jewish-Americans received in the United States after fleeing religious persecution. Our own history, combined with the fundamental Jewish principle of Piddyon Shevuyim (redemption of the captive), compels us to urge that the United States Refugee Program provide a similar welcome to religious minorities who have been fleeing Iraq.

n the days before Pope Benedict XVI's visit last Thursday to the Hagia Sophia complex in Istanbul, Muslims and Turks expressed fear, apprehension and rage. "The risk," according to Turkey's independent newspaper Vatan, "is that Benedict will send Turkey's Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is any perception that the pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims." Apparently making the sign of the cross or any other gesture of Christian worship in Hagia Sophia constitutes such a sacrilege.

European Muslims are a highly diverse mix of ethnicities, religious affiliation, philosophical beliefs, political persuasion, secular tendencies, languages and cultural traditions, constituting the second largest religious group of Europe’s multi-faith society. In fact Muslim communities are no different from other communities in their complexity. Discrimination against Muslims can be attributed to Islamophobic attitudes, as much as to racist and xenophobic resentments, as these elements are in many cases inextricably intertwined.

La Chambre correctionnelle près le tribunal de première instance d'Agadir a condamné mardi un touriste allemand d'origine égyptienne à six mois de prison ferme, assortie d'une amende de 500 dh, pour avoir tenter d'ébranler la foi d'un musulman.

The High-level Group met five times from November 2005 to November 2006, at the conclusion of which it produced a report which takes a multi-polar approach within which it prioritizes relations between Muslim and Western societies. The Report was presented to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to Prime Ministers José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 13 November 2006 at the final meeting of the High-level Group in Istanbul, Turkey.

This article discusses the recent strengthening of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist movements in Egypt. It then looks at the resulting regression in modernization and Westernization efforts in the country. The article also focuses on the adverse effects these changes have had on Egyptian Copts.

The Madrid terrorist bombings in March 2004 and the London attacks in July 2005 showed that Europe is no longer just a logistics base or shelter for international terrorism but has instead become one of its main battlegrounds. Jihadi ideology, in particular the proselytizing conducted by radical preachers, has led to the emergence of groups capable of carrying out independent terrorist attacks in Europe. What type of ideology lies behind these attacks? What role does it play in the process of radicalization of certain sectors in Europe’s Muslim communities?

L'ancien ministre des Habous et des Affaires islamiques Abdelkbir M'Daghri Alaoui vient de publier un livre dont le titre très évocateur «le gouvernement barbu» est la prédilection que le Maroc sera gouverné, tôt ou tard, par les tenants de l'intégrisme islamiste.

L'homme de 25 ans, interpellé lundi et placé en garde à vue pour avoir adressé une menace de mort au professeur Robert Redeker, auteur d'une tribune sur l'islam le 19 septembre, a été remis mercredi en liberté sous contrôle judiciaire.

I understood that I was different, that I was not French, that I would never become French and that I had no business trying to become French either. I took it well. I was proud of my new Muslim identity. Not to be French, to be Muslim, just that: Algerian too, but, above all, Muslim. That was my reconquest of myself, my burst of lucidity, my wakening. I was rid of the malaise from which I had suffered and all of a sudden I felt good about myself: no more impossible dreams, no more desire to become part of this France that did not want me. And, above all, I started to nourish a tremendous hatred toward the Fascist regime that had rejected the vote of the Algerian people for Islamic rule.

On May 6-7, FPRI’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education hosted 44 teachers from 16 states across the country for a weekend of discussion on teaching about Islam. Speakers were drawn from the disciplines of religious studies, anthropology, political science, history, law, and journalism. The institute, held in Bryn Mawr, Pa., was made possible by a grant from the Annenberg Foundation.

As we (or the better informed among us at least) celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto this Saturday, marking the date in 1571 when the navy of Pope Pius V's Holy League turned back the Ottoman Turks from one of their recurrent jihads, it might be opportune to consider how the Islamic world has advanced politically over the last half century.

