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• Muslim rage burns in our backyard | Western liberals must rethink their attitudes towards the causes of religious tension (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Moderate Muslims split on suicide bombings | The two meetings by Muslim leaders occurred only three days apart, one in Birmingham and one in London. Both condemned the terrorist attacks in the British capital, but they couldn't agree on one key issue: Are suicide attacks forbidden by religious law? (Associated Press)
• Choudary: Britain to blame for bombings | The extremist group Choudary led, Muhajiroun, had called for creating an Islamic state in Britain and praised suicide attacks in Israel and elsewhere; the group claims it has since disbanded. But Choudary hasn't stopped espousing the ideas, and his screeds against Blair and British foreign policy open a window into the ideology of Britain's radical Islamic thinkers, in a country known as a center of Muslim immigrant intellectuals of all shades. (Associated Press)
• Seeking moderate support, Blair meets Muslim leaders | Prime Minister Tony Blair met with moderate Muslim leaders on Tuesday, seeking to enlist their support against Islamic extremism and to discount the war in Iraq as the main cause for the London bombings this month. (The New York Times)
• Prayer meeting for bomb victims | Hundreds of Muslims from west London will hold a prayer meeting in King's Cross to remember those who died in the bomb attacks nearly two weeks ago. (BBC)
• Muslims agree network to fight extremists | Moderate British Muslim leaders yesterday decided to develop a network which will counter extremism within their own communities after meeting Tony Blair and senior colleagues at Downing Street in the wake of the London transport bombs. (The Guardian, UK)

Iraq:

• Iraq constitution body in turmoil | One of the key debates over the charter concerns the role of religion. Many devout Iraqis want to see Islam described as the source for law in the country, while others argue it should be referred to as just one of several sources. (Reuters)
• Iraqi constitution may curb women's rights | A working draft of Iraq's new constitution would cede a strong role to Islamic law and could sharply curb women's rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance. (The New York Times)

War & terrorism:

• Thai rebel tactic: divide the faiths | As Muslim separatists target Buddhists, Thailand's prime minister declared martial law last Friday. (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Olympics bomber gets life in jail | US Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph has been sentenced to life in jail for the 1998 bombing of an Alabama abortion clinic, which killed one person. (BBC)
• It's not only about Iraq | The animating ideology of the caliphate helps explain al-Qaida actions that otherwise make no sense (The Guardian, UK)
• Bush's 'religious war' | Bush started a religious war, one that took the fanatical fringe movement of Osama bin Laden and elevated it into a shadowy world power, allowing the spread of Osama's powerful poison into the receptive minds of millions of disillusioned young Arabs -- many now offering their bodies for suicide attacks. (Donald Collins, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
• Bethlehem belongs to Hamas | Islam is now the predominant force in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christianity! This dramatic development occurred when the Islamic terrorist group Hamas, which is best known for blowing men, women and children to pieces in Israeli buses and restaurants, won a majority in Palestinian municipal elections in the Biblical town. (Israel Today, Israel)

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July (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49