By Ihsan Yilmaz, Ana-Maria Bliuc, and Fethi Mansouri | – The political influence of the far-right, along with a more salient national security agenda, has spurred a growing anti-Muslim sentiment and deep social division in Australia. While most research participants believe in the power of contact, dialogue and exchange to transform negative attitudes. Shutterstock In […]
Archives for November 2019
Military Spouses and the True Costs of our Forever Wars
By Andrea Mazzarino | – (Tomdispatch.com) – There is some incongruity between my role as an editor of a book about the costs of America’s wars and my identity as a military spouse. I’m deeply disturbed at the scale of human suffering caused by those conflicts and yet I’ve unintentionally contributed to the war effort […]
Iran’s Gasoline Rebellion as a Crisis of Representation
By Rahman Bouzari | – (OpenDemocracy) – The recent round of spontaneous protests against the petrol [gasoline] price hike has to be contextualized as part of the “long-term revolutionary process” in Iran. The 2017-18 uprisings changed the Iranian political landscape for good. Since then, the Islamic Republic has entered into an ‘organic crisis’ par excellence. […]
Nunes as Fox Guarding Henhouse: Parnas alleges he was part of Ukraine Scandal
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sean Collins at Vox reports that two lawyers for Lev Parnas say that Parnas tells them he arranged meetings for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) in the Ukraine for the purpose of pushing investigations of Hunter Biden and Burisma. They say he has offered to testify to Congress. Nunes is a […]
Impeaching Trump: Amid Ukraine Mess, Don’t Forget his Domestic Crimes
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Trump’s war on the law extends beyond flouting Congress and packing courts — overseas, it extends to arguable crimes against humanity. It’s a cliché in Westerns. The bad guys ride into town only to be met by a sheriff who stands tall. “I am the law,” the sheriff says, […]
Can Trump’s Systemic Racism be Explained?
(Otherwords.org) – Racism means a lot more than using slurs or feeling hatred. Yet even in these narrow terms, Trump fits the bill. By Jill Richardson | November 20, 2019 “Is Trump a racist?” I have two answers to that question. First, most white Americans misunderstand racism solely as intentional beliefs held by individual racists […]
Can Christianity Survive in Turkey, the Birthplace of the Holy Roman Empire?
By Ramazan Kılınç | – Vowing to better protect Christians, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told media at the White House recently that Turkey will restore churches damaged during the civil war in northeastern Syria. With this statement, Erdoğan might have hoped to send signals addressing western concerns about the vulnerabilities of Christians in his […]
Lebanon’s October Revolution: Resistance and Popular Culture
By Amal Ghazal | – I am following Lebanon’s October Revolution from Vancouver. Between me and the revolution stand two continents, an ocean, a sea and a 10-hour time difference. However, the connections between me and what I watch on my screen render time and space irrelevant. In fact, the distance draws me closer to […]
Now that Trump deems Israeli Squatting Legal, will More Palestinians be Kicked off their Land?
By Anne Irfan | – When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US government will no longer view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal, it was a dramatic departure from the stance of previous US administrations. His predecessors held to the State Department’s 1978 legal opinion that the settlements are […]