Islam's silent majority

September 23, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

Radicals are aggressive by nature. Moderates are not. But moderates abound.

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Kenyan security forces launched a “major” assault late Sunday on the upscale Nairobi mall where an unknown number of hostages were being held by Al Qaeda-linked militants, in an operation officials said would end the two-day standoff that had already killed 68 people. The assault came about 30 hours after 10 to 15 Al Shabab extremists stormed the mall Saturday from two sides, throwing grenades and firing on civilians. Kenya Defence Forces later said it had rescued most hostages and had taken control of most of the mall.

For the third time in almost a quarter-century, neutral Switzerland has overwhelmingly voted to maintain its conscription Army. By a margin of 73 percent, voters in all 26 Swiss cantons (states) rejected a referendum Sunday that pacifists and left-wing parties had put forward to do away with mandatory service in the Army, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported.

A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up amid hundreds of worshippers at a historic church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 78 people in the deadliest-ever attack against the country’s Christian minority. A wing of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, raising new questions about the government’s push to strike a peace deal with the militants to end a decade-long insurgency that has killed thousands of people. The Jundullah arm of the Taliban said they would continue to target non-Muslims until the United States stopped drone attacks in Pakistan’s remote tribal region.

A Palestinian border official says Israel is allowing construction materials into the Gaza Strip for the first time in six years, allowing them to be used by private builders. Israel barred the entry of construction materials into Gaza when Hamas overran the territory in 2007, fearing militants could use them to build weapons and fortifications. It has allowed them in for projects funded by international organizations like the United Nations since 2010.

The year’s most powerful typhoon slammed into southern China on Sunday evening, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, shutting down shipping, and putting a nuclear power plant on alert after pummeling parts of the Philippines and Taiwan with heavy rains and fierce winds. Typhoon Usagi veered away from Hong Kong at the last minute and made landfall northeast of the former British colony. Forecasters had warned earlier that it posed a “severe threat” to the Chinese city.

Catholics around the globe reacted mostly positively to Pope Francis’s recent remarks that the church has become too focused on “small-minded rules” on hot-button issues like homosexuality, abortion, and contraceptives. At Masses over the weekend, the faithful reflected on how they believe Pope Francis’s comments would impact the Roman Catholic Church. The pope said late last week that pastors should focus less on divisive social issues and should emphasize compassion over condemnation.

Compiled from wire service reports

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