Russia and China jointly cast a veto Saturday in the United Nations Security Council against an Arab League-backed resolution that would have called for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to step down. The vote came in the wake of an alleged massacre in the Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs on Friday night, in which artillery shells […]
Archives for February 2012
Lyons: Islam, Women and the West
Jonathan Lyons writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Islam, Women, and the West This essay is adapted from my latest book, Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism, newly published by Columbia University Press. For more information, please see the CUP catalogue, at the CUP catalogue or […]
NASA’s Dangerous new Blue Marble
NASA’s new composite “Blue Marble” high definition image of the planet earth from outer space: Quick, a test: Was your first reaction, “What a beautiful planet we have!” ? Or was it, eeew, that is that dangerous Middle East… ?
Greenwald: Koch Brothers Should Testify before Congress
The Wall Street Journal carried a plaintive piece about how the poor far right wing oil billionaires David and Charles Koch (who bring you everything from science denial, to the Keystone XL pipeline– which is not as dead as you might like it to be– to secret funding of most of the “Tea Party”) are […]
Omar Khayyam 13
Where’s the smoke from my fire around here? Where’s the profit on my investment around here? As for the guy who called me a bar fly, now really, where’s the bar around here? trans. Juan Cole from Whinfield 13
Egypt Soccer Protests Challenge Military Regime
Friday saw another day of big protests and police repression in Egypt’s major cities. The protesters, who want the military to withdraw from politics and go back to the barracks, were galvanized by the soccer tragedy at Port Said on Wednesday, where some 74 persons were crushed in a stampede after local ultras (soccer hoodlums) […]
Omar Khayyam 18
If you are looking for love, try to attract every heart. On the path of the Presence, try to entice every seeker. A hundred holy shrines made of water and clay are not worth a single heart. Why make pilgrimage to a shrine when you can attract a heart? Trans. Juan Cole From Whinfield 18 […]
The Generals try to stop an Iran War
It has leaked that US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Martin Dempsey warned the Israelis that if they launched a strike on Iran that spiralled into a war, they would be on their own. Gareth Porter’s report, based on conversations with former officers in the administration of the Joint Chiefs of Staff […]
KAYAOĞLU: Turkey’s Crackdown on the Press recalls Military’s Tactics
Barin Kayaoğlu writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: AKP and “Back to the Future” Turkish-Style BARIN KAYAOĞLU [For the Turkish version of this post, click here.] The NGO Reporters Without Borders has demoted Turkey by 10 places in its World Press Freedom Index rankings for 2011-2012. The report’s statement that “the judicial system […]
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