"Khashoggi told his friends he did not trust the offer or the official delivering it" when MBS’s "information czar," dubbed "the Saudi Steve Bannon" tried to lure him back to Saudi with promises of a job and safe return:

• Khashoggi Mystery Fixes Spotlight on Saudi Official Described as Crown Prince’s Strategist, Enforcer (Washington Post)

The U.S. pass given to Sisi's counter-revolution in Egypt and to "the Saudis’ long practice of kidnapping dissidents abroad and forcibly returning them to the country—as happened to activist Loujain al-Hathloul in the United Arab Emirates in March" paved the way for Kashoghi's disappearance:

• The New Arab Winter (Slate)

Will the Trump administration "recognize that ... the Saudis are pursuing interests that do not coincide with ours ... [and] ask the same question posed by Bill Clinton to his aides after his first meeting with Netanyahu: 'Who’s the *** superpower here?'":

• The U.S.-Saudi Relationship Is Out of Control (The Atlantic)

Irfan Ahmad argues that "historical Islam is ... a civilization with a tradition of rational and reflexive critique all its own" and "in the course of his exposition, he also offers rich and at times provocative observations on not just Islam, but Western traditions of philosophy, freedom, and social criticism":

• Subversive Islam (Marginalia)

Refusing to "pay the fine of 45,000 shekels ($12,423.05) awarded to three Israeli teenagers, calling the court's ruling a 'stunt' intended to intimidate Israel's critics...[, the activists] asked people to donate money through website 'givealittle.co.nz' to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation":

• New Zealand Activists Raise Funds for Palestine Charity After anti-BDS Fine by Israel (Haaretz)

Road rage is dangerous--and some people are driven into it to it by the mere sight of a Muslim woman behind the wheel:

• In The Name of Hate, Muslim Women Face Road Rage Behind the Wheel (Huffington Post)

David Parnham sent "malicious' letters and 'highly offensive' packages to scores of people and organizations..., some with suspicious white substances, ... to mosques, Muslim members of Parliament and Queen Elizabeth, among others ... [urging] people to commit violence against Muslims":

• British Man Pleads Guilty to Sending ‘Punish a Muslim Day’ Letters (NY Times)

Palestinians who throw rocks at an armed occupation army are shot down, but settlers who kill unarmed civilians peacefully going about their own business rarely face indictment ...

• Palestinians Bury Woman Killed in West Bank, 7 Slain in Gaza (abc News)
• World Should Not Forget Palestine (Gulf News)
• Settlers Run over 2 Palestine Workers in West Bank (Middle East Monitor)

... while illegal "Israeli settlements release effluent to the Palestinian sewerage system" and illegal taxes for trans-boundary wastewater and challenges to "access to material and energy ... due to siege and blockade of Gaza" impede Palestinian wastewater management ...

• Palestine Blames Israel for Its Sanitation Woes at Swachh Meet (Times of India)

... and Israeli soldiers are abducting Palestinians in Hebron, where the Israeli government will pay $6.1 million dollars to fund 31 homes in an illegal Israeli settlement ...

• Israeli Soldiers Abduct Three Palestinians in Hebron (International Middle East Media Center)
• Palestine Denounces Illegal Israeli Settlement Plan in Hebron (Al-Jazeera)

... and the corrupting influence of government regulation is combined with racism as employers use "manpower quotas to obtain surplus documents, which they then rent out to West Bank laborers desperate to earn a living":

• Report Highlights Exploitative Illegal Trade in Work Permits for Palestinians (Times of Israel)

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