The protests in Egypt have become increasingly chaotic, as tens of thousand remain unassuaged by President Hosni Mubarak’s pledge not to run for re-election in September.

Coptic Christians are demonstrating alongside their Muslim countrymen, Reuters reports, saying their desire to end Mubarak’s three-decade rule overrides fears that a change in leadership might empower Islamist groups.

Over in Tunisia, where the MidEast conflagration was lit, an Islamist faction is emerging as a key player in the nascent government, according to Reuters.

The California man accused of threatening to blow up a popular Detroit-area mosque has had several violent run-ins with the law and has twice been committed for psychiatric treatment by the courts, according to the AP.

The number of U.S. Muslims accused in terror plots dropped by more than half last year, and the targets were split evenly between domestic and overseas sites, according to the AP. “Jihad Jane” entered a guilty plea in a Pennsylvania federal court to charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, among other charges.

After years of watching Muslims portrayed as terrorists in TV and movies, an advocacy group is grooming a crop of aspiring Muslim screenwriters, the AP reports.

The U.S. Senate condemned the deadly attack on a Coptic Christian church on New Year’s Day in Egypt. Jewish groups in the Netherlands called for swifter punishment for Holocaust deniers as lawmakers debate how to combat rising anti-Semitism.

Pakistani police have arrested a 17-year-old boy accused of writing a blasphemous remark in an examination paper, according to the AP. Thousands of followers of Tibetan Buddhism’s third most important leader marched to show their support after Indian authorities questioned the source of more than a million dollars at his headquarters in northern India. Alabama prisoners are learning meditation.

The Republican Jewish Coalition is sending Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, on a trip to Israel. Israeli archaeologists found a 1,500-year-old church in the Judean hills.

Scholars at the University of Pennsylvania studied the “halo effect” of Philly churches to determine their economic worth to communities.

Women are playing leadership roles in the Archdiocese of Detroit, according to the Detroit Free-Press. Women entering religious orders today are highly educated, according to a national survey.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles may be backing off plans to extend the school year at elementary schools by 20 days, according to the LAT. Christians in Nepal threatened to parade corpses in front of parliament after the government said an area near a revered Hindu temple could no longer be used as their burial ground.