Juan Cole

Moving to a More Secure Camp Daniel Williams of the Washington Post wonders if Iraq can be salvaged. The article is one of the more clear-eyed I have seen: Some quotes: ‘ “We could not imagine the deterioration leading to such a point. It’s getting worse day after day, and no one has been able […]

Gay Marriage in Massachusetts and the Egyptian Boathouse This Web Log has focused on Iraq so much in the past year that sometimes readers complain if I stray into other subjects. But it was originally created after September 11 to have a pretty wide purview, and I’ve talked about all sorts of things, from Pakistan […]

Gay Marriage in Massachusetts and the Egyptian Boathouse This Web Log has focused on Iraq so much in the past year that sometimes readers complain if I stray into other subjects. But it was originally created after September 11 to have a pretty wide purview, and I’ve talked about all sorts of things, from Pakistan […]

Ezzedin Salim People have been asking me about the slain president of the Interim Governing Council, Ezzedin Salim (Izz al-Din Salim). The best profile I have found is a compilation of newswire reports at a South African site. He is said to have been a founding member of the Shiite al-Da`wa Party in 1958 when […]

Ezzedin Salim People have been asking me about the slain president of the Interim Governing Council, Ezzedin Salim (Izz al-Din Salim). The best profile I have found is a compilation of newswire reports at a South African site. He is said to have been a founding member of the Shiite al-Da`wa Party in 1958 when […]

President of Interim Governing Council Assassinated A suicide car bomber assassinated the current president of the Interim Governing Council on Monday as he was waiting at a checkpoint outside the Green Zone or the HQ of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, had been a leader of the Shiite al-Dawa […]

President of Interim Governing Council Assassinated A suicide car bomber assassinated the current president of the Interim Governing Council on Monday as he was waiting at a checkpoint outside the Green Zone or the HQ of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, had been a leader of the Shiite al-Dawa […]

Continued Clashes in Karbala Lead to Closure of Shrines al-Zaman: On Sunday, Shiite religious authorities in Karbala formally closed the shrines of Imam Husain and his half-brother Abu’l-Fadl Abbas, to pilgrims. This rare procedure has not been implemented for decades. It was felt necessary because although militiamen (including Badr Corps) loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali […]

Continued Clashes in Karbala Lead to Closure of Shrines al-Zaman: On Sunday, Shiite religious authorities in Karbala formally closed the shrines of Imam Husain and his half-brother Abu’l-Fadl Abbas, to pilgrims. This rare procedure has not been implemented for decades. It was felt necessary because although militiamen (including Badr Corps) loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali […]