Guantanamo

"The [Supreme Court] ruling does nothing to clear up the immediate future of the 450 prisoners inside the razor wire . . . since most of them have never been charged with crimes and may never go to trial."

[In military trials] " . . . defendants have fewer legal protections than in civilian U.S. courts."

"A key impediment to [transferring the prisoners to their home countries] is the concern that the detainees might be tortured or killed once they reach their homeland."

Palestine
[Editorial: Independence for Palestine too!]

"As we celebrate this nation's 230th anniversary of independence from Britain, Arab Americans remain proud, patriotic, productive citizens of the United States. The past five years have not been easy for Arab Americans and American Muslims, who have been vilified by the press, the government and the public for the crime of 9/11 and terrorism in general."

"We know that a foreign country has joined forces with domestic agents, who have their own agendas to literally hijack the foreign policy of our country . . . "

"We know that Israel's interests are not ours. Israel served a purpose for a while, but its days of usefulness to the United States are long gone."

"Millions of men, women and children are literally being decimated by the rogue nation of Israel, backed unconditionally in its outlaw behavior by America."

"We cannot remain free as a nation if we enslave others."

That kidnapped Israeli soldier

"Last Sunday, a handful of Palestinian fighters attacked a couple of Israeli tanks, just north of the Gaza Strip . . . They killed two soldiers, injured four and took one as a prisoner. The fighters had worked on the tunnel they crawled through for months.

"This military target is a legitimate one for the Palestinian militias because the Israeli army is the primary agent enforcing the pollicy of occupation. . . . An important principle is at stake here for the Palestinians: making a clear distinction between lawful resistance and terrorism. The Palestinians did not kill civilians with a suicide bomb; they attacked a military target."

"A principle dear to the heart of Israel is at stake in this brewing storm: any form of resistance is terrorism and we do not negotiate with terrorists."

"Thankfully, the tactic of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians was removed from the Hamas agenda."

"Attacking soldiers . . . recaptures the moral ground of this debate and pressures Arab governments to adopt the same position."

"The White House defended the incursion into Gaza as 'self-defense [thus] providing diplomatic cover for Israel to have carte blance in Gaza."

"Egypt fortified its border with Gaza . . .to prevent a massive influx of Palestinian refugees . . .  preparing for the worst case scenario."

Other excerpts

"When Palestinians attack Israeli soldiers, it's 'terrorism." When Israel punishes entire civilian populations, it is 'pressure.'"

"There is a name for Israel's actions. It's 'collective punishment.'"

Other headlines

American Palestinians hold historic meeting in Detroit

New U.S.-Middle East partnership to fight cancer

Local Muslims condemn Sears Tower plot, men are not Muslim

ACC Director receives health leadership award

Muslim charities under the microscope

Arab American veteran wants to represent W. VA district

Zero tolerance for illegal fireworks in Dearborn

Child genius receives ADC's Child Achievement Award

Educating women is AWARE's goal

A warning on the hazards of secondhand smoke

Then, as in many ethnic publications, a section of the newspaper is printed in the ethnic language -- in this case Arabic.

Iraq
[Headline] Plans proceeding nicely for U.S. economic takeover]

"Recent days have witnessed a media feeding frenzy at the trough of the 'National Reconciliation' plan put forth by the U.S. puppet 'prime minister' of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki."

"Why do the Americans and the militias they are backing cut the wires of our electricity every day? Isn't it sufficient to have electricity less than four hours per day? Is that not enough suffering to please them?"

"Meanwhile, the oil companies and other corporate cronies represented by the Bush cabal are making great progress in solidifying their presence in Iraq."

Palestinian Christians

"Palestinian Christians [can] speak for themselves."

The writer, a self-described Palestinian-American, is challenging a proposed congressional resolution to protect Palestinian Christians from "persecution." 

"The PA {Palestinian Authority] has never adopted Islamic law, also known as the Shar'ia."

"Yasser Arafat, whose wife was a Christian, placed many Christians in powerful positions. He was a secular nationalist, not an Islamist."

"The obsession with demonizing Palestinian Muslims throughout this resolution, coupled with intentionally not seeking out the input of Palestinian Christians, makes it painfully clear that there is an attempt to drive a wedge between Palestinians."

Women in Islam
[Headline: Uncles, tear down these walls!]

Writer Asra Q. Nomani describes her attempts to crack what she calls "Gender apartheid," especially in mosques. She travels the country and attempts to pray in the main body of each mosque she visits, rather than behind the woman's wall. In her article, she makes such statements as:

"I was reclaiming the rights Muslim women enjoyed at the birth of Islam in the 7th century, rights that centuries of manmade traditions had eroded."

"We told people to show us one single evidence that Islam and our beloved Prophet encouraged segregation."

"Gender apartheid walls in our mosques are our Muslim world's Berlin Wall . . . a symbol of a outdated ideology that has to be dismantled."

On the opposite page, a Canadian imam, Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, counters:

"[Nomani's] views are either sheer ignorance on her part or plain intellectual dishonesty."

"The first generation of Muslims in America established their Islamic centers with meager resources, modeled upon their cultural structures where women were assigned s smaller, inferior space. They also didn't realize the challenges of their new homeland. It is high time many religious centers were modified to address the needs of our time and place, as well as being made female-friendly."

"The obvious result of ignoring [traditional rules of modesty and gender separation] is a rise in pre- and extra-marital affairs, marriage breakdowns and children being born out of wedlock. This is to say nothing, of course, about flaunting indecent behavior by shamelessly talking of one's illegitimate sexual relations -- something which seems to have become a non-issue with some people."

"Muslim men and women shouldn't compete against one another; they should be complementing one another in promoting the good and preventing the evil (Qur'an, 9:71)."

Islam's Ann Coulter

Writer and rabbi Stephen Julius Stein, was one of about 100 Los Angeles Jews who heard the Syrian American woman, Wafa Sultan, deliver a strong anti-Muslim speech. Stein worries that her extreme positions do more harm than good for Jewish-Muslim relationships.

"[In an Al Jazeera television interview] Sultan said, 'the Muslims are the ones who began the clash of civilizations' and 'I don't believe you can reform Islam.'"

"[During her talk] she said she was neither a Christian, Muslim nor Jew but a secular human being . . . She went on to condemn inhumane acts committed in God's name, to denounce Islamic martyrdom and to decry terror as a tool to subjugate communities. Those statements all made perfect sense."

Rabbi Stein writes about his concern that Sultan spoke of the Koran's militant language and neglected its "verses of peace." Disturbed that the Jewish audience applauded and cheered her statements, he mused:

"What if down the street there was a roomful of Muslims listening to a self-loathing Jew, cheering her on as she spoke of the evils inherent in the Torah, in which it is commanded that a child must be stoned to death if he insults his parents, in which Israelites are ordered by God to conquer cities and, in so doing,  to kill all women and children -- and this imagined Jew completely ignored all of what Judaism teaches afterward?"

The Ann Coulter tag seems to be an editor's idea; Rabbi Stein does not make that comparison.