Muhammed Muheisen / AP

The Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein pauses during a media conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2006.

JERUSALEM - Israeli police arrested the top Palestinian Muslim religious leader in Jerusalem on Wednesday and questioned him for six hours about a fracas between Palestinians and Israelis at al-Aqsa mosque before releasing him without charge.

Palestinian leaders and neighboring Jordan condemned the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem after Palestinian worshipers scuffled with Israelis near Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque on Tuesday.

Israeli President Shimon Peres sought to reassure Jordan, one of the few Arab powers to have recognized the Jewish state, that religious freedom in Jerusalem would be upheld.

Hussein's arrest came the same day Israel celebrated the anniversary of its capture of East Jerusalem, where al-Aqsa is located, from Jordanian control in the 1967 Middle East war.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Hussein was arrested to answer questions about what he called the "public disturbance" near al-Aqsa, which overlooks Judaism's Western Wall. Rosenfeld said no charges were filed after Hussein was questioned for six hours.

"They took me from my house at eight in the morning, accusing me of incitement," Hussein told Reuters. "I do not incite. I protect al-Aqsa mosque, and that is the nature of my work."

The Palestinian Authority appoints the Grand Mufti in consultation with local religious leaders, but Jordan's monarchy, which has long been a custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem, pays religious personnel's salaries and contributes toward the upkeep of the shrines.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the arrest, calling it "a flagrant challenge to the freedom of worship".

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said it was a "grave escalation in Israel's relentless violations of international law".

Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour told parliament that Amman would convey through its ambassador in Tel Aviv "the kingdom's rejection of the Israeli army and settlers' recurring and increasing attacks on the holy al-Aqsa", and accused Israel of "premeditated acts that spelt evil intent".

Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, though its occupation of the east of the city has never been recognized internationally. The Palestinians say East Jerusalem must be the capital of their future state.

Peres hopes for peace
Officiating at a "Jerusalem Day" ceremony, Peres described Israel's 1994 peace deal with Jordan as possible precedent for an accord with the Palestinians and inter-faith understanding.

"Jerusalem is dear to us. Peace with Jordan is dear to us. I want to say loudly and clearly that we respect all the holy sites of all religions and will do everything necessary to protect them as agreed between us," Peres said.

Hussein, who has held his post since 2006, said it was the first time Israeli authorities had arrested and questioned him. Since 1967, at least one previous mufti had been detained by Israeli police, he said.

Rosenfeld said Tuesday's confrontation began when Israeli police detained a Palestinian who wanted to enter the plaza but refused to present his identification card.

It developed into a scuffle in which Muslim worshipers threw chairs at Jewish visitors at the site, he added.

There were fresh confrontations on Wednesday between Muslims and Jews outside Jerusalem's walled Old City, where al-Aqsa is located. Police arrested 18 Palestinians, Rosenfeld said. There were no casualties.

Al-Aqsa mosque is one of the most sensitive sites in the city. Muslims see it as one of their holiest places along with Mecca and Medina, believing the Prophet Mohammad ascended into heaven from the spot during a night journey to Jerusalem.

It is also the most sacred site in Judaism, with Jews revering it as the place where biblical King Solomon built the first temple 3,000 years ago. A second temple there was razed by the Romans in 70 AD.

The future status of Jerusalem is seen as one of the most difficult topics to be resolved in any negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Direct talks between the two sides broke down in 2010. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to revive the discussions and was due to meet Israel's chief negotiator Tzipi Livni in Rome later on Wednesday.

The brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings may have been headed for New York to party after the attack, the New York police commissioner said Wednesday.

“There was some information that they may have been intent on coming to New York, but not to continue doing what they’re doing,” Kelly told reporters at police headquarters. “The information that we received said something about a party, or having a party.”

A man authorities say was carjacked by the brothers has told investigators he believes one of the brothers said “Manhattan” before he escaped, but investigators have cautioned that it may have been a language mixup because the brothers were speaking with Russian dialects.

