Word: seculare
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...transformation was swift in coming. Hamas' electoral landslide in Palestine just six months ago marked the political death of Yasser Arafat and the secular, vaguely socialist and entirely nationalist movement he represented. Hamas is fighting not to create a 23rd Arab state but, as its charter explains, to recover "an Islamic Waqf." Meaning? Territory claimed under the Islamic precept that "any land the Muslims have conquered by force ... during the times of [Islamic] conquests" more than a millennium ago belongs to Muslims forever because "the Muslims consecrated these lands to Muslim generations until the Day of Judgment...
...Then, in the past week Islamic forces surrounded Baidoa. The Islamic Courts Union says it will not attack the interim government, which is mostly secular in outlook, but the government?s closest ally, Ethiopia, is worried enough to be massing troops to take on the Islamic forces itself. The Islamists and Somali journalists say that Ethiopia has already sent troops over the border, a claim Ethiopia denies. But there is no doubting Ethiopia's intentions. ?We will use all means at our disposal to crush the Islamist group if they attempt to attack Baidoa,? Ethiopian Information Minister Berhan Hailu told...
...indulge ourselves and think like Persians about recent events in the Middle East. Here's my conspiracy theory: It starts with the fact that no one really does know who runs Iran. There are all sorts of competing institutions-governmental and religious and bazaari. There is a secular President, mouthy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a supreme leader, the Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. There is a constitutional tension between those two offices, a tension that may have been heightened in the past year by Ahmadinejad's close relationship with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Corps is a strange institution...
...diplomacy practiced by most of his predecessors. But despite Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip a year ago, Israeli and U.S. policies of shunning negotiations have not produced much new hope of lasting progress. In fact, Palestinian voters six months ago ousted the late Yasser Arafat's secular Fatah group from power and elected a Hamas government - which, like Hizballah, is backed by Iran and is sworn to destroy the Jewish state...
...some, the mere fact that he is effectively outing himself to the secular world as a man of faith warrants celebration. "Just that he's written the book is important," says Randy Isaac, head of American Scientific Affiliation, a professional group for conservative Christians. "It will help convince Christian young people that science is a viable career, and scientists to recognize that Christian faith is a relevant option...