Today's ugly Islamophobia painfully recalls the bigotries of earlier times. Now, as then, "culture wars" are energized less by what is known about the other than by what is not known or not understood.

While New York frets over the construction of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near ground zero, Milan is pushing back against construction of its first mosque. Local Muslims have found an unlikely ally in the Catholic Church.

He blames the media for creating a "witch's brew" by shaping "political, socio-economic, religious, perceptions" in the Middle East. But perhaps most surprisingly, Imam Feisal goes so far as proposing that the media not report on suicide attacks, an argument that naïvely underestimates the power of new digital media outlets, like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.

From his recent travels to the Persian Gulf—sponsored and paid for by the State Department—Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf returned with a none-too-subtle threat. His project, the Ground Zero Mosque, would have to go on. Its cancellation would risk putting "our soldiers, our troops, our embassies and citizens under attack in the Muslim world."

This slim volume by a Voice of America director during the early years of the Reagan administration (March 1982 - August 1982) says some reasonable things, but from a rather naïve point of view. It's about U.S. public diplomacy, the subject of dozens of reports since 9/11.

The pastor of a small Florida church, under pressure from President Barack Obama and other world leaders, said he is abandoning plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

British Muslim activists plan to burn the U.S. flag outside the U.S. embassy on September 11 to voice anger at plan by a U.S. Christian pastor to burn copies of the Koran the same day, a hardline Islamist said on Thursday.