The next stop in our global journey to find out what the rest of the world thinks of Osama bin Laden’s apparent death is China. So what do the masters of Beijing think of the demise of America’s most wanted? According to this article by columnist Zhang Guoqing for the state-controlled Beijing Youth Daily, this is no time for the U.S. to rest on its laurels. Zhang writes that bin Laden’s death...

Osama bin Laden may now be physically dead, but was the movement he spawned already as good as dead when he expired? According to columnist Ghasan Charbel of Saudi Arabia’s Dar al-Hayat, Arabs and Muslims have come a long way since September 11 – and they haven’t walked in bin Laden’s direction. For Dar al-Hayat, Ghasan Charbel writes in part: Bin Laden had lost the battle before he...

It was very good news to hear that U.S. Joint Special Operations Command forces killed Osama Bin Laden (OBL) in his exclusive Pakistani retirement compound this past weekend. It came just under 10 years after the 9/11/01 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington DC. Congratulations are due to the many anonymous U.S. servicemen and intelligence personnel who patiently...

“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” – Mark Twain It was the meme of the moment on Twitter, in the wake of the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by an American military team. Heck, even NPR tumbled it! But it’s not Twain. To be more precise, there is no record of its being Twain. When I first saw the quote Sunday night, I...

First, congratulations President Obama, our military, our intelligence agencies and America for a Mission Accomplished—accomplished so brilliantly. But now to the $25 million question. As we well remember, in our anguish and fury following the dastardly September 11 attacks, the U.S. State Department offered a $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Osama Bin Laden. According...

This is a telling interview with one of Osama bin Laden’s wives, by Khalid Nasr in March 2002. (Islam allows up to four wives. bin Laden possessed all four.) This was carried by Guardian UK only 6 months after the bombing of the Trade Towers, Pentagon, and one hijacked plane was diverted by passengers away from bombing the White House and was taken down into a woods. And here is an important ‘first...

Continuing with our global roundup of reaction to bin Laden’s death – does the apparent demise of Osama bin Laden signify the death knell of Islamist Jihadism? For Spain’s El Pais, columnist Liuis Bassets writes that President Obama has not only assured is own reelection, he has given what has been called a ‘war on terror’ its crowning achievement. For El Pais, Liuis Bassets...

While Osama bin Laden may have been killed yesterday afternoon, was the movement he spawned already dead? As part of our coverage of the global reaction to the terror master’s demise, for Brazil’s Folha, columnist Sergio Malbergier writes that he bin Laden died first with the Arab uprisings, and died again yesterday. For Brazil’s Folha, Sergio Malbergier writes in part Far more than the Quran,...

On the tv news tonight, a fire fighter from New York on the scene at 9-11 says somberly and without joy, that ‘today is a good day. ‘A New Yorker elder at Ground Zero says in his Irish-tinged voice, ‘Thank the Lord this has happened though we still feel pity for the families’. Another New York firefighter who has joined the cheering crowds in New York, says, ’9-11 was an act of...

To the few remaining Dutch survivors of the Holocaust and to the descendants of the more than 100,000 Dutch Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during World War II, this Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day) could be a particularly poignant one. You see, het Nationaal Archief (The Netherlands’ National Archive) announced a couple of weeks ago that it has compiled, from previously sealed archives on war collaborators,...

Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, was officially designated as a day of observance by the Israeli Knesset in 1951 and is an internationally recognized day to remember, honor and memorialize the more than six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. The date corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar and marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Because the actual...

WASHINGTON — The Vatican’s decision to speed Pope John Paul II on the road to sainthood aroused great elation — and a backlash among Catholics who see the rush as unseemly. There is an obvious remedy that could bring contending Catholics together and send exactly the right message about the church’s attitude toward the modern world: It’s time to declare Pope John XXIII a...

I’m not one to spend an inordinate time on pointless issues when I generally prefer to write about the big picture. However, our nation is completely pre-occupied with the trivial that these issues simply overwhelm reality and the many important things in life. Thus I must again put on my rubber boots and grab the plunger. It is ironic that our shallow and manipulated 24/7 info-entertainment news media is...

When I immigrated to the United States at the young age of 18, the first and foremost thing I wanted to do was to join the armed forces of the country that had so graciously accepted me as an immigrant, My second objective was to, one day, become an American, a real American. As a “green-card-holder,” in order to be accepted into the U.S. armed forces—in order to fight, and possibly die for this great...

Here. I hope that my fellow Christians will see (and name) Donald Trump’s racist, ungodly demagoguery for what it is. We need to speak up.

You can’t have a viable Palestinian state with the two major Palestinian political factions at each other’s throats. So my initial reaction to this is that it’s good news:

American media, by and large, seems to be doing a great injustice to the American people by keeping them in the dark about the looming crisis in Afghanistan. The US administration is refusing to admit major reversals although there has been a daring jail break by 500 Taliban militants, and now the killing of 8 NATO soldiers (see here). Barack Obama seems to have finally abandoned the slogan for “CHANGE”...

Or perhaps I should ask, “What is going on with hell?” In a macabre way, Hell has always been popular. But it seems that recently more and more people are hell-bent on talking and writing about that lovely piece of real estate “down under.” For example, Ross Douthat at the New York Times, afraid that “belief in hell lags well behind and the fear of damnation seems to have evaporated” makes “A...

Billy Graham’s son and successor says the Donald may be his “candidate of choice” for the Presidency, stirring memories of how the fabled minister got his start as the spiritual advisor to Presidents. In backing Trump, the Grahams would be coming full circle on gambling casinos from a founder of Las Vegas to the honcho of Atlantic City. In 1940s after starting out as a Fuller Brush salesman,...

Is Washington applying double standards when involving itself in the ever-growing number of Arab uprisings? Is it too involved or not involved enough? It’s a maddening foreign policy conundrum if there ever was one. Asserting that helping Syria’s opposition topple their regime is in keeping with America’s heritage, Dr. Abdul Rahman Mubarak al-Dusari, for Kuwait’s Al-Seyassah, writes...

Is it time for the U.S. to drop its geostrategic calculations and back Bahrainis in their quest for freedom? For Sotal Iraq, columnist Hassan al-Ansaari honors democracy activist Maryam Alkhawaja for challenging Hillary Clinton and writes that it is time for the Obama Administration to drop its double standards and stand by the people of Bahrain. For Sotal Iraq (the Voice of Iraq), Hassan al-Ansaari writes...

Pardon me for posting this again, but the heroic story of out lesbian rural Georgia Baptist preacher, Genie Hargrove, really ought to be a viral video hit this Easter. The video is a companion piece to a StoryCorps interview that ran on GPB radio last month. At 10 minutes, it’s long for Internet time. The one minute promo for the video got 500 times the views on the first day! Please help me get Genie’s...

As a country with its own history of opposing Western imperialism, is there a kind of kinship between China and Qaddafi’s Libya? Reporting from Libya, correspondent Gu Di of China’s state-controlled Huanqiu advises the country about how to deal with the West going forward, and describes Qaddafi’s situation as a cautionary tale for other leaders: Don’t assume that making amends with...

How embarrassing for Rick Santorum! It turns out that his official campaign slogan is a line from a poem by Langston Hughes:

Arizona has become the first state in the Union to pass a birther bill requiring presidential candidates to prove natural born citizenship in order to appear on the state’s ballot. HB 2177 now goes to Governor Jan Brewer who has not indicated whether she will sign or veto the measure. She also has the option of letting it sit for five days and become law without her signature. According to the Arizona Republic,...