Islam

Israel's prime minister is trying to capitalize on the gruesome video of an American journalist's beheading by the Islamic State extremist group, saying Hamas is an equally vicious foe as he tries to rally international support in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. But the comparisons between Hamas and Islamic State are being met with reservations by Israel's allies and enemies alike.

An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinians in Gaza Sunday as militants kept up rocket fire, a day after an Egyptian call for an open-ended ceasefire to enable new truce talks.
      
The pace of Israeli raids was slower than Saturday when at least 60 strikes pounded Gaza, killing 10 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and bringing down a 12-storey apartment block.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal held a second day of talks in Qatar on Friday, a Palestinian source told AFP, as fighting continued in Gaza.
      
The meeting -- hosted by Qatar's emir -- was a "follow up" to Thursday's talks, which lasted nearly three hours, the source said on condition of anonymity.
      

A senior Hamas leader has said the group carried out the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June - the first time anyone from the Islamic militant group has said it was behind an attack that helped spark the current war in the Gaza Strip.

Three senior Hamas commanders and four children were among at least 15 Palestinians killed in Gaza Thursday as Israel stepped up air strikes on day 45 of the bloody conflict.

‘The Inevitable Caliphate? A History of the Struggle for Global Islamic Union, 1924 to the Present’ by Reza Pankhurst (Hurst, £18.99, 280 pages)

Balkan Muslims condemn destruction of religious shrines by ISIL

Muslims speak out against the Islamic States of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) destroying mosques and churches.

Balkan Muslims are speaking out against the destruction of religious shrines and sites in Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Eighteen Palestinians have been killed and 120 wounded by Israeli strikes across Gaza since the collapse of a temporary truce, medics said on Aug. 20.        

Hamas said Aug. 20 that an Israeli air strike killed the wife and child of its Gaza military chief, as a temporary ceasefire went up in smoke and Cairo truce talks froze.

The jihadist militants who have been committing atrocities in the name of Islam cannot belong to the faith, Turkey’s top cleric has declared, while also voicing his desire to visit the Gaza Strip together with religious scholars when conditions permit.