Islam

CAIRO - In another blow to Egypt's troubled democratic transition, the main opposition coalition announced Tuesday that it would boycott upcoming parliamentary elections because it didn't trust the Islamic-led government of President Mohamed Morsi to guarantee a fair vote. The decision by the secular and liberal National Salvation Front was widely expected after the nation's highest court ruled this month that provisions in the election law were unconstitutional. The opposition's strategy virtually ensures that Islamists, notably the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Nour Party, will dominate the new legislature after the vote, which begins in April.

TIMBUKTU, Mali - It didn't matter that Timbuktu had been occupied by Islamist militias notorious for meting out 100 lashes to young women who flirted with, or even talked to, men. When Mamou Maiga encountered a dazzling young man while out for a walk, her world turned upside down. "He had beautiful eyes and a gentle smile," recalls Maiga, 21, smiling shyly as she remembered that day in mid-September. "He asked me if he could drop me at my house. I saw no problems. " His name was Adama.

TIMBUKTU, Mali - There were public protests and whispers of secret love affairs. Heroes of resistance everywhere: the female fishmonger who angrily knocked down one of the occupiers, the imam who sent them away from his mosque, the elderly sheep trader beaten for complaining about their ill treatment of others. Residents of this legendary caravan crossing are free of the violent militants who tried for nine months to impose their extreme version of Islam. French and African forces are continuing to chase them farther north into the Sahara.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military checkpoint outside the northern Mali city of Gao on Friday, in the first sign that Al Qaeda-linked militias may be adopting new tactics since being driven back by a French-led invasion. A man on a motorcycle approached a group of soldiers at a military checkpoint and detonated explosives, according to a military officer contacted by The Times. The attack was confirmed by Gao Mayor Sadou Diallo in a telephone interview.

NEW DELHI, India -- Protesters clashed with police in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Tuesday after a tribunal sentenced an Islamic party leader to life in prison for his role in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. The International Crimes Tribunal handed down the verdict against Abdul Quader Mollah, 64, a senior figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, in a crowded, heavily guarded courtroom at the high court complex in Dhaka. Jamaat called a general strike Tuesday that shuttered shops and schools and slowed traffic to a crawl in parts of the capital.

PARIS - Many French citizens support the country's military mission in Mali, which as of Thursday did not include any reported deaths of French troops, despite concern about possible retaliation by Islamic militants, polls show. About two-thirds of respondents in several polls of French adults said they backed the government's decision to send troops to the West African country, a former French colony, in response to a Malian government request for help in controlling Islamist militias.

CAIRO - Islamic militants who seized hundreds of hostages were "wild with their demands," forcing the Algerian military to act quickly in a standoff at a natural gas refinery that led to the deaths of 37 foreign captives and 29 extremists, the Algerian prime minister said Monday. In a televised news conference from the capital, Algiers, that offered the country's official explanation for what happened at the remote compound in the Sahara desert, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said the attackers were rigging explosives throughout the complex and needed to be stopped before they blew it up. The ordeal drew world attention to Algeria for five days, beginning with a predawn assault by militants Wednesday and ending Sunday when special forces captured five extremists amid booby traps and a landscape of charred vehicles and scattered, disfigured bodies.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Tens of thousands of protesters led by a firebrand Islamic cleric descended on the Pakistani capital Monday in a fierce outpouring of anger and frustration with the government that many worried could destabilize the country ahead of national elections this spring. The size of Tahirul Qadri's "Long March" to Islamabad from the eastern city of Lahore appeared to fall far short of his predictions of more than a million people. The caravan of hundreds of buses, vans, motorcycles and cars jammed with demonstrators was allowed to enter the capital and hold a rally on a main thoroughfare roughly two miles from parliament.

Re "A welcome mat at All Saints," Editorial, Dec. 13 I would like to applaud All Saints Church, an Episcopal congregation in Pasadena, for hosting the Muslim Public Affairs Council's annual convention. However, I am very surprised at the criticism hurled at Maher Hathout, MPAC's senior advisor. As the former ecumenical officer of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I co-chaired Catholic-Muslim Dialogue with Hathout for many years. Hathout, a devout Muslim, has always stood up for justice and peace and has condemned terrorism wherever it has arisen.

A self-described "meat and potatoes" conservative, Tony Ruiz often argued politics with his son. They clashed over perceptions of Islam after the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi was overrun. But Tony said his son, Clinton, made some good points. "He drew a very clear distinction between Muslim radicals and the Islam religion," Tony said. "It actually did convince me. " He is still convinced, a month after his son, Sgt. Clinton K. Ruiz , was killed by small-arms fire in Afghanistan, serving a tour as a psychological operations specialist with the 9th Military Information Support Battalion, 8th Military Information Support Group.