Sri Sri Ravi Shankar seems to be one of India's biggest export products these days. His popularity already being huge in India itself, many positive reports in several (above all American) media outlets make the guru hugely popular world wide. His popularity reminds us of other bestseller gurus before him, like Maharishi or Osho. But these examples in turn might remind us about the fact that we should be cautious when it comes to multi-millionaire gurus.

With Abdullah Gül just elected as President of Turkey, the headscarf debate has yet again been brought to the forefront. Although the ban on wearing headscarves in public places took effect in 1998, the discussion has never stopped and has even gained new momentum with the possibility of a First Lady who covers her head. However, renewed attention does not necessarily bring new insights. The headscarf debate in Turkey is therefore not only alive but also deadlocked.

It is a general tendency these days to regard Turkey as the best or the only example of a secular Islamic country. In technical political terms this might be true. But to think that this means that Turkey is the only country where a moderate Islam is the mainstream, or where a predominantly Muslim society searches for ways to enlarge 'democratic' values, is far from correct.

Reuters reported that Al Qaeda was the prime suspect in suicide bombings that cost the life of at least 175 Yazidis, a non-Islamic Kurdish group that lives in northern Iraq, Syria and Turkey and has its own religion. Reuters gave some facts about the rather unknown group. But many of the facts were either inadequately presented or simply wrong.

The number of Muslims in a country is negatively correlated to the incidents of HIV/AIDS infection in people. This appears to be the finding of a scientific paper recently published by the open-access journal, PLoS ONE.