The measures were adopted after a foreign intelligence agency, possibly American, intercepted a conversation between two unidentified Arabs in which they reportedly discussed 'doing something in the Vatican'. The Vatican downplayed the threat, with Federico Lombardi, its main spokesman, saying that it had not received indications of a 'particular threat or cause for concern.'

Iraq's ambassador to the Holy See warned this week that Isil saw the Pope as a legitimate target and might try to assassinate him during his trip to Albania, because of his outspoken concern for the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria and his conditional support of US bombing raids against Isil forces. Jihadists from Isil have in recent weeks boasted of wanting to extend their caliphate to Rome, the heart of Western Christendom, and have talked of planting the jihadist black flag on top of St Peter's Basilica.

Habeeb Al Sadr, Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican, said there were also indications of a more specific threat against Pope Francis, who recently spoke out in favour of the US and its allies halting the advance of Isil in Syria and Iraq. "What has been declared by the self-declared Islamic State is clear – they want to kill the Pope. The threats against the Pope are credible," the ambassador told La Nazione, an Italian daily, on Tuesday. "I believe they could try to kill him during one of his overseas trips or even in Rome. There are members of Isil who are not Arabs but Canadian, American, French, British, also Italians. Isil could engage any of these to commit a terrorist attack in Europe."

The debate shows in a nutshell what is currently at stake in the Ukraine: the future of European foreign policy. The crisis not only reveals the centrifugal forces that are always at work within the European Union (EU): different economic interests and political cultures of its member states versus a growing need to speak and act as a unified player. It also shows a deep sense of insecurity of what a European foreign policy should be. But every crisis carries with it the seed of change. And this one is pushing the EU in the right direction.

More than two decades after the end of the Cold War, it is clear to everybody that Europe cannot afford to remain divided and indecisive in a conflict at its own doorstep. The shooting down in July of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the Ukraine, widely believed to be by Russia-backed rebels, brought back memories of war to a continent that liked to believe that the age of wars — in this part of the world — is over.

Pictures of rotting bodies in the badlands of the Ukraine — all 298 passengers died — did not only prove the contrary. In an ‘Open Letter’ to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 21 German intellectuals from across the political spectrum claim: “The German government resists persistently to talk about Russia’s war against the Ukraine. But every realistic policy has to call a spade a spade. The EU must not leave any doubt that the aggression against a state, with which it has an association agreement will come at a high political and economic price.”

This sets a major precedent for how other European nations could integrate and cut costs without weakening their militaries. As the economic crisis bites, more EU countries may ‘go Dutch.’ However, the trade-off here is the loss of sovereignty. The Dutch now need approval from the Germans in order to rapidly deploy their own troops.

By forming these kinds of agreements with its neighbours, Germany hopes to build an integrated European army piece by piece since its grand designs to create one more quickly have so far been thwarted by Nato favouring nations like Britain. For decades Germany has refrained from being too assertive because of its warmongering past. But now it is casting off that restraint and finding a more muscular voice in foreign affairs as it pushes for a European army.

Over 700 pledges have come in from more than 25 countries worldwide, it said; the campaign page itself has received 10,000 shares on Facebook, while the promotional pitch video, which depicts a digital rendition of the Holy Temple on the modern day Temple Mount has been viewed by over 150,000 people.

The funds raised from the Indiegogo campaign will be used to continue the research of the Institute and to commission additional architectural plans. The architects, the Institute says, will combine Jewish law with modern technology to prepare for a fully modern third Temple, Kosher to the letter of the law but including modifications like underground parking, heating and computerized washing stations that minimize water waste.

One side — with the encouragement of government and right-wing legislators — aspires to deepen Jewish hegemony over the city, while the other responds with fire bombs, fueled by growing despair and distress. The stalemate in the diplomatic process and what is perceived as a victory for Hamas and for the armed resistance in the most recent military conflict in Gaza are convincing more and more Palestinians that violence is the only way out. They are taking their anger out on Jews who have settled in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods around the Old City of Jerusalem.

Palestinian friends and colleagues told Al-Monitor that they've heard a move is afoot to turn the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) from a Muslim place of prayer into a joint prayer site for believers of both faiths, repeating the transformation that took place at the Tomb of the Patriarchs (al-Ibrahimi Mosque) in Hebron.

Their concern is based, among other things, on a series of moves made recently by the Israeli police. At the end of June, police issued dozens of Palestinians with restraining orders barring them from the area for four months, claiming the move was needed to prevent “serious damage to persons or property.” During Ramadan (this year in July), police restricted Friday prayers to those 50 and older. Muslims’ ears are attuned to the declarations of radical Jewish elements like Yehuda Glick of the Temple Mount Heritage foundation and Bentzi Gupstein, who proclaimed, “The Muslims will soon get out and we will build the temple.”

