A refreshing burst of decency and candor from an unexpected source: Dr. Khaled Al-Haroub, a Palestinian researcher at Cambridge University, writing a column in the PA daily Al-Ayyam that I doubt is going to win him many friends back home. "Palestinian Researcher: A Legal Victory in Ground Zero Mosque Could Cause the Muslims to Lose the Battle that Counts - The One for Coexistence," from [1] MEMRI, August 23:

"We Keep Increasing Our Religious Demands Vis-a-Vis the West, While Refusing to Meet Even a Few of the Demands Made by Religious Minorities Living among Us"

"We must take stock and do some soul-searching by asking ourselves the opposite question, [namely] how people in a Muslim country would react if the Christians wanted to pray in a mosque on Sunday due to an insufficient number of churches. Or let's ask an even simpler [question]: What is the reaction in most Arab and Muslim countries to the demand of religious minorities - not only Christians but also Hindus and Sikhs - to build their own houses of worship? In practice, our countries exhibit hypocrisy and a double standard. We keep increasing our religious demands vis-à-vis the West, while refusing to meet even a few of the demands made by religious minorities living among us."

Endnote:

[1] Al-Ayyam (PA), August 16, 2010.