An unnamed German publisher has agreed to publish The Jewel of Medina, a novel about the prophet Muhammed and his child bride.  The book was passed over by Random House over concerns that it might incite anger among Muslims.  Though the author claims the story honors the prophet and his wife, the book was withdrawn from shelves in Serbia after local imams protested, saying the book was insulting to Islam.       

[NY Sun via Gawker]

Analysts are concerned that recent Islamist trends in Ankara could threaten the long-standing amicable relations between Israel and Turkey. These fears were highlighted by legislation passed in Turkey on Feb. 9, which rescinded a law in the constitution banning the wearing of a traditional Islamic headscarf. However, in June Turkey's high court overturned this ruling, claiming it violated separation of religion and state. Turkey is governed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), whereby Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the prime minister and Abdullah Gul is the president. Erdogan and Gul share pro-Islamist beliefs that clash with the secular nature of the majority of Turkey's political and military establishment.

The looming debate in Congress over building U.S. missiles defense sites in eastern Europe could be significantly altered in the wake of Russia’s war with neighboring Georgia.

The Bush administration is moving quickly to cement agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic in a rush to break ground on interceptor and radar sites in those two countries before leaving office. A senior State Department official met with Polish leaders Wednesday amid reports of a breakthrough in the negotiations.

But Democrats in Congress have stymied these efforts by using their legislative powers to postpone groundbreaking on the sites.

In his highly publicized July 24 speech in Berlin, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama struck a conciliatory chord in saying, “we must reject the Cold War mindset of the past and resolve to work with Russia when we can.” A few days later, Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, raised the idea of a new security framework for Eurasia that would include the United States and Russia, as well as China and India. Skeptics’ views that this might be a ploy to undermine NATO were significantly reinforced on August 11, when Russia launched a punitive expedition against Georgia.

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Russia invaded Georgia to teach the West three lessons. Lesson one is that no matter how democratic, enthusiastically pro-American and EU-aspiring a country, if Moscow considers it to be in its sphere of influence, it will not be allowed to shape its own destiny. This extends to Ukraine and its ideas of joining NATO, energy-rich and Western-leaning Azerbaijan, as well as the strategically important countries of the Caspian and Central Asia, north of Afghanistan. Lesson two is that no matter how much the US and its European allies attempt to increase their energy security by seeking new routes to Caspian oil and gas resources not controlled by Russia or Iran, Moscow will do its utmost, even kill thousands in a war, to block Western access.

A regional bully with a bloated military and aspirations to great-power status just invaded a small neighbor to steal its oil. In the process, it has blocked key energy exports to the Western world, dismissed global calls for restraint and flouted international law. As a pretext for invasion, it has questioned its small neighbor’s sovereignty and cooked up cockamamie claims to excuse naked and preplanned aggression. Unlike Iraq in 1990, however, Russia in 2008 has veto power on the UN Security Council. And, unlike Kuwait, Georgia does not have natural resources of its own, but serves as a strategic conduit for Caspian crude on its way to Europe and the broader West.

The looming debate in Congress over building U.S. missiles defense sites in eastern Europe could be significantly altered in the wake of Russia’s war with neighboring Georgia.

The Bush administration is moving quickly to cement agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic in a rush to break ground on interceptor and radar sites in those two countries before leaving office. Democrats in Congress have stymied these efforts by using their legislative powers to postpone groundbreaking on the sites.

A European democracy is under full-scale attack from Russia, and EU and Nato leaders are either wringing their hands or sitting on them. The continuing conflict in Georgia is not really about the small south-Caucasus country. By opening up a three-front offensive on Georgia, Moscow is deliberately testing Europe's mettle. The broader west – European countries, the US, Canada and the host of post-1945 international institutions – are of course also being tested. But Moscow is particularly interested in how Europe's heavyweights will react. In the wake of serious violence and immense geopolitical consequences, however, Britain, France and Germany have done nothing that might be expected of great powers.

French energy firm Gaz de France recently canceled its bid to become the seventh member of Nabucco pipeline consortium.  
 
The French gas company’s involvement with the Nabucco pipeline was contentious.  Turkish energy officials opposed Gaz de France’s involvement with the Nabucco pipeline because of the French National Assembly’s approval of a bill which made it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered at the hands of the Ottomans during the First World War.  
 
Despite resistance, however, France continued to show interest in participating as recently as last month.  Details of the cancellation were not given, though Jean Sirelli of Gaz de France-Suez said that it would consider rejoining if the pipeline was extended to France.   
 
My take on it is that it doesn't really matter.  Nabucco has enough leadership; what it needs are the actual supplies.  Dubbed 'a pipeline without gas,' the Nabucco pipeline project has floundered in the absence of a natural gas source.  Azerbaijan, the onetime hope for the pipeline’s leadership, is no longer “feasible” as a supplier.  In the absence of a single gas source, Nabucco leadership is deliberating a more multilateral approach for the pipeline, potentially supplying Europe an amalgamation of Middle Eastern, Northern African, and Eurasian gas.  This would raise the multi-billion dollar price tag on Nabucco even higher, but at the very least save its face.      

It is now a familiar line among commentators to point out that Ukraine’s post-Orange European Union prospects are ironically being delayed by political struggles between Western-leaning factions. But, the EU itself is in the midst of internal squabbles that might threaten the future of Ukraine’s accession. Ireland’s recent rejection of the EU's Lisbon Treaty has led to two contrasting storylines about the Union’s prospects for further enlargement: no more deepening means no more widening or reduced internal focus opens the door to priorities on the periphery, such as Ukraine.