The widespread prohibition in the Islamic world aganst depicting the Prophet Mohammed springs from a worry that even well-intentioned images could lead to idolatry or show disrespect for a figure Islam considers the model of human perfection.

Several thousand students massed on the al-Azhar University campus in Cairo today to protest against publication of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, part of a spreading and often violent string of demonstrations across the Muslim world.

THE ruling Palestinian Fatah Party negotiated feverishly yesterday, trying to persuade young activists from breaking away to form their own faction, a split that might boost the prospects of Hamas militants in parliamentary elections next month.

MUSLIMS worldwide are the main perpetrators of terrorism, a humiliating and painful truth that must be acknowledged, a prominent Arab writer said as Middle East media and officials registered their horror at the bloody rebel siege of a Russian school.

Muslims worldwide are the main perpetrators of terrorism, a humiliating and painful truth that must be acknowledged, a prominent Arab writer said today, as Middle East media and officials registered their horror at the bloody rebel siege of a Russian school.

Anti-Israel demonstrations erupted across the Arab world today after Israel assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, with a missile attack outside a Gaza City mosque.