(Associated Press: 1300 PST, February 4, 2011) U.S. President Barack Obama decries violence in Egypt against reporters, human rights workers, and peaceful protesters. He also says the orderly transition to a new government must begin now.

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

(Mosaic Video Alert: February 4, 2011) Massive demonstrations in support of Egypt's pro-democracy protesters were held today in Iran, Tunisia, Turkey, Belgium, Jordan, Thailand, South Africa and the Czech Republic. Protesters in Malaysia marched to the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur, demanding U.S. president Barack Obama pressure Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down immediately. The protesters clashed with police, who tried to break up the demonstration.

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

Link's Mosaic and the Mosaic Intelligence Report are on vacation this week, but intrepid Mosaic Producer Jamal Dajani has not been slacking. Dajani has been reporting from Paris on the burqa controversy, where French president Nicolas Sarkozy inflamed his country's Muslim population with recent comments stating that the burqa would "not be welcome" in France.

It wasn't easy, but Dajani was able to interview a French woman dressed in burqa for his latest article in the Huffington Post, and it sounds like Sarkozy isn't winning any friends in France's Muslim communities. You can follow Dajani's interesting updates on this story on Twitter.

For more background, this Al Jazeera English piece gives the "inside story" on the call for a burqa ban in France:

Is this anti-burqa campaign really a question of women's rights? (This, of course, coming from the same man caught opening oogling the female form in these photos. Don't you worry -- Obama's wandering eye has apparently been exonerated, according to this ABC News video analysis.) Can France reconcile its values as a secular nation with its growing Muslim immigrant population? We know what Dajani and Sarkozy think -- what about you?