By IMEMC News & Agencies | – The Israeli central election committee, on Thursday, passed a vote to exclude Palestinian MK Hanin Zoabi from the Arab list of candidates running for Knesset elections, next March. PNN reports that the petition was submitted by Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beytenu party, and Otzma Yehudit/Yachad, Ha’am Itanu […]
Archives for February 2015
‘American Terrorist’: Middle East reacts to Murder of 3 Muslim-American Students in N Carolina
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – If American mass media seemed reluctant to cover the murder of three Muslims students at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill as a hate crime, the same was not true in the Middle East, where strong opinions were aroused. Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan criticized President Barack Obama […]
Can Republicans succeed by running on Polluting Planet & New Cold War?
By Michael T. Klare It’s a ritual long familiar to observers of American politics: presidential hopefuls with limited international experience travel to foreign lands and deliver speeches designed to showcase their grasp of foreign affairs. Typically, such escapades involve trips to major European capitals or active war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. New Jersey Governor […]
“Drastic Decline” Seen in World Press Freedom
By Leila Lemghalef UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – A leading advocacy group warns of a “worldwide deterioration in freedom of information” last year. Out of the 180 countries being surveyed, two-thirds have slipped in standards compared to last year, according to the Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index 2015. Source: Reporters Without Borders The best […]
Iraqi Gov’t AWOL: It’s Shia Militias vs. the Islamic State
VICE News | – “Last summer, the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept from Syria into northern Iraq, routing Iraqi security forces and seizing the city of Mosul. Soon afterward, the group declared the establishment of a dubious “caliphate” in the area it controls and rebranded itself the Islamic […]
The Chapel Hill Shootings & the Troubling Growth of Anti-Muslim Intolerance
By Charles Kurzman | (ISLAMiCommentary) | – People from throughout the Triangle filled the UNC-Chapel Hill Pit Wednesday for the vigil for Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, of Chapel Hill; his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh. They were shot and killed on Tuesday night. Photo Austin Root/UNC General […]
Keystone of Corruption: The Money Pipeline from Big Oil to Congress
By Kitty Stapp NEW YORK (IPS) – With battle lines sharpening over the stalled Keystone XL pipeline, a new analysis details the intense industry lobbying of both houses of the U.S. Congress since 2013 – to the tune of 58.8 million dollars by five refinery companies alone. According to MapLight, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organisation […]
The Daily Show was never ‘real’ news – but came (depressingly) close
Julia Fox, Indiana University | (The Conversation) Jon Stewart’s Tuesday night announcement that he’ll be leaving the Daily Show garnered an audible cry of disbelief from his live studio audience. Stewart himself was visibly emotional: “What is this fluid?” he jokingly asked, making Frankenstein’s monster-like gestures toward his eyes and heart. “What are these feelings?” […]
‘Lone Wolf,’ ‘Self-Radicalized’: Islamophobic Buzzwords never applied to White Terrorists
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Did a self-radicalized lone wolf white terrorist kill three young Muslim students in cold blood in Chapel Hill? It is a kind of a stupid question, but its stupidity is just more apparent when asked of someone with an English last name. What does self-radicalized or lone wolf […]