President Hosni Mubarak on Nov. 6 condemned threats by the al-Qaeda franchise in Iraq against Coptic Christians in Egypt and promised to protect them. The Islamic State of Iraq, claiming responsibility for a bloody hostage taking in a Baghdad church last weekend, threatened to target the region's Christians if the Coptic church did not release two women the group claimed had were being held against their will after converting to Islam. Mubarak told Pope Shenouda III in a phone call that he rejected "pushing Egypt's name into the terrorist act that targeted a church in Baghdad."

A suicide bomber struck Istanbul's Taksim Square the morning of Oct. 31, injuring at least 32 in the city's busiest node. The apparent targets were police officers at a substation at the square's north end. At least 15 of those injured were police. The attack came on the last day of the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The so-called "no-action period" had been extended for one month on Sept. 30. (LAT, EÖ/VK, Oct. 31)

A Kuwaiti appeals court on Oct. 28 upheld the acquittal of eight men accused of attempting to form an al-Qaeda cell and planning to attack a US base 70 miles south of Kuwait City. The men were tried and acquitted by a lower court in May, with two of the men, Mohsen al-Fadhli and Mohammad al-Dossari, being acquitted in absentia. Al-Fadhli has been wanted by Kuwaiti security forces for the past five years, and al-Dossari is standing trial in Lebanon on charges of terrorism. Five of the remaining defendants were released from custody following the original acquittals, while the sixth defendant is currently serving a life sentence on unrelated terror charges. The court of appeals also upheld the lower court's ruling that the men had been tortured by the Kuwaiti security service. Adel Abdulhadi, a lawyer for the acquitted men, said that the defense team was considering suing the interior ministry for the alleged torture. The prosecution still has the option of appealing the acquittals to Kuwait's highest court, although they have not yet indicated whether they will do so.

Yemeni authorities announced Aug. 23 that a former Guantánamo Bay detainee who apparently rejoined al-Qaeda has turned himself in. Ali Hussein al Taiss was a wanted "al-Qaeda element," according to Saba News Agency, the official Yemeni news service. But al-Taiss surrendered to authorities and "expressed his remorse for the period he has spent in joining al Qaeda ranks and showed his readiness to cooperate in serving the country's security and stability." Al-Taiss was transferred to Yemen on Dec. 15, 2006. He is one of several former Gitmo detainees who are believed to have joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). (The Long War Journal, Aug. 23)

We have noted before the strange phenomenon of neocons exploiting Sufis on the op-ed page of the New York Times. On Aug. 17, William Dalrymple, author of Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, is the latest to weigh in with a defense of Islam's pluralistic mystics in a piece entitled "The Muslims in the Middle." We have no particular reason to believe Dalrymple is a neocon, and his strong support of the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (which we applaud) clearly sets him apart from most of them. However, he exhibits some elements of their thinking. He cites (without criticism) the recent RAND report advocating US encouragement of Sufism to counter jihadism in the Islamic world. Worse yet, he compares the courage of Sufis who "risk their lives for their tolerant beliefs" to that of "American troops on the ground in Baghdad and Kabul"! At the same time, he notes that Sufis such as Haji Sahib of Turangzai (in contemporary Pakistan) were persecuted by the British colonial overseers—oblivious to the irony. As we stated the last time Sufism made the op-ed page: Nothing will discredit the Sufis (and make them targets for terror) faster than making them appear as collaborators with the US and and its brutal proxy regimes—legitimizing the Wahhabi types as the "resistance." We present here the text of the editorial, with relevant or problematic passages in bold:

A front-page New York Times story July 30 noted the release from prison of Berivan Sayaca, a 15-year-old Kurdish girl convicted of supporting terrorism by attending a protest rally and sentenced to nearly eight years behind bars. Berivan was freed about 10 months into her sentence after the Turkish Parliament passed a bill reducing the sentences of hundreds of youths, 18 and younger, who had been put on trial and nicknamed the "stone-throwing kids."

Five Yemeni soldiers were killed in in a suspected ambush by "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" while on patrol in the Shabwa province in southern Yemen July 21. A day earlier, dozens of pro-government tribesmen were killed in clashes with Shi'ite Houthi rebels in northern Saada province, including tribal leader Sheikh Zaidan al-Maknaiee, his son and four bodyguards.

A Syrian military court July 4 sentenced lawyer and activist Haitham Maleh to three years in prison for campaigning against the emergency rule under which Syria has been governed since 1963. Defense lawyers for Maleh said he was charged with "weakening national morale." The 78-year old former judge was put on trial in October 2009 sparking criticism from the US government and several human rights groups.