Webcast for Common Word final news conf. on Thursday
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2008/07/31/webcast-for-common-wor...
-news-conf-on-thursday/
Tom Heneghan, FaithWorld
An announcement about the Common Word conference we’ve been following here
(and will cover on Thursday): FYI Yale Divinity School tells us there will
be a live web stream of the final news conference of its Muslim-Christian
dialogue conference on Thursday, July 31, at 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. EST/1530 -
1700 GMT. The stream will be available at the conference web site at:
http://www.yale.edu/divinity/commonwor d/index.shtml.

Turkey steps back from brink as court rules against ruling party ban
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-steps-back-from...
as-court-rules-against-ruling-party-ban-881402.html
Nicholas Birch, Independent
Turkey's highest court pulled the country back from the brink when it
narrowly rejected calls for the ruling party to be shut down and its leaders
banned from politics for allegedly undermining the secular state. After 30
hours of debate, six judges voted in favour of banning the party, four voted
for financial penalties and one rejected the case. Seven judges would have
had to vote in favour of the ban for it to pass. Instead of that nuclear
option, the court contented itself with censuring the AK party (AKP)...

While our scientists struggle with ethics, the Islamic world forges ahead
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/31/genetics.ethicsof...
Jim Al-Khalili, Guardian CiF
In recent days I have been asked on three separate occasions whether I think
physicists are going to destroy the world the moment they switch on the
Large Hadron Collider - the huge underground particle accelerator in
Geneva - later this year. They ask if, as has been reported, the energies it
will produce when beams of near light-speed subatomic particles are smashed
together will create mini black holes that will swallow up the whole planet.

Uniform freedom in our schools (Letters, Guardian)
Burning joss sticks 'as deadly as traffic fumes or cigarette smoke' (Ian
MacKinnon, Guardian)
Joint statement: divisive study for divisive ends (Islamophobia Watch)
Muslim students: joint statement issued (Indigo Jo Blogs)
Single, Muslim, and female: a gendered forecast of the American Muslim
community (Koonj)
Conference believes that the opening of new faith schools could be divisive
not inclusive [Motion Lost] (Voice)