What's New in the
World of Islam?

Pakistani Christians held protests following the Peshawar attacks

Pakistan -- A double bombing at a historic Christian church in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least 75 people. The bomber struck as hundreds of worshipers walked out of church toward a food distribution area on the lawn outside. The attack is one of the deadliest to target Pakistan’s Christian minority in years. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is widely assumed to be the work of a militant Muslim group.

Kenya -- Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta says the country is united and strong in adversity after a deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping centre on Saturday. The Kenyan Red Cross says 68 people are now confirmed dead, after the bodies of nine hostages were recovered on Sunday. Between 10 and 15 attackers - thought to be militants from the Somali al-Shabab movement - are still inside. Some civilians are still trapped, either as hostages or in hiding.

Iraq -- Two bombs hidden inside air conditioners exploded Friday in a Sunni mosque packed with worshippers north of Baghdad, killing at least 18 people in the latest in a string of attacks in Iraq. Iraq is weathering its worst bout of violence in half a decade. Attacks have risen significantly since April, intensifying fears the country is slipping back toward the widespread bloodshed and sectarian fighting that marked the years following the 2003 US-led invasion. Over 4,000 people were killed between April and August. Another 396 have been killed so far in September, according to the UN and Associated Press.

Syria --

UN experts began their inspections a week after the attack

 
 Afghanistan -- Insurgents killed 18 Afghan policemen and wounded 13 in an ambush this week in a remote northern part of the country. The ambush took place Wednesday in the Surduj district of Badakshan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility after the attack. The ministry statement also said 47 insurgents were killed in the same area during a police operation earlier in the week. Attacks with high casualty figures are increasingly common as insurgents escalate their campaign against government forces across Afghanistan.

Yemen -- Under a heavy fog, al-Qaeda fighters disguised in military uniforms launched car bomb attacks on three security and military posts in southern Yemen Friday, killing 38 soldiers in the group's biggest attack in the country since last year. The co-ordinated attacks point to how al-Qaeda is exploiting the continued weakness of Yemen's military to rally back here as the group's branches across the region grow more assertive. Last month the US temporarily closed 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa after intelligence agencies intercepted a message between al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and Nasser al-Wahishi, head of the Yemen branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Paris -- a French appeals court has convicted a woman and her brother of "justifying a crime" after her toddler son, named Jihad, went to preschool in the Avignon suburb of Sorgues in a T-shirt bearing the words "I am a bomb" and "Jihad: Born on Sept.22". Bouchra Bagour, 35, was fined $2,790 and handed a one-month suspended prison sentence while her brother Zayed, 29, received a $5,570 fine and received a two-month suspended sentence in southeastern Nimes on Friday.

Nigeria -- A shootout between Islamic extremists and Nigerian security forces rocked this capital (Abuja) Friday. It was the first violence from Boko Haram in the city this year and highlights Nigeria's continuing security problems from the extremists. The gunfight occurred as officials were recovering bodies in Benisheik, northern Nigeria, where 143 civilians were killed Tuesday by suspected Boko Haram fighters. Such incidents challenge the Nigerian military's insistence it is winning the war against the extremists since a state of emergency was declared May 14 Boko Haram wants to enforce strict shariah law throughout Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of more than 160 million people is almost equally divided between Muslims and Christians. The group is blamed for violent attacks that have killed nearly 2,000 since 2011.

Lebanon -- Al-Qaeda militias fought street battles against Kurdish gunmen in northern Syria Friday, but reached a ceasefire with mainstream Western-backed rebels after fierce fighting near the Turkish border. The infighting, which ended with al-Qaeda's takeover of a border town of Azaz, was some of the worst in months between forces seeking to bring down President Bashar al-Assad and threatened to further fragment an opposition movement outgunned by the regime. Syria's main Western-backed opposition group the Free Syrian Army, condemned the Islamic State in Iraq & the Levant, the al-Qaeda offshoot that overran Azaz.

Egypt -- North Sinai has been witnessing heightened clashes between militants and security forces since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi leaving tens killed and injured on both sides.
Meanwhile, on 19 September, police backed by military forces stormed Giza's Kerdasa town, an Islamist stronghold, to capture suspects of the 14 August deadly attack on the town's police station which had resulted in the brutal killing of 11 policemen.
  
United States -- A U.S. army veteran accused of fighting alongside an al-Qaeda-affiliated group of Syrian rebels has been released from jail following a secret plea deal. Eric Harroun, 31, had been charged with providing material support to a terrorist group and faced up to life in prison. But under a plea agreement entered Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virgina, Harroun pleaded guilty to an obscure law regulating export of munitions. He was sentenced to time served.

A. U.S. judge is siding with the Navy in its refusal to release some records a bout the 2011 burial at sea of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon this week turned down a bid by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, to get the records under the Freedom of Information Act. The Navy provided some documents to Judicial Watch but included several blacked-out sections. Leon ruled that the redactions were "proper and necessary" to prevent disclosure of sensitive operational details and to provide national security.