This paper starts from the premise that radical Islam is a multiform phenomenon. Radical Islam consists of many movements and groups that, although related (in particular concerning faith and anti-Western sentiments), may harbour very different views on aims and means. This means that various kinds of threats can emanate from radical Islam, one of which is terrorism. In addition to radical Islamic organisations and networks which concentrate on the Jihad (in the sense of armed combat) against the West, there are other groups, which principally focus on 'Dawa' (the propagation of the radical-Islamic ideology)3, while some groups and networks combine both.

But there is another aspect of Islam which has not featured so strongly in the media in the aftermath of September 11. There are over a billion Muslims in the world today. The vast majority of them lead law-abiding lives and live peaceably with their neighbours, including those of other faiths. In many countries and cultures, they are respected for their hospitality, generosity and graciousness.

For years, political scientist Bassam Tibi has been urging Muslims to integrate into European societies and Europe to stand up to Islamists. He spoke with SPIEGEL about the weakness of Europe, the orthodoxy of Islam and what Germany needs to do to open up.

Les articles et dépêches sur les «menaces de mort» qu’aurait reçues le «prof de philo Robert Redeker» suite à une «tribune sur l’Islam» publiée dans Le Figaro, inspirent, au «prof de philo» que je suis moi aussi, les réflexions suivantes:

A leading German opera house has canceled performances of a Mozart opera because of security fears stirred by a scene that depicts the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, prompting a storm of protest here about what many see as the surrender of artistic freedom.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Catholic Church's ecumenical representative, discusses the Vatican's relations with Muslims and the furor over the pope's recent remarks.

Les réactions suscitées par l'analyse de Benoît XVI sur l'islam et la violence s'inscrivent dans la tentative menée par cet islam d'étouffer ce que l'Occident a de plus précieux qui n'existe dans aucun pays musulman : la liberté de penser et de s'exprimer.

Dear Prime Minister, I write to you on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. Because you are a leading world statesman, and I think your decision to reveal the date of your retirement from office in your own time was the right one, may I presume to suggest that now is the time to make a big speech addressed personally to Osama bin Laden. No world statesman has attempted to challenge this aberration of humankind into debate.

La Fondation Hassan II a organisé hier matin, au sein du centre de conférence de l'ONEP à Rabat, une journée de formation au profit de 173 prédicateurs et déclamateurs qui se rendront bientôt dans divers pays d'Europe, d'Afrique et d'Amérique, afin d'encadrer les MRE pendant le mois sacré du ramadan.

It is hard to imagine that it has been fi ve years since the 9-11 attacks. The scope of developments and actions that followed is breathtaking, from two ground wars and over 20,000 American casualties, to a complete jettison of 60 years of American strategic doctrine aimed at preserving stability in the Middle East.

These two admissions, made by persons at the apex of the United Kingdom’s counterterrorism effort, encapsulate the central challenge today facing the United States in our own counterterrorism effort. Given the threat’s dynamic and evolutionary character and our adversaries’ seeming ability to adapt and adjust their tactics and modi operandi to overcome or obviate even our most consequential countermeasures, how can we best ensure that our own assessments and analyses are anchored firmly to sound, empirical judgment and not blinded by either conjecture, mirror-imaging, politically partisan prisms or wishful thinking? And, equally critically, how can we ensure that our counterterrorism policy is sufficiently comprehensive, well crafted and effectively directed?

Hezbollah and other Islamo-fascist terrorists concluded long ago that "if it bleeds it leads" doesn't simply apply to the sensation-hungry media. Islamo-fascist mass murderers maintain public bloodletting (their enemy's and their own) is a victory in itself.

It took President Bush to tell the truth to Britain about the alleged massive plot to blow U.S.-bound airliners out of the sky. In his first comment on the apparently foiled attempt, he put it simply: "This was a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists."

The term "Islamofascism" was introduced by the French writer Maxine Rodinson (1915-2004) to describe the Iranian Revolution of 1978. Rodinson was a Marxist, who described as "fascist" any movement of which he disapproved. But we should be grateful to him for coining a word that enables people on the left to denounce our common enemy. After all, other French leftists -- Michel Foucault, for example -- had welcomed the revolution as an amusing threat to Western interests. It is only now that people on the left can acknowledge that they are just as much a target as the rest of us, in a war that has global chaos as its goal.

