Attackers in a car raked a crowd of shoppers in a south Egypt town with gunfire, killing a policemen and six Coptic Christians on the eve of their Christmas celebrations, a security official said on Thursday.

Then they rioted, excuse me, “protested”, in AFP-speak:

In November, hundreds of Muslim protesters torched Christian-owned shops in the town of Farshut, near Nagaa Hammadi, and attacked a police station where they believed the suspected rapist was being held.

Here in America, we call people who burn shops “rioters.” At least the AP used the right term:

He said Muslim residents of Nag Hamadi and neighboring villages rioted for five days in November and torched and damaged Christian properties in the area after the rape.

But that was long after the AP, in the fourth paragraph, explained how there is generally peace between Muslims (who riot, murder, forcibly convert Copts, and burn Christian shops) and the Copts, the oldest Christian sect in Egypt:

Christians, mostly Coptics, account for about 10 percent of Egypt’s predominantly Muslim population. They generally live in peace with the Muslim majority although clashes and tensions in the south do occur, mostly over land or church construction disputes. In recent years, the clashes have begun seeping into the capital.

That’s the fourth paragraph. Your local paper’s world news section generally prints only the first three to five paragraphs of wire stories, and of course, the wire services know this. Here are paragraphs nine, ten, and eleven:

As Islamic conservatism gains ground, Christians have increasingly complained about discrimination by the Muslim majority.

Coptic Christians are limited in where they can build churches and must obtain government approval before expanding existing facilities. The government insists Christians enjoy the same rights as Muslims.

Vendetta killing is also common among southern Egyptians, and is usually over land or family disputes.

Every time the AP writer discusses anti-Christian actions by Egyptian Muslims, he feels compelled to explain that it may not just be religious bigotry. And yet, Muslims keep on killing Christians in Egypt. And even the AP acknowledges that Egypt refuses to let Copts build churches freely at the same time it insists that Christians are not discriminated against.

It’s funny how this topic never seems to come up when Obama talks about Muslims. Go figure.

Egypt’s top Islamic authority defended women’s rights to wear trousers in public following a high profile court case in neighboring Sudan were women were flogged for dressing in pants, the local press reported Wednesday.

Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa said in response to a question during a public lecture that trousers covering women’s bodies are permitted, though they should be loose and not see through. He specified that “stretch” pants were in particular unacceptable.

Other than that, feel free to join in with the rest of the modern women and wear long, loose, shapeless, flowing pants.

Oh, wait. That’s only women in yoga classes.

Or wearing pajamas.

But hey, you go, girls! Wear that modern hijab and feel liberated!

Witness:

Besides their support, Mutai stressed that “ever since the revolution, the Jewish community has tried very hard not to publicly intervene in election propaganda and to keep clear of the political establishment, since the race between the four candidates has entered a circle of actual physical violence and street fights between supporters of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. They do not participate in support rallies and certainly do not organize any.”

Professor David Menashri, Director of Tel Aviv University’s Center for Iranian Studies said he also believed that the Jewish votes in Iran are reserved for Ahmadinejad. “The Jews in Iran usually follow the ruling stream in everything to do with internal political power struggles and keep a low profile. They will stay quiet and immediately support whoever wins,” he said.

How can that be? I thought that Jews are cherished and protected under the Iranians—it’s only the Zionists that are despised, is it not?

Not. And this is why:

“The votes are allegedly secret, but in hindsight are not so secret. So the Jews plan to ensure they are on the winning side. In any case, they have no problem supporting whoever is elected,” Ezri said.

They have to support whoever is elected. The Jews of Iran are an endangered species, just as the Jews of the Arab world are pretty much gone from those nations. Yemen is currently the best examples of how Muslims treat The People of the Book. For more examples of that, go look for Christians in Saudi Arabia. You won’t find any publicly practicing their religion, because that’s illegal. Filipinos are regularly arrested for holding private worship services in their homes. Obama has an interesting take on this lack of tolerance.

And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

Yes, the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality exist, but not so much under Islam.