I just spent the better part of the day reading and listening to sermons by the leaders and jihadis of the new "caliphate" in Mesopotamia, the Islamic State (formerly "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria").

I did so in the vain hopes of learning something "new."

But it was absolute déjà vu-taking me back to a decade ago, when I was reading and translating the Arabic writings and speeches of al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri, as collated in The Al Qaeda Reader. more >>

Sudanese Christian mother Meriam Ibrahim said that her newborn daughter Maya, whom she gave birth to while in prison, will undergo an ultrasound to see if she can walk. Her family is currently staying at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan and hoping to be able to move to America soon.

While previous reports suggested that Maya is physically disabled, The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that hopes are now that the two-month-old girl will be fine, but the ultrasound will be needed to confirm that she will be able to walk. A doctor who came to the U.S. embassy in Khartoum performed the physical examination.

The publication says that it spoke with Italian journalist and activist Antonella Napoli, who visited Ibrahim's family at th U.S embassy, and revealed that Meriam, her two children, and her husband Daniel Wani, an American citizen, are sleeping in the embassy and are being cared for by staff. more >>

The highest court in India has ruled on Monday that Shariah law cannot be legally forced on citizens who do not wish to have the system applied to them.

(Photo: Mukesh Gupta/Reuters)Muslims offer prayers before having their Iftar (fast-breaking) meal during the holy month of Ramadan at a madrasa or religious school on the outskirts of Jammu.

Judge C. K. Prasad, who sits on the country's Supreme Court, explained that Shariah Law system is not legally binding in India. more >>

There have been and will continue to be Jewish terrorists who use their religion to justify murder, but the difference between Jewish jihad and Islamic jihad is that only in Islam is jihad a legitimate expression of the faith.

It is true that there have been religious Jews like Baruch Goldstein, who gunned down 29 Muslim worshipers and wounded more than 125 others before being beaten to death in 1994.

And it is true that his epitaph reads, "He gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land." more >>

Sudanese Christian mother Meriam Ibrahim is facing a new lawsuit after her Islamic relatives submitted a case on Thursday trying to prove that she is a Muslim, which would make her marriage to a Christian man illegal under Islamic Shariah Law. The lawsuit could further delay Ibrahim's hopes to travel with her husband and children to the U.S. and seek refuge.

Abdel Rahman Malek, the lawyer hired by Ibrahim's Muslim family, said that the Khartoum Religious Court will be reviewing their case "asking to prove that Meriam Ibrahim belongs to her (Muslim) father and family," according to Reuters.

The 27-year-old woman was spared the death penalty after an appeals court overturned the sentence in June, which was originally imposed on her for marrying a Christian South Sudanese-American. Ibrahim was briefly detained last week following her release from prison, with Sudan's government accusing her of attempting to travel with falsified South Sudanese documents. more >>

The European Court of Human Rights upheld on Tuesday a 2010 ban on full-face veils in France, ruling against a 24-year-old French woman who argued that the ban violates her freedom of religion and expression.

"While the Court was aware that the disputed ban mainly affected certain Muslim women, it nevertheless noted that there was no restriction on the freedom to wear in public any item of clothing which did not have the effect of concealing the face and that the ban was not expressly based on the religious connotation of the clothing in question but solely on the fact that it concealed the face," ECHR explained in its decision.

The devout Muslim woman, who wasn't named, petitioned that she wanted to be allowed to wear the burqa and niqab in accordance with her religious beliefs and personal convictions. She first took her case to the European Court in 2011, and has insisted that no family member has pressured her to wear the niqab. more >>