Links for December 8th

Links from my del.icio.us account for December 8th:

• CUMINet · Copenhagen University Middle East and Islam Network - Middle East blog of Danish academics.


• Hajj in exchange for power - Haaretz - Israel News - Amira Hass on Hamas' hajj policy, aimed at establishing its legitimacy vis-a-vis Ramallah as well as Saudi and Egypt. This affair, with Hamas preventing hajjis who did not register through Gaza from going, has been used a lot of the government press in Egypt to attack them and undermine their religious credentials.


• Long-Standing Conflict Ends As Israel Returns Lawn Mower To Palestine | The Onion - You won't see this kind of moral message in the NYT: "The mower was originally lent to Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, in November 1949 as a good-faith gesture by Palestinians seeking to reach out to the people who had appropriated 80 percent of their land and wished to cut the grass growing there."


• Idea Lab - Who Wrote the Koran? - NYTimes.com - On Iranian theologian Abdulkarim Soroush, who questions the direct divinity of the Quran. I wonder how this relates to the concept of Wilayat al-Umma developed by some Najafi dissident theologians.


• The Associated Press: Curbs make Gaza fete like turkey-less Thanksgiving - Eid in Gaza - note that Egyptian security recently stopped a convoy of sheep and food at the border. 'Ebb!