In his speeches at the demonstrations of the citizens’ protest movement in the Kurdish Region of northeastern Iraq, Mullah Kamaran has called for a revolution without violence—a jihad. He has urged the armed militias to put down their guns. He appealed to the demonstrators to see the soldiers as their brothers and not throw rocks or hurt them, and has twice been arrested for his stand. Peggy Gish of Christian Peacemaker Teams reports.
The Salafi-jihadist movement is losing its recruitment pool in the Arab world, says Murad Batal al-Shishani, an Islamic groups and terrorism issues analyst. Al-Qaida and others' latest strategies look elsewhere, and the death of Osama Bin Laden will not affect these plans.
Since 9/11 there has been a huge growth in the number of books that seek to explain and analyse the phenomenon of high-profile violent attacks by extremist Islamist groups. Ben White examines a contribution by high-profile Christian writer Patrick Sookhdeo.
The news that the US is tentatively exploring contacts with Iran, despite President Bush's rhetoric, is surely a sign of hope in a conflict-ridden region.