Aljazeera.Net - Asian powers in joint Internet project

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Falun Gong hacker 'died in jail'

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israel jails settler radio bosses

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Malaysian PM sends Christmas joy: "Abdullah Badawi, who became prime minister almost two months ago, is a respected Muslim scholar and has long made a point of promoting good relations among the country's various religious groups."

BBC NEWS | Technology | Papal message goes mobile

MSNBC - Wondering about the 'Star of Wonder'

BBC NEWS | Technology | Is Google good for you?

albawaba.com: New Saddam photo in prison released by Iraqi newspaper

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | Google 'offering book excerpts'

News24.com, Cyber dissident arrested "A Paris-based rights group called on China on Wednesday to release a 23-year old religious dissident arrested for using the internet to support unauthorised Christian activities."

Aljazeera.Net - IT summit spells out plan "More than 170 countries have approved an ambitious call to extend the internet and the benefits of information technology to the poorest corners of the world." Rhetoric or reality?

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Arab wins Israeli reality TV show

BBC NEWS | Technology | Iran's president defends web control: "Speaking in Geneva, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami insisted that the country only blocks access to 240 'pornographic and immoral' websites." Presumably the other pornographic sites are accessible then???

Hürriyetim, İnternetten hatim, 28 Nov 03 just picked up this Turkish article, referring to 'Islam in the Digital Age'.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Africa urges more computer funds

Muslim WakeUp! MWU! Blog:Afghans "Understand" Why We Kill Their Children

Newhous, "Do All Religious Paths Lead to the Same God? Bush Remark Renews Old Debate"

Islam Online, "Palestinian Birthmarked With Martyr Uncle's Name" some more on this story, complete with a photo

The Bible's Lost Stories

Aljazeera.Net - Sharing a vision: Palestinian Christians

CBS News | A Clash Of Symbols In Mideast | December 2, 2003 09:50:34

AP/Azcentral, Saudis develop new technique using religion to elicit al-Qaida information, 1 Dec 03 "Forget the bread-and-water routine. Saudi Arabian interrogators often bring a Quran, the Muslim holy book, to their prison interviews, using a technique that has proved successful in eliciting information from al-Qaida captives and reorienting them to less violent religious beliefs."

Reuters, Palestinian Baby Born in Bethlehem Draws Crowds, 1 Dec 03 At first I thought this great headline was a few weeks too early: "The boy has gained attention for being born with a large birthmark across his cheek that roughly forms in Arabic letters the name of his uncle, Ala, a Hamas militant killed by Israeli troops after he was alleged to have planned a suicide bombing. "

The Register, MS scorns Israeli OpenOffice defection, 24 Nov 03 Important note about Arabic script in this Israel story: "In a little noticed decision recently, Israel's Antitrust Authority director general, Dror Strum, declared Microsoft a monopoly. Separate civil actions on behalf of open source and Apple advocates are pending; a motion by the former to State Prosecutor Tadmor recently brought to light unpublished decisions by the Antitrust Authority to abide by the US antitrust settlement. The latter followed an outcry by Israel's Macintosh community about Microsoft's failure to support right-to-left languages, such as Arabic, Urdu and Hebrew - in their Macintosh applications. Apple now fully supports right-to-left languages, but there's no sign of Microsoft enabling the feature at the application level. This affects Apple in the Hebrew and in the much larger Arab and Indian markets."

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Spain pledges to stay on in Iraq: "A pro-Saddam militant group calling itself the al-Faruq Brigades has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Spanish agents in a statement published on a London-based Arabic website, Movement for Islamic Reform. "

Wired 11.12: PLAY, What Would Jesus Play? illustrated with a 'Jesus' playing on a game

CNN.com - 'Matrix,' other geek icons become philosophy-class fodder - Nov. 25, 2003

IHT: Saudi TV show pokes fun at Islamic law: "[But] even the creators were taken aback by the uproar over the episode titled 'Without a Mahram,' or male guardian, which was the second to be shown this year. The episode was the subject of group discussions in schools and mosques. About 40 theologians held a protest march, demanding that the most prominent fatwa banning the show, issued by the government's own council of religious scholars, be carried out.