The surviving brother has told investigators that the pair acted alone, were inspired by an al Qaeda propaganda magazine, and plotted the bombing to defend Islam after the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, federal law enforcement officials told NBC News.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed early Friday after a shootout with police in the Boston suburbs. His younger brother and alleged accomplice, Dzhokhar, is in fair condition at a Boston hospital. The brothers killed a campus patrol officer and carjacked an SUV before the shootout, authorities have said.

Homemade explosives and one semi-automatic handgun believed to belong to the brothers were recovered by investigators, officials said. The gun’s serial number was obliterated, but Massachusetts state police were working to reveal the number.

Slideshow: Aftermath and reaction following Boston bombings

Cj Gunther / EPA

Heightened security, empty streets, and memorials mark the the days after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Launch slideshow

Cambridge police, meanwhile, released a booking photo of Tamerlan Tsarnaev from a 2009 domestic violence arrest during which he was accused of assaulting his girlfriend.

In a closed-door session on Wednesday, members of the House Intelligence Committee were briefed by the FBI and other federal agencies on the ongoing investigation. Among the issues discussed is what federal authorities knew about Tamerlan Tsarnaev's trip to Russia as well as a timeline on his radicalization. 

Also, according to an interview with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Mich., the ranking member on the committee, it was learned that the device used to trigger the explosives was a remote control for a toy, not a cellphone as thought earlier.

Nine days after the twin blasts near the marathon finish line, authorities early Wednesday reopened the section of Boylston Street in central Boston where the first bomb went off.

The site of the explosion has been paved with fresh cement and is surrounded by orange construction cones but opened to foot traffic. People stopped to pay respects and take photos.

“The people of Boston are strong like cement. Strong people. They get together when it’s needed,” said Robert Bibias, a city masonry worker who early Wednesday cemented over what had been a blood-stained crime scene.

Thousands of people, including police from all over the country, gathered at the baseball stadium of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a memorial service for Sean Collier, the campus patrol officer who authorities said was shot to death by the Tsarnaev brothers before the carjacking and shootout.

With police snipers holding positions atop nearby buildings, Vice President Joe Biden called the perpetrators of the marathon bombing “twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis.”

“The irony is, we read about these events, we experience them, but the truth is, on every frontier, terrorism as a weapon is losing,” he said. “It is not gaining adherents.”

Tamerlan Tsarnaev is seen in a booking photo from a 2009 arrest in Cambridge, Mass.

The vice president went on: “We will not hunker down. We will not be intimidated.”

His wife, Dr. Jill Biden, visited Boylston Street on Wednesday.

Private funerals were held Tuesday for Collier and for Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy killed near the finish line. Two other people were killed at the marathon, and more than 200 were injured, including 39 who were still hospitalized Wednesday.

In Russia, the brothers’ aunt said that a Boston-area mosque has refused to hold a funeral for Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

American authorities have told the family that they can have Tsarnaev’s body, and an uncle approached the mosque to request a burial and funeral but was declined, said the aunt, Patimat Suleimanova.

She said that she did not know the name of the mosque but that it was one the family attended. A mosque in Cambridge, Mass., has said that Tsarnaev attended and occasionally caused disruptions and that mosque leaders threatened to kick him out.

A spokesman for the Cambridge mosque, Yusufi Vali, said the mosque had not heard from the family.

“There were some reports out there that we had rejected his burial, and — or the family had reached out to us, rather. And to our knowledge, you know, the family has not reached out to us,” he said on the MSNBC program “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

The mosque, run by the Islamic Society of Boston, has also said that congregants have been questioned by the FBI. The mosque did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday from NBC News.

Earlier this week, Imam Talal Eid of the Islamic Institute of Boston, a separate institution, told The Huffington Post: “I would not be willing to do a funeral for him. This is a person who deliberately killed people. There is no room for him as a Muslim.”

NBC News' Adrienne Mong, Alastair Jamieson, Bill Dedman and Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.

Related:

• Full coverage of the Boston Marathon tragedy
• Wife of dead bombing suspect in 'absolute shock'
• FBI quizzes members of mosque suspect attended

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 24, 2013 7:14 AM EDT

A young Saudi man faces being forcibly paralyzed as a punishment under Islamic sharia law for a crime that left his victim confined to a wheelchair – a ruling condemned by a human rights group Thursday.

