Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, shadowy leader of the jihadist group that's taken over much of Iraq and self-appointed leader of the world's Muslims, made an unprecedented public appearance at the beginning of last week—and was promptly criticized for being a sheikh with a chic fashion watch.

After a recent security crackdown in Xinjiang, a region in the northwest of China, Chinese authorities are imposing a ban on Ramadan fasting for students, government officials, and civil servants, claiming that the ban is aimed at protecting people's "wellbeing."

"Iraq is not our neighbor, ISIS is our neighbor," a Kurdish government official tells VICE. The Kurds have staked out their real estate and apparently come to an understanding with the Islamists to their south. The nation of Iraq is fast becoming a political fiction, in much the way it began.

Lionel Messi, the Argentine soccer superstar, reportedly got online accolades for his World Cup heroism this weekend from the Islamic militants rapidly taking over Iraq—along with an invitation to "join the jihadist call," according to news reports.

The other Sunday, my oldest brother, Ben, came to Fort Greene from Manhattan. It's our every-other-week ritual.

We are a religious nation, even though that religious belief is rapidly fading and notoriously shallow. What we hunger for is real communion with the sacred, the unexpected voice of a mysterious god that occasionally speaks directly to our consciousness, as the old gods spoke to Moses and Mohammad or Achilles and Odysseus. This is why 200,000 people followed Horse_ebooks on Twitter. Horse_ebooks was our inscrutable god speaking in riddles.

New York-based data scientist Aditya Mukerjee admits that his physical appearance regularly ensures that he'll get hassled by airport security, but none of his past experiences with being "randomly selected" could have prepared him for the nightmare that ensued following a standard TSA pat-down earlier this month.

A female politician who was legitimately elected "first alternate member" of the city council in Qazvin, Iran, was denied her right to sit among the other representatives because she was deemed "too sexy" by the conservative election review board.

Apparently, a Muslim was permitted to write a book, which has proved to be traumatic for some folks.

Florida is more scared of Islamic theocracy than anything else in the world, except maybe your Aunt Ethel in Boynton Beach. Fortunately, Florida has figured out how to neutralize both threats with a single proposed law.

Norway loves Justin Bieber.

One of the North Carolina state representatives who co-sponsored a Constitution-overriding bill to declare an official state religion made it fairly clear to a constituent that it was unlikely Islam would be picked as the Tar Heel State's One True Belief System.

We're busy dealing with our own censorship issues here in the United States, but people in Bangladesh are kicking it up a notch (BAM!), by calling for the death penalty for any blogger that insults Islam.

The Tennessee legislature dodged a potential firestorm today when lawmakers were able to come together and reassure one another that a possible Muslim foot bath was, in fact, just a mop sink.

This Indonesian quasi-Muslim anonymous sex ritual proves that all faiths have a lot to learn from one another.

Pamela Geller's terrible pro-Israel, anti-Islam subway ads have already been defiled in ways both artistic and journalistic. Now three separate religious organizations—two Christian and one Jewish—are beating Geller at her own game with strategically placed anti-anti-Islam subway ads.

The Swedish Metro newspaper reported today that expendable furniture behemoth Ikea had Photoshopped its Saudi Arabian catalogues to completely exclude women from the pages. Scenes that included a mother, a father, and a child in other catalogues, for instance, had been touched up to be just a father and a kid. Other settings eliminated people altogether rather than include a woman in the image. Naturally, many people were furious about the perceived misogyny, especially when Ikea, through its charitable donations, attempts to put on a very pro-woman stance.

Why does Barack Obama hate Christians so much? The notorious anti-Jesus President is refusing to condemn the controversial work Piss Christ by Andres Serrano.

"MUSLIM RAGE," screams Newsweek's new cover story about last week's violent anti-American protests. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the well-known anti-Islam activist, is here to tell "us" (The_West) how to "end it." And it's true, isn't it? All Muslims are constantly raging about everything. So to pay tribute to Ali's article — which describes the protesters as "the mainstream of contemporary Islam" — and the subtle, smart cover that accompanies it, we've collected 13 striking, powerful images of MUSLIM RAGE.