“Muslim” on The Daily Caller

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most recent hate crime statistics, released Monday, show that crimes committed due to racial biases are the most prevalent and that — despite a great deal of rhetoric to the contrary — for crimes committed due to a religious bias, it is still safer to be Muslim than it is to be Jew. (more)

There is a country big enough to swallow the territories of Texas and France five times over. It is the ninth-largest nation in the world, bigger than Western Europe. Lazy journalists and the liberal media have colored what Westerners know about Kazakhstan, but this holiday season the world owes that young nation a huge debt of gratitude. Kazakhstan has protected us from a nuclear nightmare. (more)

President Obama said today that the United States is on “the right path” toward a better understanding of the Muslim world, though more work remains to be done. (more)

Whether someone other than Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had a guiding hand in an attack that killed 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas last year remains an open question, as military proceedings against Hasan get under way in Texas. (more)

I had resolved not to weigh in on the Pastor Terry Jones’ Koran-burning controversy because, notwithstanding its utterly unrepresentative insignificance to our culture, (a) virtually every Democrat and Republican of consequence, the White House, the Department of Defense, and the FBI, did weigh in; (b) it never actually happened; and (c) it was such a silly idea that to give it any further notoriety seemed unproductive. (more)

CAIRO (AP) — The bearded young cleric yells at a young woman for lifting her traditional veil from her face while speaking to him on the street, and rants against Egyptians who adopt Western lifestyles and values. His followers beat up an opponent. (more)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, accused people who wrongly believe Obama is Muslim of catering to political enemies during a fiery speech Sunday in Arkansas. (more)

Robert R. Reilly is the author of The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist. A former director of Voice of America, he now serves as a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. (more)

WASHINGTON — Nearly one in five Americans incorrectly say President Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% last year, according to a Pew Research Center poll released today. (more)

A valley teen is recovering after being tied up and beaten.  The Fresno County District Attorney says her own father, mother and brother are responsible. (more)

CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois State Police has revoked the appointment of the agency’s first Muslim chaplain, citing only information revealed during a background check. A national Muslim advocacy group Wednesday blamed the move on Islamophobia. (more)

“Fatwa on your head?” a new series of provocative ads on New York City buses asks. “Is your community or family threatening you? Leaving Islam?” (more)

PARIS (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ordered legislation that would ban women from wearing Islamic veils that hide the face in the street and other public places. (more)

Are Saudi Arabia’s treacherous factional domestic politics behind the ongoing legal battle over its decision to execute a former Lebanese television psychic convicted of sorcery? (more)

(Reuters) – Chechen rebels claimed responsibility on Wednesday for two suicide bombings that killed 39 people in the Moscow metro and threatened further attacks in the Russian heartland. (more)

Nicolas Sarkozy has said that France will ban the full Muslim veil. (more)

The pair, a British man living in Dubai and a female friend, were arrested in November on accusations of kissing and touching each other intimately in public and consuming alcohol, their lawyer said. They were ordered jailed for a month. (more)

The controversial far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders appeared at the House of Lords today to screen an anti-Islam film and denounce the religion as “totalitarian” and incompatible with democracy. (more)

Fox News is reporting potentially shocking revelations about an ongoing US Army investigation into allegations that five soldiers may have plotted to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.  Adding to the already serious implications is that Fox claims to have confirmed that the suspected soldiers are Muslim and part of an Arabic translation program. Fox News: (more)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed a new special envoy to the North Caucasus, which remains racked by Islamist and separatist violence. (more)