Juan Cole

Saudi Minister Denounces Muslim Fundamentalists (!) Saudi Interior Minister Naef bin Abdul Aziz has denied in an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper that there are al-Qaeda sleeper cells in Saudi Arabia. He said there might be individuals under suspicion of having terrorist links. He said Islam requires social order, and lamented that some young radicals […]

Note: “Informed Comment” has just posted a new article on the Aghajari case below, but is on hiatus until Wednesday November 27 because Cole will be busy with conferences, including the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association conference in Washington, D.C. While I’m gone there are a number of interesting new articles at […]

More on the Aghajari Case The case of the history professor at Tarbiat-Modarres University in Tehran who was sentenced to death for a talk he gave continues to roil Iran. There are daily substantial student demonstrations in support of him, and boycotts of class. He is scheduled to be executed (I would say judicially murdered) […]

Pakistani Intelligence aiding Taliban revival? The Pakistani newspaper, Jang (“The News”) says it was told by a member of the Taliban that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence is attempting to broker an alliance of the Taliban remnants with the forces of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hikmatyar. The ISI denies it and says it is cooperating with the […]

Bush speaks out against Islamophobia Since President Bush had earlier been criticized for not speaking out about the slurs being cast on Islam in the US by the Christian Right–most recently Jimmy Swaggart–(and by settler-linked extremists like Daniel Pipes), it is only right that some mention be made here of his remarks today, and those […]

Is it Bin Laden Again? I believe the recently released Bin Ladin tape is authentic. I could only hear snippets in the background of the CNN report, but it certainly sounded like Bin Laden to me. He has a slightly strange diction, with vague threats always implied, and I heard what I thought were some […]

Now the rumors are that the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (which is loyal to General Pervez Musharraf) along with several smaller parties, may make a coalition with the fundamentalist United Action Council to form a government. Earlier attempts to work something out with the Pakistan People’s Party fell through, perhaps because Musharraf is unwilling to […]

Iraqi Parliamentarians condemn UN Security Council Resolution in Opening Debate Asharq al-Awsat says that the foreign affairs committee of the Iraqi parliament has recommended against accepting the UN Security Council resolution 1441 passed last Friday, insisting on the resumption of weapons inspections. Yesterday, Saadoun Hammadi, the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, threw into doubt whether […]

Iraq is complaining about repeated Turkish incursions into its airspace, and is taking the matter to the Arab league. Given that there is a no-fly zone in the northern, Kurdish areas near Turkey and that Iraq does not even control its airspace up there, this particular complaint seems bizarre on the face of it. But […]