Ali al-Khawaher, 24, was convicted of stabbing a childhood friend in the spine during a dispute a decade ago, according to reports in Saudi Arabian media including Al Hayat and Al Watan (link in Arabic).

Under sharia law, courts may set an eye-for-an-eye punishment for crimes – but victims may pardon convicts in exchange for so-called blood money.

In this case, the victim requested $533,000 – an amount he later reduced to $266,000 – but al-Khawaher’s mother told Al Hayat she did not have even a fraction of this money, meaning the court can issue an order for retribution instead.

Although the stabbing happened in 2003, the court order was only issued on Saturday.

“Ten years have passed with hundreds of sleepless nights,” Al Hayat quoted al-Khawaher's mother as saying. “My hair has become grey at a young age because of my son’s problem. I have been frightened to death whenever I think about my son’s fate and that he will have to be paralyzed.”

Amnesty International condemned the punishment.

“Paralyzing someone as punishment for a crime would be torture,” said Ann Harrison, the organization’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director.

“That such a punishment might be implemented is utterly shocking, even in a context where flogging is frequently imposed as a punishment for some offences, as happens in Saudi Arabia," she added. “It is time the authorities in Saudi Arabia start respecting their international legal obligations and remove these terrible punishments from the law.”

Saudi judges have in the past ordered sharia punishments that include tooth extraction, flogging, eye gouging and -- in murder cases -- death, Reuters reported.

U.K. Islamic commentator Ajmal Masroor told the U.K.'s Sky News channel that even most Muslims would be “startled” by the court ruling, adding: "I cannot fathom where they would find a doctor willing to carry out such an act."

NBC News' Lubna Hussain contributed to this report.

Related:

Activists decry 'act of sheer brutality' after Saudi Arabia executes 7 young men

2,080 lashes for Saudi man who raped daughter

Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Muslims prepare to pray around the coffins of the victims of a fire during funerals at Yaeway cemetery in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday.

YANGON - A fire caused by faulty electrical equipment killed 13 boys at an Islamic school in Yangon on Tuesday, the fire service said, although some Muslims voiced concern since it came after a wave of anti-Muslim violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The boys suffocated after the fire broke out in a dormitory of the school in the central, multi-ethnic Botataung district of the former capital at about 2:40 a.m. (4:10 p.m. ET on Monday), neighbors and officials said.

Yangon Region Fire Service said it was setting up a team to investigate the fire with the police, the electricity company and representatives from Muslim groups.

"The fire, caused by the overheating of the transformer placed under the staircase, spread, trapping the boys sleeping in the attic. As a result, 13 twelve-year-old boys died of suffocation after inhaling smoke," a duty fire officer said, reading from a statement.

Armed riot police cordoned off the area but the crowd that had assembled in the area remained peaceful.

According to official records, electrical faults and overheating are major causes of fires in Yangon.

But, against the background of the recent sectarian violence, many Muslims were "very suspicious" about the Yangon fire, said Mya Aye, a Muslim member of the 88 Generation Students' pro-democracy group.

"We are worried and sad because innocent children died," he said.

A funeral for the 13 boys was due to be held on Tuesday afternoon.

Yangon, by far the biggest city in Myanmar, escaped the anti-Muslim violence in March although authorities posted police outside mosques and ordered restaurants in some areas to close early on some evenings as a precaution. 

Related:

PhotoBlog: Freedom of the press returns to Myanmar after 50 years

Muslims vanish as Buddhist attacks approach Myanmar's biggest city

Read more Asia-Pacific stories on NBCNews.com

Lego

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, says the Lego play set modeled on the Jabba The Hutt alien's fictional home was culturally insensitive.

MUNICH – Danish toy maker Lego plans to stop selling a model of the “palace” of slug-like Star Wars character Jabba The Hutt after complaints that it resembles a revered mosque, according to a group that raised the grievance.

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, said Monday the play set modeled on the obese alien’s fictional home was culturally insensitive.

Photo by Julian Finney / Getty Images

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, said the Lego version of Jabba The Hutt's palace resembles Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, a historic mosque that became a model for other centers of Islam and is now a museum.

