Juan Cole

Muqtada: Elections will Divide Iraqis Sistani Rep: Beware of Voter Fraud Ash-Sharq al-Awsat: Shaikh Abd al-Mahdi al-Karbala’i, representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Karbala, said in his Friday sermon, “We affirm the necessity of holding elections on time, since they are a guarantee of unconstrained sovereignty, and so as to elect a leadership that […]

Al-Dhari Explains Sunni Arab Boycott Hareth al-Dhari spoke out Thursday about the reasons for which his Association of Muslim Scholars urges a boycott of the Iraqi elections planned for January 30. According to opinion polls, al-Dhari is among the most popular Sunni Arab politicians in the country, and his AMS has emerged as certainly the […]

Shiite List Announced for January Elections Sameer Yacoub of AP gives an overview of the unified Shiite list announced Thursday, The United Iraqi Alliance. It groups a large number of Shiite and other parties, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Abdul Aziz al-Hakim); the Badr Organization (former Badr Corps); The Dawa Party […]

Mark LeVine Replies to Robert Spencer Mark LeVine, Middle East historian at UC Irvine, writes AN OPEN REPLY TO ROBERT SPENCER. Dear Mr. Spencer First of all, thanks so much for titling a piece you did about me “Noam Chomsky as Rock Star”: (https://www.frontpagemag.com/ Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID= 16220) This is the best blurb I’ve gotten yet for […]

Rumsfeld, the Military Irrelevance of Fallujah, and Retina Scans Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was called on the carpet at a meeting with troops in Kuwait, as Reuters reports. “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to armour our vehicles … (scrap) that […]

King Abdullah II and President Yawir Worry about Iran and Shiism Robin Wright and Peter Baker of the Washington Post got King Abdullah II to say the most amazing things about alleged Iranian influence in Iraq. [By this I only meant to say that they were excellent interviewers who elicited very frank comment, not that […]

Controversies over Middle East Studies at Princeton The Daily Princetonian has a fascinating overview of controversies about Middle East Studies at Princeton University.

Churches Bombed in Mosul Reuters reports that guerrillas in Mosul cleared two churches and then blew them up. There were no injuries, but extensive damage was done to an Armenian and an old Chaldean church. Mosul, a city of 1.2 million, has a substantial Christian population (Christians form about 3 percent of the Iraqi population). […]

Elections face Logistical Obstacles Mohamad Bazzi of Newsday reports that quite aside from major security problems, the January 30 elections could be derailed by poor preparations. In contrast to the 600 UN election workers in Afghanistan for the recent presidential elections, there are only 35 in Iraq, and security concerns are delaying the sending of […]