Tag Archives: muslim

Obama says U.S., Turkey can be model for world

President Obama said Monday that the United States and Turkey can send a powerful message to the world through their friendship. “I have now spent a week traveling through Europe, and I’ve been asked, ‘Are you trying to make a statement by ending this weeklong trip in Turkey’ And the answer is yes,” Obama said during his first state visit to a Muslim nation. Obama said he is trying to make a statement about the importance of Turkey — “not just to the United States, but to the world.” “I think that where there’s the most promise of building stronger U.S.-Turkish relations is in the recognition that Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership in which a predominantly Christian nation, a predominantly Muslim nation — a Western nation and a nation that straddles two continents,” he continued, “that we can create a modern international community that is respectful, that is secure, that is prosperous, that there are not tensions — inevitable tensions between cultures — which I think is extraordinarily important.” Obama said “one of the great strengths of the United States” is that it does not consider itself “a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation

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Michelle Obama Finds Her Role on the World Stage

Barack Obama and his wife flew to London together. They have been staying together at Winfield House, the sprawling American ambassadorial residence in Regent’s Park, and are photographed together regularly, boarding and leaving planes and helicopters, walking from cars, meeting with the Queen and assorted world leaders. But they move in completely different worlds

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India’s Dynastic Feud: A Gandhi Who Hates Muslims

The spectacle in India is riveting: virulent anti-Muslim diatribes spouted by a pedigreed and ambitious young Hindu politician who shares the surname of the world’s foremost apostle of non-violence and who is descended from the Prime Minister who founded modern India as a secular state to serve the country’s multiplicity of faiths. Since early March, Varun Gandhi, 29, has been the scandal of India’s political class after he called for, among many things, the hands of Muslims to be cut off if they are raised against Hindus, their throats to be slashed, their population to be culled by strict birth control. His words triggered India’s stringent National Security Act, and for days the young Gandhi was a fugitive from the law

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16 hurt as Israel extremists march in Arab town

A march of right-wing Jewish extremists in a northern Israeli town on Tuesday sparked a protest by Arabs that left 16 people injured, police said. Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenthal confirmed clashes in Umm al-Fahm, a predominantly Arab Muslim town, after the 45-minute march, where the Jewish demonstrators carried Israeli flags

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CIA chief arrives in Pakistan

Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, arrived in Pakistan on Saturday morning, a Pakistani Interior Ministry official said. Khamenei said a change in rhetoric is not enough, and Washington must practice what it preaches, according to the English-language Press TV channel in Iran. He also promised that Iran will change its policy if the United States does so as well, Press TV reported.

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Jerusalem Rabbi Insists the Pope Must Hide His Cross

Pope Benedict XVI hopes his planned visit to Jerusalem’s Western Wall next month will be taken as a gesture of reconciliation in the long-troubled relationship between Judaism and the Catholic Church. But at least one influential rabbi will take offense — unless the pontiff removes or conceals the golden cross he wears on a chain around his neck, “out of respect” for the Jews. Explaining his demand that Benedict hide the very symbol of the Catholicism he represents, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the spiritual authority responsible for overseeing Judaism’s most sacred site, told TIME, “I wouldn’t go into a church wearing Jewish symbols, out of respect for the place, and I would expect that the Pope would act the same here.” Quoting King Solomon, the rabbi says that the Temple in Jerusalem was “a house of prayer for all people, not just Jews.” He added: “We welcome this Pope.

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Pope preaches to thousands at Cameroon mass

Tens of thousands of people packed a soccer stadium in Cameroon Thursday, including President Paul Biya and his wife, for the first large-scale mass of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to Africa. Africa is the last continent that Benedict had left to visit, and one he could not avoid, said David Gibson, a biographer of the pope

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Zakaria: Obama impresses with first foreign policy moves

President Obama is halfway through his first 100 days in office and, although he has focused primarily on domestic policy, he also has made a number of foreign policy moves. NEW YORK (CNN) — President Obama is halfway through his first 100 days in office and, although he has focused primarily on domestic policy, he also has made a number of foreign policy moves. Obama selected Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and she has made several overseas trips.

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Farmers find monastery beneath Israeli soil

After a group of Israeli farmers sought last year to expand their property in the hills near Jerusalem, they discovered an archeological gem beneath the dirt. A team led by Daniel Ein Mor barely had to scratch the surface before finding the remains of a Byzantine monastery, he told CNN on Wednesday. “The excavation at Nes-Harim supplements our knowledge about the nature of the Christian-Byzantine settlement in the rural areas between the main cities in this part of the country during the Byzantine period,” including Jerusalem, Mor said

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