Saudi Arabia recognizes that religious intolerance is a self-defeating policy ....

The daily atrocities that are committed in the name of Islam in Iraq and elsewhere and the increase in violence in Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban attempts to re-impose its draconian rule on the country, are a constant reminder to Muslims worldwide that the Muslim community might face an existential threat from within.

The potential of a spillover of sectarian violence from Iraq to its neighbors, along with the ability of Al Qaeda and its affiliates to survive despite the international community’s best effort to eradicate it, has led some to assert that the Muslim community is in dire need of effective leadership. Saudi Arabia is best positioned to assume this mantle. However, to do so, it must begin by changing its own policies on religious freedom.

National Public Radio is reporting that about 130 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

It saddens me that these journalists died doing the same job I do.

A job I drive to in the comfort of my car.

Every situation has a base reality clear as the sun in mid-sky. Looking directly at the sun strains the eyes, and by the same token, exposure and acceptance of reality is a gradual process.

In 1946, the King David hotel was bombed by Menachem Begin's Irgun group. 92 were killed, among them civilians and nurses. Last July, former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attended the 60th anniversary celebrating the terrorist attack, prompting the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv to complain, "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated." Netanyahu explained this was not terrorism because Begin telephoned a 15-minute warning – what moral ambiguity?

I am from Kashmir.

In a conversation, where majority of participants are of either Middle Eastern origin or experts, I somehow feel the need to put forth some Middle Eastern credentials or let us say genes.  At least some of which preserved by strict intermarriage until my father last diluted them by marrying outside the family.

Anyways, I am drawing from the paternal half of the chromosomes, looking at the long name (it takes a minute to run my finger over it) on top of our family tree.  It belongs to an ancestor who came from Simnaan in Iran, as a missionary to preach Islam in Kashmir.

Last week I attended a luncheon and lecture at my alma mater featuring a visiting Iraqi sociologist from the University of Baghdad. The lecture promised to be about women’s movements in Iraq and developments in Iraqi “feminism.” I was surprised then to be confronted with a brief history of the Iraqi Women’s Federation, a few brief statements about the current “closed door” women’s organizations, and then an encouraging look at the US occupation.