“This does not belong in children’s bedrooms,” he said. “And the minaret-like tower features machine guns. Children will become insensitive to violence and other cultures.”

After a meeting between his organization and the company last week in Munich, Germany, Lego promised to stop selling the play set, Kilic said.

Lego posted on Twitter Monday that it has always intended to stop selling the item at the end of the year. “We only keep a product in the assortment for a few years and it was scheduled to exit in 2013 from launch,” the tweet said.

However, there was no mention of those original plans in a January press release which said: “The LEGO Group regrets that the product has caused the members of the Turkish cultural community to interpret it wrongly.”

Roar Trangbæk, a Lego spokesman, on Monday denied that the group had anything to do with their decision.

“The decision to terminate this particular product is not based on any dialogue with the mentioned community," Trangbæk said. "We regret the misinterpretation but we fully stand behind the product.”

Trangbæk also said that it is the company's policy not to design models that depict religious structures. 

The Danish toy giant has in recent years made building sets modeled on hit movies including Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars.

In the 1983 science-fiction blockbuster “Return of the Jedi”, Jabba uses Princess Leia as his slave at the palace.

Lego

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, says the Lego play set modeled on the Jabba the Hutt alien's fictional home was culturally insensitive.

Kilic believed that the Lego version, aimed at 9- to 14-year-olds, resembles Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, a historic mosque that became a model for other centers of Islam and is now a museum in the Turkish city.

Kilic said his organization was notified of the issue by an outraged Austrian father, whose sister had given the Lego set to his son last Christmas. The father returned the toy to the store, Kilic said, and the Turkish Cultural Association petitioned Lego to drop the play set from its line-up.

Kilic said the issue was not merely cultural, but also a reminder that parents should be more thoughtful about what toys their kids play with.

“We’re not the Taliban of Vienna,” he said of his independent, Vienna-based organization with about 700 members, “but we do give thought to our country and our continent.”

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 1, 2013 10:44 AM EDT

Angelo Carconi / AP

Pope Francis is driven through the crowd in in St. Peter's Square for his inaugural Mass at the Vatican on Tuesday, Mar. 19, 2013. Francis took his name from Francis of Assisi, who was known for his concern for the poor and downtrodden, and for a 13th century encounter with the Sultan of Egypt.

Catholics and Muslims have come a long way since the Crusades, but during the tenure of Pope Benedict XVI, relations between the world’s two largest religions hit the skids.

So it was with relief and renewed optimism that prominent Muslims and interfaith advocates cheered the newly anointed Pope Francis.

"We are hoping for better relations with the Vatican after the election of the new pope," Mahmud Azab, adviser for inter-faith affairs at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning in Cairo, told AFP. "We congratulate the Church of St. Peter and all Catholics around the world."

From the start, Benedict put less energy in reaching out to other religions than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who blazed the trail for Catholic relations with Muslims and other religions through his tireless travels and scores of meetings and prayer with imams around the world.

Under John Paul, the Vatican launched the World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986, which was at first a hard sell for prominent Muslims, said Father Thomas Michel, who has a PhD in Islamic studies and headed John Paul’s office for Islam for 13 years.

"By the second one [World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1993] Muslims could see he didn’t have any other agenda — that he wasn’t going to get them all together and convince them to become Christians," said Michel, now a professor of Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University.

"By the time of the third, in 2002, there were so many leaders of Muslims organizations there wasn’t room for them on the podium… I don’t think Muslims changed so much, but what changed was the level of trust."

Mohammed brought 'evil and inhuman'
But when Benedict gave a controversial speech at the University of Regensburg in Germany in 2006 — a little more than a year after his installation as pope — he sparked fury across the Muslim world by quoting a Byzantine Emperor as saying, "show me just what Mohammed brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman."

Channi Anand / AP file

Muslim protestors rally in Jammu, India on Sept. 15, 2006 after Pope Benedict XVI made a controversial speech at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

In response to the pope's comments — though some argued they had been misunderstood — 138 leading Muslim scholars from around the world signed an open letter of protest to Benedict. In some countries there were protests and attacks on churches.

"It was a very strained period of the relationship," said John Esposito, professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University.

The Vatican took measures to patch up the fallout from Regensburg speech — which Vatican officials reportedly called "the accident." 

