Looking for the next young Muslim leader who can change the world for the better? Look no further, or at least there's now a breakthrough way to find and foster them. Because the leading Islamic reality TV show in Malaysia, which sets out to discover and promote new Muslim leaders in ways similar to what the wildly popular American Idol does with musicians, is about to go global. It's called Imam Muda, or "Young Leader," and it's likely to take the religious entertainment industry by storm.

Building on the extremely successful format (if also extremely over-used in Euro-American television) of other star-making reality shows, from Survivor to the Biggest Loser, the producers of the 10-part series intend to roll out versions for the whole Islamic world. The last-person-standing premise in this case seeks to identify and popularize potential role models for Muslim youth, who in America especially are sorely needed due to maniacally biased media portrayals.

Who won this time? During a live Friday-night broadcast, a 26-year-old religious scholar named Muhammad Asyraf Ridzuan beat 27-year-old religious teacher Hizbur Rahman. What were the competitions? They included displaying skill and tact in counseling young Muslims, reciting verses from the Koran, singing hymns and performing Islamic religious rituals. Who would have thought that being the most pious person could win you awesome prizes?

The quixotic writing of Newsweek's Jordan Michael Smith seems to be another attempt by an armchair historian in explaining the rationale for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, this time on the coattails of the 15^th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica. Smith's take is almost an identical form from an article by David Aaronovitch four years earlier.

The heart of Smith’s argument is his correlation between failures in the cohesion of international cooperation, and an American will or responsibility to persecute rogue regimes — alone if necessary — and save the innocent populations around world.

Saying that “Srebrenica [had] a lot to do with why Americans are now in Iraq,” Smith goes on to tweak and oversimplify the events leading to the Serbian massacre of over 8,000 Bosniaks, blaming everyone but the Serbian military and government for any wrongdoing. Smith casually points the finger at everyone else for not having utilized a crystal ball, and for not having perfected such unprecedented multilateral cooperation beforehand. Content to believe that a unilateral preemptive ground assault is still the logical course of action for any foreign conflict, Smith hints that the United States should have stuck with a dictatorial and exclusionist foreign policy that acts on gut instinct.

“There’s going to be a lot of photographers,” said Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren last week, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Obama, scheduled to take place today at the White House.

This, incidentally, was something of a joke: as many in Israel still recall, the usual photo opportunities and back-slapping camaraderie of a state visit were conspicuously absent during Netanyahu’s last sojourn to the U.S. back in March. The Prime Minister, who arrived in Washington on the heels of the great Joe Biden settlements debacle, received from Obama, according to the Times of London, “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea.” One can only assume that’s a bad thing, as far as Presidential receptions are concerned.

Netanyahu’s offense was not only his government’s humiliation of the hapless Biden — one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the government — but more fundamentally his uncompromising stance on the future status of East Jerusalem. Conquered along with the rest of the West Bank during the 1967 war and formally annexed to Israel by the Knesset in 1980, East Jerusalem remains occupied territory under international law. The United States, like all other countries in the world (save Israel), recognizes neither the legitimacy of that annexation nor the legality of the Jewish settlements that have been methodically planted along the city’s perimeter since 1967.

In the market for a private army? You can probably purchase Blackwater — yes, the infamous team of private military contractors employed by the U.S. government in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq — for very cheap.

That's because the company's owner, Erik Prince, announced earlier this month that the firm is up for sale. Sources close to the company claim that Prince intends to sell the company quickly, in a "fast move within a couple of months," after which he plans to leave the country and relocate to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In its statement to the public announcing the planned sale earlier this month, Blackwater stated, "Xe's new management team has made significant changes and improvements to the company over the last 15 months, which have enabled the company to better serve the U.S. government and other customers, and will deliver additional value to a purchaser."

But, it is altogether unclear how much value a company that is at the center of a host of pending civil lawsuits in U.S. courts for crimes in Iraq could hold for potential buyers.

As the United States proceeds with its withdrawal plan, which will see some 50,000 American soldiers redeployed out of Iraq by summer’s end, U.S.-affiliated Iraqis — the interpreters, civil experts, and others who’ve courageously supported efforts to improve security and rebuild their tattered nation — are increasingly isolated and susceptible to attack by Iraqi insurgents all too eager to begin settling scores.

With a target on their backs and their allies withdrawing, one would expect American-affiliated Iraqis to turn inward — to their families and perhaps a small circle of lifelong, trustworthy friends — for moral support and corporeal protection. And one would hope that they could count on those familial and fraternal bonds to see them through the bleak days ahead. One would hope.

An Iraqi interpreter, Hameed al-Daraji, who’d worked for the U.S. military for some seven years, was gunned down by his son and nephew in his Samarra home late last week. According to the Associated Press’ early reporting, al-Daraji’s family had fought often with the erstwhile translator for continuing to “collaborate” with the Americans and demanded he quit, an entreaty that he persistently refused. Al-Daraji’s son and nephew, who shot their father and uncle in the chest at point-blank range, were apparently put up to the shooting by an al-Qaeda linked group.

Last Tuesday it was reported that a Muslim Student Union has been suspended from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) campus for one year, and disciplinary probation for an additional year. The members of the group are also required to perform 50 hours of university approved community service, and additionally, the authorized officers of the Muslim Student Union cannot act as “authorized signers” for any other student organization.

University officials haven't finalized this action, but it certainly appears to be heading in that direction. This would be the first time a student organization has been suspended from UCI for anything other than drinking or hazing.

So what happened?

It's just like playing with rubber ducks in the bath, except if one of them explodes, World War III starts.

As if the recent flotilla fiascos and botched government responses  (worldwide, not only Israel's) to them weren't enough, increasingly-isloated Israel is now stationing three German-built "Dolphin" submarines in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran, all equipped with cruise missiles capped with nuclear warheads.

"It would surely be madness for Israel to launch a nuclear attack against Iran," Executive Director of the leading U.S. anti-nuclear organization Peace Action, Kevin Martin, said in a rapid-response email blast to members. But he added that it is "an act I wish I could say with confidence is unlikely. "

And, as if that weren't enough, Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to ensure that it can stand down its air defense if Israel were to launch a nuclear attack against Iran's nuclear development sites, apparently a longstanding arrangement just now finalized logistically. Most shocking of all, according the U.K.'s The Times, the U.S. State Department is in collusion with this Saudi-Israeli nuclear attack plan with German support.