a reference I read a while ago and found very interesting with respect to Islamic reform movements.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17054
Also, just two weeks ago, there was a highly praised symposium in Bonn with, among other speakers, Tariq Ramadan, about this very topic (some add. info, for those who read German) –
http://www.qantara.de/uploads/463/Schimmel_Symp.pdf
http://islam.de/4661.php
http://www.faz.net/s/Rub5C2BFD49230B472BA96E0B2CF9FAB88C/Doc~E51FA69281734495BB6E9C87271C8049C~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
Interestingly I just found out that, Christoph Luxenberg [...]

The Guardian is running a story which seems to cast Jyllands-Posten Jens Kaiser editor in a very sorry light indeed. If this story is confirmed I think the expression would be ‘rank hypocrisy’ rather than ‘free speech outpost’.(Many thanks to commenter Hans for drawing this to our attention).
Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the [...]

Japan’s second-largest trading company Mitsui & Co. have just published a forecast: oil may rise to a record $96 a barrel in August, when hurricanes typically cut U.S. output. Like all such forecasts, this is subject to a large margin of possible error. But the arguments are coherent and certainly plausible. At least there is [...]

Since I don’t know much about Danish law, I’m guessing that the country — like many EU counterparts — has laws against fomenting religious or racial hatred. Do they only cover acts that take place in Denmark, or do they apply to Danish citizens wherever they may travel?
If it’s the latter, would the imams who [...]

Dan Drezner asks WTF? Data on the US economy are all over the map, and people he respects are wondering if the data aren’t missing important intangible things entirely, leading to a misleading picture of the economy as a whole.
Don’t look here for answers, but at least the questions are interesting.

What to do when you haven’t finished a book but find yourself with something to say about it?
Convention dictates that one should finish a book before reviewing it (although I have my doubts about any number of published reviews), but on the other hand, the market for reviews of revised editions of books on [...]

Most of you will have read the news by now, but I need to mention this to complete my earlier post The battle of Wobbly Knee: Dutch troops in Afghanistan. Dutch Parliament voted yesterday, with a substantial majority, to send some 1,200 more troops to Afghanistan. More precisely to the dangerous province of Uruzgan. [...]

I’ve been editing reports on Central and Eastern Europe for a bank that’s well regarded for its links to the region. (Since the reports aren’t in circulation yet, I won’t name it.) Its authors believe that Bulgaria and Romania will join the EU on schedule in 2007. They think that the delivery of Ante Gotovina [...]

Just ran across this article at Radio Free Europe. Short version: Russia has decided that independence for Kosovo is probably inevitable, and has decided to milk it for maximum benefit to Russia. Putin’s saying, fine, independence for Kosovo — but then apply “universal principles”, and give independence to the Russian-supported breakaway republics of [...]

News is coming in that France Soir and Germany’s Die Welt have now reprinted the Danish cartoons from Jyllands-Posten. From the freedom of Speech point of view there is no doubt that they have every right to do this, whether the action is well- or ill-advised is obviously another matter altogether. I guess we are [...]