Juan Cole

Thanks to [MM] and others for reactions to this posting on the UAE Islamic law conference and the issue of suicide bombings. War is a very messy thing, and attempts to think about it in terms of legalities have been dogged by inconsistencies and difficulties of implementation. Nevertheless, war crimes are recognized as a legal […]

Asharq al-Awsat reports today that a contentious debate broke out in the UAE at the 14th Annual conference of the International Congress for Islamic Law concerning the permissibility of suicide bombings. A scholar named Hasan Safar argued that while individual efforts against an enemy army are approved by medieval jurists, the Islamic legal tradition condemns […]

Palestinian Childrens’ Health Declines under Sharon According to Asharq al-Awsat, a just-released Palestinian study reports that 33% of Palestinian elementary school children in the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation are suffering from anemia. This is a tripling of the rate from before the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising two and a half years ago. […]

Did the Reagan Administration Give Saddam Smallpox Samples? I have a question for the biologically informed. We have all been scratching our heads for some time as to why exactly the hawks in the Bush administration have been so desperate to go to war with Iraq. Opinion polls show that a majority of the American […]

The Koran and Fighting Unbelievers Professor XXXXX wrote: “It is my turn to be astonished by Prof. Cole. The following link: http://www.geocities.com/pnoak/some.html includes 24 passages from the Koran enjoining believers to fight unbelievers. The one closest to the words I used is no. 21, although, to be completely accurate, it refers only to Jews and […]

Pakistan has arrested 500 suspected al-Qaida operatives in the past year, and has turned 443 over to the US authorities, according to Pakistani officials, as reported today in the Pakistani press. Now, there probably weren’t more than 5000 “Arab Afghans” in Afghanistan before 9/11, and some large number was killed by AC-130s or by massive […]

A huge tiff is going on between India and Pakistan in the wake of this week’s comments on nuclear war by General Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf said earlier this week that he was ready to use nuclear weapons had India crossed the Pakistan border last summer. Although his spokesman tried to retract the statement, it seemed […]

Informed Comment is on hiatus until after New Year’s Day. Enjoy the holidays! In the meantime, enjoy the following sites (the underlined parts are clickable): http://www.jerusalem.indymedia.org/ (Palestine Independent Media Center); http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/index.php3?language=en (Israel Independent Media Center) and http://www.iraqjournal.org/ Iraq Journal (Alternative views on the Iraq issue). Informed Comment does not necessarily endorse any particular report at […]

India almost went to war with Pakistan twice in the last year, according to India Today. Last winter, Indian forces prepared to attack the Pakistani line of control in Kashmir, but were dissuaded by the US and by the relocation of Pakistani terrorist camps from Kashmir to Pakistan itself. The war plans in the summer […]