They held formal meetings with the Muslim leaders who had launched a "common word" initiative emphasizing the shared principles at the core of Christian and Islamic scriptures.

In October 2006, Benedict traveled to Turkey, making a symbolic visit to the ornate Blue Mosque in Instanbul where he emphasized his desire for reconciliation between Muslims and Christians.

And in 2009, Benedict traveled to Jordan and visited the site where Jesus was baptized, emphasizing the "common history" of Christianity and Islam. Even so, he stopped short of praying with his Muslim hosts in a mosque, or taking his shoes off to enter the prayer hall.

Dialogue resumed, but the relationship remained cool.

There are some early signs that Pope Francis could pick up where Pope John Paul II left off.

Reports from Argentina citing local Muslim leaders suggest that Francis — formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires — was a friend to the Muslim community.

One report out of the country said that in 2006 Bergoglio spoke out against the Regensburg speech, according to the Daily Telegraph of London.

Quick response to Francis
"Pope Benedict's statements don't reflect my own opinions," he said in a local press interview, according to the report. "These statements will serve to destroy in 20 seconds the careful construction of a relationship with Islam that Pope John Paul II built over the last twenty years."

That report has not been confirmed by NBC News.

But a lot of Muslim optimism about Francis is based simply on hunches about his character.

The initial impression of the pope — as a man who values simplicity, openness, and the ability to connect with all people — is appealing to Muslims, said Esposito.

Slideshow: The election of Pope Francis

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Cardinals from around the world gathered in the Vatican to elect the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Launch slideshow

For the new pope’s installation ceremony, he noted: "They went out of their way to talk about how people of all major faiths are invited. From the other side, it’s interesting to see how quick Muslims were… to say how they look forward to working with him."

He referred to public statements issued by prominent imams as well as larger Muslim civil rights groups including the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Michel saw the same optimism about Pope Francis in a flood of email from Muslims.

"They are so happy and looking forward to working with him," he said. "He’s coming in as every pope does with a real fund of good will and they are really hoping that he will be someone he can work with."

Building trust and influence
If Francis establishes a relationship of trust with Muslims, it could have impact beyond just warm and fuzzy feelings, some observers believe.

A pope with a new approach could be important in a Muslim-majority country like Pakistan, where minority Christians -- most of them Catholics -- suffer persecution, says Jeff Siddique, a Muslim-American in Seattle who was born in Pakistan.

"If (Pope Francis) can build a relationship with the leadership in Pakistan, he may be able to convince them that protecting the Christians in Pakistan is a good thing to do," he said.

Likewise, he may be able to restart discussions with Al-Azhar University in Egypt, which cut off dialogue with the Vatican in 2011 after Benedict called for greater protections for non-Muslims after a suicide bomber attacked a church in Egypt, killing 23 people. Al-Azhar cut ties over what it said was Benedict’s "repeated treatment of Islam in a negative way."

To have an influence across religions requires a foundation of trust, said Michel.

"When they trust each other they can speak freely," he said. "If people come on as scolds or know-it-alls, they get their backs up and won’t accept it."

For some seeking clues about the pontiff’s position on Christian-Muslim relations, his choice of Francis — after Francis of Assisi — has significance beyond his emphasis on simplicity and concern for the poor and downtrodden.

A 13th century story describes how St. Francis left the camp of the crusaders who were attacking the walled Egyptian city of Damietta, and dared to cross enemy lines to meet with Malik al-Kamil, the sultan of Egypt. He risked being killed, but instead, he had a fruitful conversation with the Muslim leader and left unharmed.

The encounter is played up in newer biographies as a pivotal moment of engagement between the two religions.

"We’re seeing the church interpret Francis in modern times as a bridge," said Paul Moses, author of "The Saint and the Sultan," a 2009 book which explores the encounter. "To Muslims ears, the choice of Francis for a name should sound good," he told Religion News Service.

Did Francis choose this name as an overture to Muslims?

"I’d say that it’s pushing it to say this was a factor," said Michel. Nonetheless, he said other signs favor improving ties — from both sides of the divide.

"I get the feeling of 'let's start over, let's start a new chapter. The last one was bumpy'."

