The Dar-ul-Uloom, a leading body of Muslim clerics of the Deobandi school in India, have for the first time branded terrorism as explicitly "un-Islamic". Though Muslim clerics the world over have condemned terrorism without great effect, the Deobandis are some of the most puritanical scholars of Islam in south and west Asia. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistani nominally take their cues from the Deobandi interpretation of Islamic law and practice. However, it remains to be seen how much traction an edict from Indian Deobandis has in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Saudi money and Wahhabi radicalism shores up a more insensible edifice of militancy.
Israelis want talks with Hamas Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in a world of strife and struggle.
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According to a poll conducted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, 64% of Israelis favour talks with Hamas. Only 28% oppose talks. Israel, and by extension the United States and Europe, has refused to speak with Hamas even after the militant group's electoral victory in 2006, because the group does not recognise Israel on principle (Hamas' defenders argue that they should not be forced to affirm Israel's existence when Israelis don't recognise a Palestinian state) and has persisted in lobbing crude Qassam rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. The poll suggests a growing fatigue in the Israeli body public with the ruling Kadima party's inability to make progress towards peace.
Al Akhdam: Yemen's servant class
Despite the dissolving of Yemen's other hereditary classes in recent decades, the marginalisation of dark-skinned, allegedly African people persists in the country. Known as "al Akhdam" (the servants), they are limited to the most degrading jobs and mostly confined to most squalid slums. Sociologists contend that, in truth, they have lived in the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula as long as anyone. With the help of Yemeni human rights lawyers and activists, this long marginalised group is now lobbying for greater political representation and attention to their plight.
Camp convener found guilty in UK
The five-month trial of Mohammed Hamid ended yesterday in the Woolwich Crown Court, where Hamid was found guilty under an offence of the 2006 Terrorism Act of organising al-Qaida-style training camps in the UK. A reformed crack addict, Hamid arranged militant training exercises in the New Forest, Berkshire and elsewhere in Britain for four men - mostly Muslim converts who had come from poverty in the West Indies and Africa - who have all been sentenced to between four and eleven years imprisonment.
Watch the evidence that convicted Hamid, including his flippant remarks about the 7/7 death toll, on Guardian Unlimited.
Cartoon protests hit Sudanese streets
At least ten thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, yesterday to protest against the republication of one of the infamous "prophet cartoons" in Denmark that provoked so much controversy and violence in 2006.
Turkey to withdraw from Iraq?
According to a Turkish official speaking on condition of anonymity to the Guardian, Turkey will pull back its troops from northern Iraq in three-to-four days. Thousands of Turkish soldiers have been involved in a campaign to flush out Kurdish guerrillas hiding in the autonomous Kurdish north of Iraq. Though US officials have urged Ankara to "respect the sovereignty of Iraq", politicians in Baghdad have grudgingly consented to the incursion, conceding that Iraqi forces are unable to prevent the PKK rebels from slipping back-and-forth across the border.
NATO deaths in Afghanistan
A roadside bomb in the Sharan district of Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan killed two NATO soldiers.
Poland in Iran
Warsaw plans to invest $1 billion in oil and gas projects in Iran. Poland's investment in Iran may cause concern in Washington, which has long viewed Warsaw as a staunch ally in its "war on terrorism".
