The Muslim Brotherhood and other religious parties in Egypt (including the Salafis and the Gama’a al-Islamiya) held a rally at al-Husayn Square in Cairo last Friday to which a few thousand people came. The big rally was at Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and was dominated by secular forces.

In an Arabic News article about the Muslim religious rally, clearly written by a reporter on the scene. It does not say anything about the speakers or the crowd threatening to kill all Jews, and I don’t believe any such threat was made.

The allegation was made by Eldad Beck, who complained of “Arab hate” at the rally. Beck, who clearly does not know what he is talking about, said that the crowd repeatedly quoted a verse in the Qur’an that spoke of killing all Jews. There is no such verse in the Islamic holy book. The Jewish revelation from God to Abraham and Moses is retold in the Qur’an, which has positive stories of the Children of Israel. The castigation of the Children of Israel in the Qur’an is of the same sort you see in the Hebrew Bible, and often put in the mouth of Moses or another Jewish prophet.

That Beck’s shoddy and wholly inaccurate reporting has been relayed by the Jerusalem Post and a host of other news outlets without question is shameful. If Beck had simply said that the Muslim Brotherhood crowds want Jerusalem back for Islamdom and evinced hostility toward Israelis, he would have been right. But his breathless exaggeration slides over into Islamophobia.

The crowd appears to have shouted that Muslims should raise their children to fight (muqatalah) the Israelis (in Palestinian colloquial Arabic, Israelis are referred to as “al-Yahud,” “the Jews.”). The word to “kill” (qatala) is from the same root as the word for “fight” (muqatalah). So presumably Beck heard the former and mistranslated it by the latter.

Note that the sheikh did not say this, but some people shouted it from the crowd, according to journalist Amira Salim. We don’t know who those people were. To phrase it that “the Muslim Brotherhood said” it would be bad journalism.

Saying that “Jerusalem is ours, the Israelis have captured it and are altering its character and gradually chasing out its Muslims and endangering its Islamic shrines, and that we will fight them for it” is not exactly the same thing as saying “let’s kill all the Jews.”

The Qur’an doesn’t call for all Jews to be killed, and neither did the Muslim Brotherhood last Friday.   »»» Informed Comment

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Morocco’s moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has won parliamentary elections, say officials.

According to provisional results, the PJD won 80 seats in the 395-seat assembly, Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui told a news conference. That would make it the largest party and give it the right to lead a government.

The poll is part of reforms which King Mohamed VI hopes will defuse protests prompted by the Arab Spring.

Morocco’s current Prime Minister, Abbas Al Fassi, said on Saturday his nationalist Istiqlal party was ready to enter into a coalition with the PJD party.

“The PJD’s victory is a victory for democracy,” he told Reuters.   »»» BBC News

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Only five years ago, critical remarks by Pope Benedict about Islam sparked off violent protests in several Muslim countries. Never very good, relations between the world’s two largest religions sank to new lows in modern times.

This week, while protesters in the Arab world were demanding democracy and civil rights, Catholics and Muslims met along the Jordan River for frank and friendly talks about their differences and how to get beyond their misunderstandings.

The Catholic-Muslim Forum, which grew out of the tensions following Benedict’s speech in the German city of Regensburg, was overshadowed by events in Egypt, Yemen and Syria. The lack of any dramatic news here reflected the progress the two sides have made since 2006.

“We have passed from formal dialogue to a dialogue between friends,” Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican’s department for interfaith dialogue, said at the conference held near the Jordan River site believed to be where Jesus was baptised. “We realised that we have a common heritage.”   »»» Reuters

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For those constantly fretting about the inability of Muslims to integrate or assimilate into western culture, fret no more!

American Muslims finally have their own reality TV show – the Learning Channel’s “All-American Muslim” – focusing on the lives of five American Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan, who are predominantly Lebanese and Shiite. The show’s premiere gave TLC huge ratings and made the show No 2 in its time period. Mainstream critics have embraced the show citing it as “intimate and informative” and a “deeply intriguing, uncharacteristically thoughtful reality series”.

The portrayal of Muslims living their daily lives is not only a welcome relief from the usual tawdry caricatures of Muslims as terrorists, extremists and taxi cab drivers, but it also helps defuse the deep-seated fears and bias that unfairly lumps 1.5 billion members of a faith in with the perverse criminal actions of a few.

The best way to view “All-American Muslim” is simply to think of it as a show about five families doing their best to be themselves. They’re just people, who happen to identify as Muslim, Arab and American. Their story isn’t the wild-eyed, paranoid fantasy that is colored by the hate-filled minds of the Islamophobia network. It isn’t the terrorist stereotype familiar to most American audiences thanks to mainstream Hollywood depictions and sensationalised news headlines.    »»» guardian.co.uk

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A proposal for a common law for Christians and Muslims on the construction of religious buildings to counter the nebulous regulations imposed by the Military Supreme Council has been presented following a recent encounter between representatives of Coptic Orthodox Church and the Islamic University Al-Azhar. According to sources in the Egyptian daily AlMasry-Alyoum, the bill will allow the Copts to regularize all those buildings being used as places of prayer, built without government permission.   »»» Egypt: Spero News

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A court in India has convicted 31 Hindus and sentenced them to life in prison for killing dozens of Muslims nearly a decade ago, in one of the country’s worst outbreaks of sectarian violence.

A group of 33 Muslims who had sought shelter in a house were burned to death after a mob set fire to a building in Gujarat state in 2002.

The incident was part of a wave of anti-Muslim rioting in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.   »»» Big News Network

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Senior Muslim clerics in Libya are forming a new political party intending to rule the country on the “moderate” Islamic laws successfully used in both Turkey and Tunisia.

Dr Ali al-Sallabi, the cleric seen as the figurehead of Libya’s Islamist movement, said in an exclusive interview with the Telegraph, a provisional manifesto had already won support from some of the country’s most important political and religious leaders.

He said his movement supported basing Libya’s constitution on Sharia law, but that it would be moderate and pursue democratic politics on the model of similar parties in Turkey and Tunisia.   »»» Big New Network

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It is with a deep sense of humility, my Lord, that I pray not only for mercy on my soul but for mercy on the soul of my country. I worry about the health of our nation. Our middle class is shrinking. Wealth and power increasingly resides with the 1%, while millions suffer in poverty and millions more search hopelessly for jobs that have disappeared. Our educational system is failing, and too many Americans either cannot afford college or find themselves shackled by debt. The growing influence of money corrupts our political system and drowns out the voices of the people.   »»» altmuslim

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Slide show “Journey to Mecca” for the annual pilgrimage.

    »»» Reuters.com

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U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Muslims all over the world on the occasion of the Eid Al-Adha celebration that marks the end of the annual “hajj” pilgrimage to Mecca.

President Obama said in a statement issued by the White House on Sunday, ‘My Wife Michelle and I extend our greetings for a happy Eid al-Adha to Muslims worldwide and congratulate those performing Hajj.

‘As Muslims celebrate this Eid, they will also commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son by distributing food to those less fortunate around the world. They join the United States and the international community in relief efforts to assist those struggling to survive in the Horn of Africa and those recovering from the devastating earthquake in Turkey’.

‘The Eid and Hajj rituals are a reminder of the shared roots of the world’s Abrahamic faiths and the powerful role that faith plays in motivating communities to serve and stand with those in need. On behalf of the American people, we extend our best wishes during this Hajj season. Eid Mubarak and Hajj Mabrouk.?   »»» hajjinformation.com

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