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

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Full coverage of Pope Francis from NBC News

Arshad Butt / AP

Pakistani relatives of Saturday's bombing victims mourn next to the bodies in a mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, Feb. 17. Angry residents demanded government protection from an onslaught of attacks against Shiite Muslims a day after scores of people were killed in a massive bombing that a local official said was a sign that security agencies were too scared to do their jobs.

Dozens of people including schoolchildren were killed Saturday in a bomb attack carried out by extremists from Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority, police said.

A spokesman for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni group, claimed responsibility for the bomb, which caused casualties in Quetta's main bazaar, a school and a computer center. Police said most of the victims were Shiites.

-- By Gul Yousufzai, Reuters

Read the full story.

Naseer Ahmed / Reuters

A man prepares graves for the burial of victims.

Naseer Ahmed / Reuters

A girl cries during the funeral for victims of Saturday's bomb attack.

Musa Farman / EPA

A Pakistani paramilitary soldier inspects the belongings of a boy at the scene.

Yslb Pak / Zuma Press

Fire rages from destroyed buildings Feb. 16 at the site of the attack.

Naseer Ahmed / Reuters

Smoke rises in a Shiite Muslim area after the attack Feb. 16.

BAGHDAD - Several car bombs exploded in Shi'ite Muslim neighborhoods across Iraq's capital Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing at least 26 people in blasts that tore into shops, restaurants and busy commercial streets.

No-one claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sunni Muslim insurgents have stepped up their operations since the beginning of the year in a bid to undermine the Shi'ite-led government and trigger deeper intercommunal fighting.

One blast tore off shop fronts in Qaiyara district while another left the remains of a car and its twisted engine littered across a high street in the busy, commercial Karrada district packed with restaurants and shops.

"I was buying an air conditioner and suddenly there was an explosion. I threw myself on the ground. Minutes later I saw many people around, some of them dead, others wounded," said Habibiya district salesman Jumaa Kareem, his jacket spattered with blood.

Sunday's blasts followed the assassination of a senior Iraqi army intelligence officer on Saturday, the latest in a wave of suicide bombings since January. No one claimed responsibility for that attack.

Many Iraq Sunnis feel they have been sidelined and unfairly targeted by security forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the rise of the country's Shi'ite majority through the ballot box.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile power-sharing government, made up of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurds, has been paralyzed by political infighting since American troops, who invaded the OPEC country to oust Saddam in 2003, withdrew more than a year ago.

Violence is still far from the mass sectarian bloodletting that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, though insurgents have carried out at least one big attack a month since the last U.S. troops left.

More than 10 suicide attackers have struck security forces, Shi'ite targets and a Sunni lawmaker since the start of January.

In the most recent attacks, a suicide bomber killed the head of the army's intelligence school on Saturday after storming his home in a northern town. Another suicide bomber killed 26 at a Shi'ite funeral at the start of the month.

There are fears the war in neighboring Syria - where Sunni rebels are fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - could further destabilize Iraq's delicate sectarian and ethnic balance. 

AFP - Getty Images, file

Kashmir's first all-girl rock band Pragaash perform at the annual 'Battle of the Bands' in Srinagar on Dec. 23, 2012.

EDITOR'S NOTE: NBC News obscured the faces in this photo to protect the band members' identities because of safety concerns.

The only all-girl band in India’s troubled Kashmir region has split up after a controversial Muslim cleric issued a fatwa against them.

However, the cleric -- Grand Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad – is now facing a backlash with a leading human-rights lawyer planning to take him to court over his claim that the band, Pragaash, was un-Islamic and other pronouncements.

After the fatwa, the three teenage girls received online threats prompting police to arrest three people, according to several reports including one by BBC News.

Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said on Twitter that he was “glad” that arrests had been made.

In an interview with India’s NDTV, a band member named as Aneeka, who is still in high school, insisted that “nothing has forced us to quit.”

“We quit for the happiness of our people. As the grand mufti said, it is un-Islamic ... that’s why we quit,” she said. NDTV pixilated her face when the interview was broadcast.

“Mufti … is a saint. He knows about our religion and must be respected,” Aneeka added.