Such talk could be dismissed as the ravings of fringe right-wingers, but it's hard to ignore when a member of the Israeli Cabinet wishes, “With God’s help, in another decade we will stand at the foot of the temple.” The speaker is Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who told Channel 2 television in July, “Here [at the site of the Dome of the Rock] I would like to see the temple. I hope I will live to see it.”

A parliamentarian of the Green Party also shows sympathy toward the idea of a Bundeswehr mission against IS. A possible intervention of German soldiers would supplement German arms deliveries to Kurdish troops in Iraq and the establishment in Erbil of a northern Iraq military nucleus, which had been completed in late August. According to experts, "the post-colonial transition period" in the Middle East is "coming to an end, but the contours of a new Arab order are not yet in sight."

The disintegration process will "most likely take long" and probably leave a Syria reduced to the western part of its current territory, an Iraq, broken into three parts or a Libya shattered into six or more segments. The war against IS opens another round of the Western struggle to reorganize the region.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond called for unity and urged the unionist parties to deliver on more powers. UK Prime Minister David Cameron said he was delighted the UK would remain together and said the commitments on extra powers would be honoured.

The prime minister also acknowledged that the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland must have a bigger say over their affairs.

In other developments: The pound hit a two-year high against the euro and a two-week high against the US dollar, as Scotland voted against independence.

In a rallying call to his supporters, Mr Salmond urged the Yes voters to reflect on how far they had come. "I don't think any of us, whenever we entered politics, would have thought such a thing to be either credible or possible," he said. "Over the last few weeks we have seen a scare and a fear of enormous proportions - not a scaremongering directed at the Scottish people but the scare and the fear at the heart of the Westminster establishment as they realise the mass movement of people that was going forward in Scotland. Today of all days as we bring Scotland together, let us not dwell on the distance we have fallen short, let us dwell on the distance we have travelled and have confidence the movement is abroad in Scotland that will take this nation forward and we shall go forward as one nation."

Speaking in Downing Street, Mr Cameron said the result was decisive. "Now the debate has been settled for a generation, or as Alex Salmond has said: 'Perhaps for a lifetime'. So there can be no disputes, no re-runs; we have heard the will of the Scottish people."

The prime minister also spoke of the implications for the other nations of the UK. "In Wales there are proposals to give the Welsh Government and Assembly more powers and I want Wales to be at the heart of the debate on how to make the United Kingdom work for all our nations," he said. "In Northern Ireland, we must work to ensure that the devolved institutions function effectively." Mr Cameron said "millions of voices of England must also be heard".

Some feared that Scottish independence might encourage other separatist movements. Others worried that it would turn the rest of the UK into a weaker and distracted partner.

But has Britain's global standing been affected nonetheless?

There is an argument that the UK, along with the rest of the West, is already in decline - its clout eroded by the rise of emerging giants like China, India, Russia and Brazil. And the very fact of this referendum shows its power and prestige is on the wane, and its reliability as a partner has been undermined.

There is a worry too that new devolved powers promised to Scotland, and further constitutional change being called for elsewhere in the UK, may mean that the government in London will be too distracted to pull its weight on foreign affairs.

"I think there will still be negative implications even from a 'No' vote," says former British Ambassador, Lord David Hannay. "It will throw up a number of consequential decisions which will greatly distract the British government of the day before and after the next election. The whole issue about powers for other parts of the UK, constitutional change, this will be a huge distraction from foreign policy issues."

In the European Union there is another worry: what if Conservatives win the next British election, and hold another referendum in 2017? Has the uncertainty thrown up by this Scottish referendum increased or reduced the likelihood of the UK voting to leave the EU in three years' time?

There are possibly tense times ahead. Political rifts need healing. And a balance struck between healthy political reform and corrosive instability.

The rest of the world will be watching closely to see if Britain continues to pass the test of a democracy that can conduct a divorce in civilised terms, instead of through a coup or down the barrel of a gun.

Rebuking Obama’s declaration that ISIL does not speak on behalf of Islam because its members behead American journalists, Rachid said: “Beheading is commanded in the Quran in Surah 47, verse 4 … Ironically, this Surah is called the Surah of Mohamed.” Telling Obama about his own Muslim education, Rachid explained: “We have been brainwashed to hate all of you … and to make Islam the religion of the whole world, as the Quran says … ISIL is just one symptom; if it disappears other ISILs will appear under a different name … If Islam is not the problem, then why is it that there are millions of Christians in the Middle East, and yet none of them has ever blown himself up to become a martyr, even though they live under the same economic and political circumstances?

Why have new converts to Islam become terrorists? I am imploring you to take a stand … for the future of democracy: speak the truth about the real threat that is facing all of us.” ISIL’s spin-off in Sinai calls itself “Ansar Bait al-Maqdis.” Literally, this means “The Faithful of the [Jerusalem] Temple.” “Bait al-Maqdis” is the Arabic pronunciation of the Hebrew “Beit Ha-Mikdash,” whose meaning is “The Holy Temple [of Jerusalem].”