By Stuart Schaar | (Informed Comment) | – – In the early 1960s I was living in Rabat while researching my doctoral dissertation for Princeton University. My friend, the Pakistani Eqbal Ahmad (d. 1999), who was living in Tunisia and also researching his dissertation, had just driven through Algeria as the Algerians celebrated their victory […]
Archives for September 2015
Refugees from the Phony Caliphate: Iraqis hire People Smugglers to escape Mosul
Special Correspondent | (Niqash.org) | – – Hassan Hafouzi* and his family paid people smugglers so they could leave Mosul, the city controlled by the so-called Islamic State group. Two days after they arrived in Istanbul, they told NIQASH how they got out. Don’t try to leave: The notorious al-Fath al-Mubin checkpoint on Mosul’s western […]
How GOP Candidates would Deal with Syria, Short Version
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Political Satire In the course of the second GOP debate at CNN, anchor Jake Tapper asked the candidates about Syria policy. They for the most part did not actually answer the question, but occasionally said something. But they often said it at great length. Here is […]
America can — and should — Do More for Syrian Refugees
By Chris Toensing | (Otherwords.org) | – – Imagine that 58 million Americans were streaming into Canada and Mexico, many with only a small satchel and the clothes on their backs. Picture another 102 million residents of the Eastern seaboard seeking refuge with relatives in the Midwest and West. That terrifying mental exercise gives a […]
Rouhani: forget Geopolitics: Iran’s real Enemies are Water & jobs Shortages & Drugs
By RFE/RL | – – – Iran’s President Hassan Rohani has warned that water shortages, unemployment, inflation, and problems like drug addiction are threatening the Islamic republic. Rohani made the remarks in a September 15 speech to commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Rohani said: “Our enemies are not just Zionists, America, and […]
Activists strip against Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Several foreign activists stripped bare near the Israeli separation wall in the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank in refusal of ongoing Israeli policies against Palestinians under military occupation. Photo taken from the Facebook page of Pallasos en Rebeldia Photos of the activists went viral Wednesday among Palestinians on social […]
Pope Francis Endorses Iran Deal: Another Dilemma for GOP Catholic Candidates
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Republican presidential candidates are virtually unanimous that human-caused climate change is a hoax and burning fossil fuels is good for us; that Obamacare is evil and must be repealed; and that the UN Security Council’s deal with Iran restricting its nuclear enrichment program must be […]
Islam Hysteria: 14 yr old Muslim Student Invents Digital Clock, is Arrested
The Dallas Morning News | (Video Interview with Ahmad Mohamed) | – – “Ahmed Mohamed, 14, an Irving MacArthur High student who invents as a hobby, talks about being detained and interrogated after bringing a homemade clock to school Monday that was mistaken for a hoax bomb.” The Dallas Morning News: “Irving MacArthur student arrested […]
Favoring Christian over Muslim refugees is bad for everyone
By Sarah Hackett | (The Conversation) | – – The unfolding refugee crisis has been marked by stories of displacement, violence and despair. There have been frenzied debates about the appropriate responses, compassion and humanitarianism. Those following what is being referred to as the worst refugee crisis in decades will undoubtedly be familiar with the […]