'They feel very harassed'
However, for human rights lawyer Parvez Imroz, of the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, the fatwa against Pragaash was the last straw and he is now planning to take Ahmad to court.

“The lives of these girls were threatened. They feel very harassed,” he said.

Imroz, who is Muslim, said the grand mufti had appointed himself to the role and set up his own “supreme court.”

Ahmad's comments about Pragaash were the latest in a number of “very controversial” fatwas over the last few years, Imroz said, including calling for Americans to leave Kashmir and for Christians to appear in his court.

“We are filing the case because he’s claiming to be some ‘grand mufti.’ Under no law is there any such title,” the lawyer said. “Kashmir is very tolerant. Music … is part of our culture. These girls, they have a right to do it, but I’m telling you we are raising the bigger question about this institution in the society, this self-appointed priest and mufti who has been giving a very reactionary … view of Islam.”

Imroz said he wanted the court to rule that Ahmad had no legal standing, describing him as a “non-entity.”

Kashmir is claimed by India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over the region. It is the only state in India where the majority of people are Muslims.

In comments posted on NDTV’s website, some expressed their anger at the criticism of the band.

“We're heading in prehistoric era thanks to morons,” one said.

“It's really disheartening to see such narrow views are still being propagated in the country,” another added.

Related:

India alleges Pakistan cross-border attack was 'pre-planned,' warns of retaliation

Nuclear-armed rivals trade barbs over 'barbaric' cross-border attacks

Yazan Homsy / Reuters file

A church in Homs was heavily damaged in fighting, as seen here in December. It is unclear whether the damage was caused by Syrian government or opposition forces.

Armed opposition groups in Syria appear to have looted Christian churches and destroyed a Shiite Muslim mosquee in recent months, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The rights group said it had previously documented the destruction of a Sunni mosque in Taftanaz by government troops fighting for President Bashar Assad.

The war has already killed more than 60,000 Syrians, according to U.N. estimates.

Human Rights Watch warned an increase in sectarian violence can only make things worse.

"The destruction of religious sites is furthering sectarian fears and compounding the tragedies of the country," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"Leaders on both sides should send a message that those who attack these sites will be held accountable," she added.

Sunni Muslims make up about three-quarters of the population, and most of the rebel fighters are Sunnis, according to the CIA's World Factbook.

Assad, however, is a member of the Alawite sect, which is more closely linked to Shiite Islam. Many of his appointees in high government and the military are also Alawites.

Human Rights Watch noted that international humanitarian law requires warring parties to avoid deliberate targeting or seizure of religious buildings that aren't being used for military purposes.

The group said it found evidence in three villages of attacks against religious sites after opposition groups had taken over and driven out government forces. In each area, religious minorities had fled in large numbers, if not entirely.

Villagers flee
In Zarzour, majority Sunnis told the group that their Shiite neighbors fled because they feared they would be attacked by opposition fighters if there was a perception that they had been supportive of government forces.

The Sunni villagers told Human Rights Watch that the Shiites had given "preferential treatment" to government forces when they were in Zarzour.

The rights group said its observations and witness accounts indicated that opposition fighters deliberately started a fire in a Shiite mosque when it took over the village.

In Jdeideh, local residents told observers that gunmen "operating in the name of the opposition" had broken into and stolen from a Christian church after the area came under rebel control.

Observers from the group said it appeared that gunmen had broken in, stolen from the church and fired numerous shots inside, shattering windows and causing structural damage.

A villager told observers that the fighters had used the adjacent priest's quarters to fire at government forces and had stolen medicine from a clinic owned by the church, looted homes and kidnapped civilians.

The rights group said it could not determine whether there was a religious motive for any looting or kidnapping.

In a third village, Ghasaniyeh, the group found that a local church had been broken into and gasoline and diesel fuel had been stolen. An observer found that the church doors had been forced open and that a cross had been left on the floor, but the group said the building otherwise was undamaged.

"The opposition of Syria should back up its claims that it will uphold minority rights by protecting places of worship," Whitson said in her statement.

Calls and emails to the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces and a representative of the Syrian National Council were not immediately returned.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

A look at the violence that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

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