Some have suggested the latest round of fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization in Lebanon is the beginning of World War III. But a better analogy may be the 1936 Spanish Civil War. Just as Adolf Hitler used Francisco Franco as his proxy in Spain to test new military techniques and equipment on the battlefield, so Iran is using Hezbollah as its proxy to do the same.

As Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah terrorists stretches into its third week, several critical points continue to elude Western commentators about the conflict in Lebanon. First, there is no sign that the West is taking seriously the repeated claim by Hezbollah, Iranian officials and al-Qaeda leaders that they love death more than we love life and that they prize the deaths of civilians above all. Nasrallah and likeminded terror leaders understand that the more civilians die, the better they look, and the more prestige they enjoy among the mobs of the Middle East. This means that Israel and the West must rethink the avoidance of civilian casualties as a goal in and of itself.

Picture that map today. The violence at the periphery of Islam has, for various reasons, faded. But the antagonisms at its center have grown.

After a year marked by riots over cartoon portrayals of Muhammad, a major terrorist attack in London, and continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, most Muslims and Westerners are convinced that relations between them are generally bad these days. Many in the West see Muslims as fanatical, violent, and as lacking tolerance. Meanwhile, Muslims in the Middle East and Asia generally see Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy –as well as violent and fanatical.

I thought about that following the arrests of 17 Canadian terror suspects last weekend. Most were citizens of Canada, born and bred, or residents. The police who announced the dragnet were careful to say that the young males did not represent any specific ethnocultural group - though all are Muslim.

The Muslim world represents both an opportunity and a challenge for Moscow. The existence of several anti-American governments there has given Moscow ample opportunity to ally or otherwise cooperate with them. On the other hand, elements within the Muslim world have in the past provided support to Chechen and other Muslim opposition groups within Russia -- some of whom seek to establish "caliphates" in Central Asia, the North Caucasus and perhaps other Muslim regions of the Russian Federation. Further, this support could increase enormously, thus complicating and perhaps even dooming Russia's already difficult and costly attempts to suppress Chechen and other Muslim opposition in Russia and Central Asia.

Bernard Lewis came to the New World in the nick of time. Fate -or, more appropriately, history -decreed his American journey and the direction it would take. The historian, who will turn 90 in a handful of days, had come to Princeton from London, at the age of 58, in 1974, to do the work of Orientalism which had gained him scholarly renown. But there would be no academic seclusion for him in the years after. The lands of Islam whose languages and cultures he knew with such intimacy would soon be set ablaze. And his adopted country, the bearer of the imperial mantle shed by his own Britannia, would in time make an honored place for him, and all but anoint him its guide into those burning grounds of the Islamic world. He would become the oracle of this new age of the Americans in the lands of the Arab and Islamic worlds.

America welcomed a victim of political and religious persecution this week. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been living for years with death threats for her criticisms of radical Islam. But in the end it was not her former co-religionists who have caused her to seek refuge in the U.S. It was rather the native-born citizens of her adopted country, the Netherlands, that have driven her off. If the reader will forgive a little indulgence in the soft bigotry of low expectations, it is the role of her fellow Dutchmen and women that are most worthy of contempt in this tale.

It is now well known that the terrorist cell that conducted the 9-11 attacks did much of its planning from a base in Europe. Five years later, and despite many counterterrorism successes, violent Islamist extremism in Europe continues to pose a threat to the national security of the United States and our allies.

Europe (including Russia and the states of the South Caucasus) is home to over 120 million Muslims. Over half of these live in Turkey, a key partner in our effort to counter extremism, with its secular democracy, predominantly Muslim population, and 80-year experience with modernizing reforms.

La France a un problème avec ses musulmans, mais ce n’est pas celui qu’elle croit. L’embrasement des banlieues d’octobre-novembre 2005 ainsi que la vague d’arrestations dans les milieux jihadistes ont ramené l’Islam au centre des préoccupations françaises et ont donné du souffle à ceux qui brandissent la menace d’un monde musulman s’organisant à partir de l’islamisme politique.

