Economic sanctions, universally recognized as a prelude to war, strangle the Iranian people and their economy, all in the quixotic hope of inducing (coercing) "regime change" in Tehran. Meanwhile, the CIA and Mossad recruit train and then unleash Salafist terrorists such as Jundallah or Saddam Hussein's former henchmen, the cultic Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) for terror ops, just as they did in Libya when former Al Qaeda "emir," the MI6 asset Abdelhakim Belhaj was appointed chief of Tripoli's Revolutionary Military Council. -- Tom Burghardt

Who may suffer, other than Iranians?  In the long run, the shaky economies of Italy, Greece, and Spain, long dependent on Iranian oil, potentially raising further problems for an already roiling Euro zone.  And don’t forget the U.S. economy, or your own pocketbook, if gas prices go up, or even President Obama, if his bet on oil sanctions turns out to be an economic disaster in an election year. -- Michael Klare

An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz has called the prosecution of Naffaa "unwarranted, harmful and smack[ing] of political persecution based on nationality". It is part of the state's efforts to use criminal law against the Palestinian leadership in Israel. -- Ben White

Indeed, it is not really clear whether predictions of a confrontation between the Salafist Islamists and the Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood will prove true, as there are those who believe that what is happening is a kind of distribution of roles, until the West falls in love with the Muslim Brotherhood, welcomes the rule of Islamists, and provides them with aid so that their rule may prosper at the expense of secularists and modernists. -- Raghida Dergham

The Cold War is over, but not U.S. interests in Asia. The Obama administration is pouring military forces into the region and has made it clear that it intends to contest China’s growing influence in Asia and Southeast Asia. Here Indonesia is key. Some 80 percent of China’s energy supplies pass through Indonesian-controlled waters, and Indonesia is still a gold mine—literally in the case of Freeport McMoRan on Irian Jaya—of valuable resources. -- Conn Hallinan 

Many scholars and rights groups have discussed the way in which irreconcilable values defined the very character of Israel from the onset. According to Adalah (meaning “justice” in Arabic), the legal center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, “Israel’s Declaration of Independence (1948) states two principles important for understanding the legal status of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The Torah is put to good use repeatedly among mainstream and ardent Israeli rabbis, whose edicts to kill Arabs are commonplace in Israeli media (although rarely discussed in the US media). -- Ramzy Baroud

In Britain, for example, race-based equality laws protected Sikhs and Jews as minorities, but not Hindus and Muslims, since they were still considered “foreign.” Granting Muslims full religious freedom wouldn’t remove obstacles to political participation or create jobs. But it would at least allow tensions over Muslims’ religious practices to fade. This would avoid needless sectarian strife and clear the way for politicians to address the more vexing and urgent challenges of socioeconomic integration. -- Jonathan Laurence

But a number of other Mohammads end up viewing everything in black and white, as Islamic and anti-Islamic. This grand narrative informs their understanding of all that happens in the world: from global events such as invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, to personal matters such as not getting a promotion in office. Growing Islamophobia makes such a view of the world appear all the more genuine. The narrative pushes them towards fundamentalism, and in extreme cases, towards terrorism.

Globalisation has posed questions of culture and identity to everyone. Europe is living in fear of turning into “Eurabia”, while Arabs are afraid their children, being brought up by housemaids from Kerala, will speak Malayalam as their mother tongue. In such a world, there is no running away from the question: who am I? And there is no harm in the answer being: I am a Muslim. But Islam need not be just an illusory identity, it can be a liberating faith that helps people not just find their place in the world but be at peace with it as well. -- Saif Shahin, NewAgeIslam.com

As regard to human rights, in Afghanistan and its neighbourhood, after a decades of cruelty and worse human rights violations, Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti, Commander of US and NATO in Afghanistan, has ordered troops to treat the living and the dead with dignity and respect. The move came after directions from Pentagon in response of one of the several hundred videos that have been recorded in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The shameful record of gave human right violations by western forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere is quite shocking. -- Afshain Afzal

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged that: “We spilled a lot of blood here” ... to achieve … making the country sovereign and independent and able to secure itself.” Tariq Aziz has to be top of the list. The fiercely patriotic, nationalistic reminder of an illegally overthrown government, which, whatever else, had put Iraq first and poured the country’s oil revenues in to health- care, education, clean water, modern infrastructure, turning a beautiful, but run down “third world” country in to a “near first world” one, to use the West’s patronizing patois.-- Felicity Arbuthnot (Photo: Tariq Aziz)

Egypt is not destined to be Iran, but the Muslim Brotherhood is not destined to be the Muslim version of Christian Democrats either. There is an evolution under way — this is a very plastic moment — and our best chance of having an effect is to make sure we deal in a principled way with the Islamists (and also, by the way, with Israel, as the Islamists will be watching for any double standard) and with the Egyptian Army. The Egyptian Army is also trying to figure out its role in this new Egypt. -- Thomas L. Friedman

The ostentatious desecration of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan is a bitter setback for US efforts to improve its tarnished image in the world. It is a slap in the face for President Barack Obama, whose first term in office has been marked by serious attempts to build bridges with Islam. It is also fodder for those forces which doubt the West's operations in Afghanistan are about human rights. The desecration of a body not only violates the Geneva Convention but all codes of civil behavior, regardless of culture or religion. -- Daniel Scheschkewitz

With the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the even more puritanical Salafist Al Nour Party having stunned both themselves and Egyptians by garnering more than 60 percent of the seats in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, we’re about to see a unique lab test for the Middle East: What happens when political Islam has to wrestle with modernity and globalization without oil? -- Thomas L. Friedman

The fundamental problem with Erdogan is despite being embraced by the United States, he is an enemy of the United States, the West more generally, and of Israel. He is on the side of radical, anti-American Islamists who want to wipe Israel off the map. So angry and passionate is Erdogan’s loathing of Israel that the leader of the opposition mockingly but pointedly asked if the prime minister wanted to go to war with the Jewish state. In contrast, the list of Erdogan’s nearest and dearest friends includes Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the repressive Sudanese dictatorship and Syria (formerly the regime there; now the Islamist portions of the opposition). Erdogan would also like to be good buddies with the Muslim Brotherhood forces in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, though they are suspicious of him. -- Barry Rubin

Post-Christian Europe became noticeably more Islamized during 2011. As the rapidly growing Muslim population makes its presence felt in towns and cities across the continent, Islam is transforming the European way of life in ways unimaginable only a few years ago. In Austria, an appellate court upheld the politically correct conviction of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, a Viennese housewife and anti-Jihad activist, for "denigrating religious beliefs" after she gave a series of seminars about the dangers of radical Islam. The rapid growth in multiple marriages is being fueled by multicultural policies that grant special rights to Muslim immigrants who demand that Sharia law be reflected in British law and the social welfare benefits system. -- Soeren Kern