Palestinian Female Hunger Striker Causes Uproar in Gaza

Topping her second week of food abstinence, hunger striker Hana Shalabi has been receiving a lot of attention, including protests for her release.

"Shalabi has reportedly been on a hunger strike since February 16, when she was re-arrested at her home in the occupied West Bank. She has been under 'administrative detention' and her lawyer says she has been put in 'solitary confinement as punishment for the hunger strike.'"

There have been chatterings here and there about the possibility of a third Intifada. Although a leaked Israeli report says that is all quiet on the Palestinian front, tensions are brewing.

"Is a third Palestinian intifada coming in the foreseeable future? An Israeli Foreign Ministry intelligence report circulated in the government last week and leaked over the weekend to Ha’aretz suggests it could well be. The report is right, and its assessment should make sobering reading for Israeli officials and citizens alike."

Saudi had a party and Qatar wasn't invited, as seems to be the case with a meeting of Gulf states to discuss Hezbollah. Here's a historical roundup of Saudi-Qatar relations, showing why these two states are more frenemies than bosom buddies.

"The clear implication was that Saudi Arabia’s elite do not appear to trust their Qatari counterparts in respect to sectarian issues. This should not necessarily come as a surprise; Qatar and Saudi Arabia, despite a recent rapprochement, have long-standing issues which may potentially be exacerbated by those very sectarian concerns."

In light of a recent surge of female Muslim converts in Spain and Latin American, several Hispanic publications have been focusing on the oddity of the concept and domestic abuse done by Muslim men. Shock horror that someone would CHOOSE to be Muslim (insert high dose of sarcasm).

"When it comes to female converts to Islam or in the Spanish and Latin American context, or Muslim women who move there and continue to practice Islam, many debates seem to ask: are Muslim women shifting society towards a 'worse' patriarchy?"