"A few years ago it would have been unthinkable for anyone to challenge such an edict. The show would have died. This year, discussions in Internet chat rooms, a barometer of public opinion in Saudi Arabia in the absence of free speech, raged between those damning the show and its avid fans."

Independent, British Library opens a new chapter in its history: helping Amazon storm the antiquarian book market

Wired News: Feel Free to Jack Into My IPod there may be some religious dimension to this...

Titusonenine, David Bowen: Spiritual sites originally in FT

Telegraph | News | Palestinians reprint schoolbooks praising jihad 'martyrs':

"A textbook on Islam that preaches the value of 'holy war' and 'martyrdom' for all Muslims is being reprinted by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority for use in schools in the occupied West Bank.

"Entitled Islamic Culture, it was originally published in 1994, but has been reproduced this year, despite undertakings from Palestinian leaders - following international pressure - that new books would be introduced."

Telegraph | News | Palestinians reprint schoolbooks praising jihad 'martyrs':

"A textbook on Islam that preaches the value of 'holy war' and 'martyrdom' for all Muslims is being reprinted by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority for use in schools in the occupied West Bank.

"Entitled Islamic Culture, it was originally published in 1994, but has been reproduced this year, despite undertakings from Palestinian leaders - following international pressure - that new books would be introduced."

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | 'I eat, dance, laugh and play'

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Pakistan launches Aids programme

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Film clue to Turkey Jewish attack, 17 Nov 03Use of e-mail by 'al-Qaeda': "The London-based Arabic newspaper al-Quds on Sunday said it had received a statement from al-Qaeda in an email.

"We tell the criminal Bush and his lackeys...that the cars of death will not be limited to Baghdad, Riyadh, Istanbul... and so forth

"It said the group targeted the synagogues because Israeli agents were working there, al-Quds editor Abdel-Bari Atwan told the BBC."

Nola.com, Pantheism nurturing global following, 15 Nov 03

ABCNEWS.com : Dipping Into Books Online: Is It Stealing?

IHT: Comedian brings Islam to West Norwegian-Muslim comedy niche

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Big Bird's bid for Mid-East peace, 14 Nov 03 blogged for the headline ...

NY Times, In the Spirit of Gutenberg, Treasures for All more on this exciting CD release.

IHT: Gutenberg Bible is on CD for $80, 14 Nov 03

This is an occasional and evolving blog on religion and the net, featuring material that doesn't quite fit into the virtuallyislamic blog.

Wired News: E-Mail From the Great Beyond, 12 Nov 03

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Pakistan women's rights take centre stage

Guardian Unlimited | Online | God in the machine?

The Register, Brazilian script kiddie arrested in Japan, 4 Nov 03:

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | British Library archives websites, 31 Oct 03"he archive will comprise selective "harvesting" from the 2.9 million sites that have "co.uk" suffixes." It will be interesting to see the approach to this archiving issue, in relation to Islamic sites.

Wired News: Web Search for Everyone Else, 1 Nov 03

BBC NEWS | Technology | Computer security divides Europe, 30 Oct 03

The Register "UK 'snoopers charter' claimed to break EU law"

MSNBC, Can Snooping Stop Terrorism?

Yahoo! News - Egyptian Monks Help Muslims Banish Demons

washingtonpost.com: Pakistanis Cross Border With Ease to Join Taliban, 19 Oct 03

MSNBC, It Is Surprisingly Simple, August 20 2003: "When readers challenged a New Zealand Web publisher's claims that terrorists could easily build their own cruise missiles, he decided to prove it by building a $5,000 cruise missile himself and documenting his progress online"

San Mateo County Times Online, Web site takes on repressive government
Anonymizer helps Web viewers get around state censorship in Iran, China, 29 September 2003 Discussion on Anonymizer

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Imams join plea for gay tolerance

Australian IT - Is the net making you sick? (, SEPTEMBER 23, 2003)

newindpress.com, Mumbai prepares for life beyond MSN chat, 25 September 2003

MSNBC, Israelis e-pray to Western Wall, 25 September 2003