On February 24, Bosnia-Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric issued the following Declaration of European Muslims from the Zagreb mosque. In an interview with RFE/RL on March 14, Ceric described the declaration. "It is a personal -- it is probably too much to say "confession" -- but a personal appeal to the European audience not to make a mistake in generalizing all Muslims and not to spread Islamophobia, that was, I think, going on in Europe and in the West generally, especially after September 11 [2001]," Ceric said.

The fatwa stated that it is forbidden to allow non-Muslims to establish a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula, to receive Saudi citizenship, or to buy property there. In addition the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reported that Kuwaiti MP Walid Al-Tabatabai announced in statements earlier this winter that he was opposed to the establishment of houses of worship for non-Muslims in Muslim countries.

The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality.

Despite the concerted efforts of Western intelligence agencies, considerable mystery and intrigue cloaks the financing of contemporary terrorist organizations, especially those originating in the Middle East. The case of al Qaeda is typical.

Since 9/11, defense of the homeland has become a particularly urgent issue for U.S. military planners. Consequently, foreign policy has shifted to address a new array of challenges to U.S. interests. Among the requirements of the new security environment is a deeper understanding of the global network of terrorist organizations inspired by or directly affi liated with Al Qaeda.

If America’s pursuit of a Global War on Terror is strategically and politically well-grounded, then why are Islamist insurgencies and extremist movements continuing to operate, generating parallel cells that terrify the world with violent attacks from Iraq to London?

Face-to-face with radical Islamists before millions of potentially hostile viewers around the Arab world, Ms. Sultan does not flinch when called a heretic and a blasphemer. For all we know, she is endangering her life.

After the publication of a dozen caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and the violent reaction to them in many countries -Huntington's thesis has gained credibility. In the last fortnight, in particular, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that at the very least we are witnessing a clash of cultures and at the very worst a clash of civilizations between the Western and Muslim worlds.

On ne peut que se réjouir de ces avancées qui devraient permettre à tous les Marocains de vivre dans la sécurité et dans la dignité, de sorte que chacun puisse participer activement à la vie sociale et politique du pays. En effet, une démocratie authentique exige un consensus sur un certain nombre de valeurs essentielles telles que la dignité transcendante de la personne humaine, le respect des droits de l’homme, le «bien commun» comme fin et critère de régulation de la vie politique.

Tarik Ramadan est l’un des islamologues les plus emblématiques mais aussi les plus controversés à l’heure actuelle. Ses sorties médiatiques passent rarement inaperçues. Parfois, il fait son «marketing» à la manière des télé-évangélistes américains. Dans cet entretien, avec L’Economiste, il passe en revue différents sujets dont le débat actuel sur l’islam.

The influence of extreme forms of Islam and Shari'ah appear to be growing. Radical sentiment as a whole seems to be on the increase in the Muslim world. It's still a minority, but the people pushing for it are committed, organized, well funded, and have clear goals.

Muslim anger over Danish cartoons that satirized the Prophet Muhammad continued to swell across the Middle East and elsewhere in the world on Monday, turning violent in Afghanistan, where at least five protesters died and more than a dozen police officers and protesters were wounded.

Cartoons making fun of the Prophet Muhammad that were published in a Danish newspaper last September are suddenly one of the hottest issues in international politics. Muslims in Europe and across the Middle East have been holding protests with growing levels of violence and now loss of life.

The numbers support what September 11th indicated so graphically: Religious conflicts have escalated dramatically since the onset of the Cold War. According to one scholar’s estimates, throughout the 1950-1996 period, religious conflicts constituted between 33 and 47 percent of all conflicts.1 Moreover, since the end of the Cold War, nonreligious conflicts have decreased more than religious conflicts.

Islamist organizations--that is, organizations that appeal to the religious values and social conservatism of the Arab public in their call for political reform--are the key to democratization in the Arab world.