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“Iran is the world’s most conspiracy-minded country” I declared in my book, The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. An entire chapter of that study focused on the Islamic revolution of 1978-79, documenting how “Regardless of political complexion, Iranians interpret the revolution not as an act of will but as the manifestation of mysterious forces. They debate less the causes of the upheaval than the identity of those forces.” Another chapter took up the Iran-Iraq war. In both cases, I showed how the conspiracy mentality had a major role in the evolution of events. for more click here

Islamabad. Piotr Stanczak did not exhibit the slightest hint of hesitation when the Pakistani Taliban asked him to choose between execution and conversion to Islam. for more click here

Brits Assert Sovreignty In Islamised Area Of London. for more click here

A few days ago Tehran expelled Britain’s diplomats and arrested some of the British embassy’s local staff. The semiofficial Fars news agency suggested that the latter had played a “significant role” in recent protests, inferring that Britain herself was fermenting unrest inside Iran. Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband has responded, however, saying that the suggestion was “wholly without foundation.” And the Czech EU presidency has also said that, “The harassment or intimidation of foreign and Iranian staff working at the EU embassies will be met with a strong and collective EU response. for more click here

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will start a difficult visit to Brussels Thursday, trying to revive a European Union entry bid that is facing new signs of hostility from some member states. for more click here

A homecoming march by Royal Marines returning after a bloody tour of Afghanistan was hijacked yesterday by anti-war protesters.
Five militants waving Iraqi flags screamed ‘genocide’ and ‘not in my name’ at soldiers from 3 Commando as they marched from Buckingham Palace to Parliament.

Some of the protesters also tried to use a megaphone to drown out the Royal Marines band but were beaten when onlookers began to clap and cheer to overcome them. for more click here

In Lahore, such bars have been bombed after warnings from Islamic fundamentalists. The bars, which provide men and women with a place to meet, are considered dens of immorality. for more click here

The original Taliban arose in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s as a response to the anarchy in that country at the height of its civil war. Many were Pashtun refugees who had studied at religious schools in Pakistan, and they sought to impose sharia , or Islamic law, to bring order to Afghanistan. Their movement took its name from the word talib , or student, in Arabic. for more click here

A review of the new movie, The Stoning of Soraya M, reminded me of a story I read in junior-high school. “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, described an American small town in which one person was selected by lottery each year to be stoned to death. The victim in the story was a young boy, and what I still remember decades later is the mob bloodlust that transformed him from a child whom the townspeople had known all their lives into an inhuman, impersonal object of aggression. Soraya’s story doesn’t seem so different; the real Soraya was apparently killed because of village men fabricating charges, fueling the mob mentality, and using religion to legitimize their crimes. for more click here

Amnesty International has issued a new report saying pollution has created a “human rights tragedy” in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.

The report examines oil spills, gas flaring and waste dumping by the oil industry and centers on the operations of Shell. for more click here