So, who won?

At least three - democracy promotion, religious freedom and women's rights - of his seven points are more relevant to a region who's [sic] governments are bastions of despotism than [to] the average Indonesian,. . . . for the majority of Indonesians - Muslim or otherwise - these three issues are fundamental ways of life already held dear. . . Not surprisingly Indonesia's most eminent Muslim thinkers were products of Western scholarship, not Al-Azhar or Arab Universities . . ..But in Cairo he put an Arabic frame on a cultural dialog which most Muslims may not relate to.

Ahmadinejad sends Bad Karma to opposition.

In fact, the whole Muslim obsession with prayers or the length of women clothing gets on my nerves, particularly when actual issues are overlooked.

Quick notes to my fellow Muslims:

The videotape — first shown last week by ABC News — has provoked outrage from members of Congress, who said it could add fuel to lawmakers’ reservations about a pending civilian nuclear agreement between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, the seven-member federation on the Persian Gulf to which Abu Dhabi belongs.

Now, while it is probably true the source - who by name is almost certainly a Levantine, I'd guess either Palestinian and/or Lebanese [not being a binary choice per se] is without doubt somewhat slimey,

The videotape, made in 2004, emerged in a separate lawsuit filed by Bassam Nabulsi, a former business partner of Sheik Issa. Mr. Nabulsi, an American citizen from Houston, claims he was later tortured by Emirates police officers after he refused to hand over the videotape.

The tape was made by Mr. Nabulsi’s brother on orders from Sheik Issa, who liked to film torture sessions and watch them later in his palace, said Anthony G. Buzbee, Mr. Nabulsi’s lawyer.

In its statement, the government of Abu Dhabi — the emirate to whose ruling family Sheik Issa belongs — promised a “comprehensive review” of the matter. It also said the government “understands that the matter depicted on the video was resolved between the two parties and that no criminal charges were brought by either party.”

The man being tortured in the video is Mohammed Shah Poor, an Afghan grain merchant who Sheik Issa believed had cheated him, Mr. Buzbee said. Mr. Poor was gravely injured but survived, Mr. Buzbee said.

....

Daryl Bristow, Sheik Issa’s lawyer, said in a statement that “Bassam Nabulsi and his lawyer are attempting to use a videotape of a third party to influence the court and public opinion” about the lawsuit. He added that he could not comment on details because of the suit, but that “when all the facts are known, the one-sided ‘story’ being told by Nabulsi and his lawyer will be completely addressed and Nabulsi will be discredited.”

This is one of those moments where lawyers should know to keep their fucking mouths shut. Second observation, do not let a lawyer be your PR person.

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Well, I suppose Site News is the most appropriate category for this little announcement...Tom and I are getting hitched, most probably at the beginning of September. I blame Aqoul - it's all about increasing contact and improving communication between people of various faith backgrounds, right?

So what have you all been up to?

Ergo, again, except for the psychotic types, the mere mention of the word Influenza Khanenire is not scandalous nor particularly disturbing as such.

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"We will call it Mexican flu. We won't call it swine flu," said Mr Litzman, who belongs to the ultra-religious United Torah Judaism party. ....

Mr Litzman is one of eight ultra-Orthodox Jewish ministers and deputy ministers in Mr Netanyahu's administration.

Correspondents in Israel say scientists are concerned the new religiously sensitive name could could be seen as stigmatising Mexico.

Right, because Israelis are entirely unaware that Catholics indulge in pig eating.....

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Internet usage has jumped 1,000 per cent over the past seven years in the Middle East, yet it still lags well behind other regions. Overall internet penetration has reached 10 to 12 per cent, although with the region’s large number of shared connections, up to 50 per cent of the population is estimated to have access to the net.

Google, the internet company, hopes to provide the tools that will help users to increase the amount of Arabic content online.

Leaving aside the numbers, which may or may not be dodgey, it is interesting that a heavy weight like google is coming to Arabic.

Some further comments:

The incident threatens to tarnish the reputation of Abu Dhabi. It also poses questions about the rule of law and impunity in a nation dominated by powerful families.

Hmmm, perhaps I am overly cynical, but isn't this exactly the image of the Emiratis?

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As Jobs Die, Europe’s Migrants Head Home - NYTimes.com

That changed in the decade-long expansion that began in the late 1990s. In Spain, where the growth has been the most explosive, the foreign population rose to 5.2 million last year out of a total of 45 million people from 750,000 in 1999, according to the National Statistics Institute. Ireland’s population, now 4.1 million, was also transformed, with the percentage of foreign-born residents rising to 11 percent in 2006 from 7 percent in 2002.

“In the U.S., it took generations to build up a foreign-born population of that size,” said Demetrios Papademetriou, head of the Migration Policy Institute, a research group in Washington. “These countries have done it at an unprecedented rate, but the society and institutions haven’t even begun to have a chance to catch up.”

FT.com - Hard homecoming for Pakistan’s expatriates

The downturn in the Middle East is forcing large numbers of Pakistani expatriate workers to return home, exchanging lives of comfort for unemployment in a country experiencing political turmoil, growing insecurity and a deteriorating economy.

Those coming back from the oil-rich region range from senior and mid-career staff in banks, consumer goods companies and multinationals, to blue-collar workers such as drivers, labourers and domestic servants.

The financial crisis is reversing a trend of large-scale migration from Asia to the Middle East, especially from countries such as India, the Philippines, China and Thailand.

. Moreover, observers have noticed the increasing targeting of facilities and workers in the oil and gas sector in Algeria by the so-called “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”.

I am not sure this is in fact all that much the case.

Otherwise, the conclusion:

Conclusion

As mentioned above, Bin Laden’ said in 2004 that oil prices should reach $150 per barrel. Legitimizing the targeting oil pipelines, refineries or workers rather than the wells themselves suggests that raising oil prices is a strategy Salafi-jihadists are adopting. In the shadow of bin Laden’s threat of "opening new fronts for the attrition of the economy of the West", it seems that such understanding is not limited to the Middle East only. The African continent is becoming an increasingly important for the diversification of oil production and transportation, as well as is the Caspian Sea region which is critical for diversification of oil resources to the West. However the risk of targeting oil interests, is not confined to certain geographical locations, as it’s associated with a strategy of opening “new fronts”.

According to this understanding, it seems that the targeting of oil facilities by al-Qaeda or affiliated Salafi-jihadists is designed to affect the flow of oil leading to higher fuel prices in the midst of a global economic cris

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In July 2008, Orientalism brought £21.4 million to Christie’s in London, “the highest total ever achieved for this category,” says Alexandra McMorrow, director of 19th-century European art for the prestigious auction house. This included world record prices for seven artists; “bidders from North Africa, the Middle East, India, Europe and America competed fiercely,” she adds. . . .These shifts are part of a larger, gradual, mostly sympathetic reevaluation that has been taking place over the past few decades of much 19th-century European art.