Islam does not preach terrorism, jihad is not defined as a war against Americans and only one-fifth of Muslims are Arabs.

As the controversy over the proposed Islamic Cultural Center in Lower Manhattan continues to fester, perhaps a historical perspective on such matters is worth considering.

HACKENSACK, N.J. - Last year, Gaby Gonzalez wore black nail polish and black eye shadow. She had a messy room, standoffs with mom and occasional drinks. Today, the Honduran-born 20-year-old is known as Sister Gaby.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistan agreed Monday to suspend military offensives and impose Islamic law in part of the restive northwest, making a gesture it hopes will help calm the Taliban insurgency while rejecting Washington's call for tougher measures against militants.

AHMADABAD, India - An obscure Islamic militant group warning of "the terror of Death" claimed responsibility for bombings that killed at least 45 people and authorities stepped up security Sunday after India's second series of blasts in two days.

If the heads of the eight democratic nations gathered in Scotland were inclined to believe progress was being made because the war on terror was lately quiescent, that complacency was shattered Thursday morning by a series of lethal blasts in London’s public transportation network.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility for Thursday's blasts in London, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wayne Kopping: This Thursday, President Barack Obama will address the Muslim world from Egypt. Obama should take this opportunity to address radical Islam, and in particular the Muslim Brotherhood. If now is not the time, then when?

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage against an Islamic civil rights group over its use of a portion of his show in which he called the Quran a "book of hate."

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona is hosting a film screening at the Capitol for a far-right Dutch lawmaker who claims that Islam inspires terrorism.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Advancing ever closer to Somalia's beleaguered capital, heavily armed Islamic fighters declared Thursday they will use strict Muslim rules to bring their lawless Horn of Africa country back under control.

URUMQI, China - A Chinese Islamic group that has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics released a new video warning Muslims to avoid being on planes, trains and buses with Chinese at the games, a U.S. group that monitors militant organizations said Thursday.

The events of the past week have had an Alice-in-Wonderland quality. Across the world, mobs have screamed for vengeance, burned effigies and flags, stormed military facilities and torched embassies — and over what?

MIAMI - Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted Thursday of helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's zeal to clamp down on terrorism.

American hearts surely go out to Russians, who have once again suffered a terrorist attack, this last one in a school with more than 350 hostages dead, many of them children.

A Tempe doctor has been barred from the United States on accusations he’s linked to terrorists, his attorney said Thursday.

A Tempe doctor has been barred from the United States on accusations he’s linked to terrorists, his attorney said Thursday.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Islamic groups vowed Monday to keep up their anti-American protests over a purported CIA airstrike that Pakistan says killed innocent civilians instead of the apparent target - al-Qaida's No. 2 leader.

MUNICH, Germany - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged America's allies to increase their military spending to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire." He also urged the world to work for a "diplomatic solution" to halt Iran's nuclear program.

Instead of fighting foreign wars and tolerating invasive TSA searches at home, a more sensible solution to terrorism might be to simply stop granting visas to al-Qaeda operatives to come to America in the first place. All 19 of the 9/11 terrorists and the underwear bomber had government-issued visas. How would they have gotten here without them? Our east and west coasts are protected by vast oceans, and we can protect our north and south by bringing the troops home and stationing them on those borders.

It could be as important as almost anything in the war against terrorism: Following a massacre in a Russian schoolhouse, many Muslim voices are concurring with a writer who said that the killers betrayed a religion that forbids even "the felling of trees in the absence of urgent necessity."

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Counterterrorism officials in Greece's rough neighborhood are concerned al-Qaida or other groups may be plotting attacks on the Summer Olympics from elsewhere in the southern Balkans, or targeting foreign athletes who plan to train in countries like Bulgaria.

TORONTO - Twelve men accused of scheming to blow up Canadian targets in a terrorist plot that authorities say was inspired by al-Qaida faced a formal hearing Tuesday on the charges against them.