Author Juan Cole Detroit (World Religion News ) – Joseph Richard Preville, American Writer and Book Critic, interviews Juan Cole. Joseph Richard Preville: What problems do historians face when writing about the life and times of Muhammad? What are the principal sources you consulted to write your book? Juan Cole: The problem is that the […]
Saudi Crown Prince vows Yemeni Children will “Shiver,” but is He on Way Out?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Mohamed Bin Salman, the thirty-two-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia, is finding his wings clipped, by his father and by the heavy hand of reality, so severely that some are speculating about whether he can survive politically. Alkhaleejonline.net reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman recently met with his […]
Iran Parliament Fires Finance Minister, as US Sanctions Bite (Cost Iran $1.1 Trillion)
Iran’s parliament on Sunday fired the Finance Minister, Massoud Karbasian, in a severe political setback for president Hassan Rouhani. The Iranian rial has fallen dramatically against the dollar in recent months, eating into the purchasing power of Iranian consumers who buy goods from abroad. Supporters of Karbasian in parliament clashed physically with his critics, leading […]
That Time the Republican Party Made McCain Black to Defeat his Presidential Bid
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Racism is so pervasive in the United States, and white power elites work so hard to stigmatize minorities, that the dominant racists are even sometimes able to marginalize senior white males on grounds of their association with those minorities. The head of the Republican Party will not mourn the passing […]
Trump’s Foreign Policy Hand Crippled by Legal Woes
Trump’s domestic woes as an unindicted co-conspirator inevitably make him weak on the world stage. Foreign adversaries don’t take seriously a president who looks as though he might be impeached. And they know that presidents under siege in the capital do not have the leisure to attend to foreign affairs with any concentration. Even friends […]
With South Africa Conspiracy Theory, Trump is becoming Dylann Roof
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – White nationalist terrorist Dylann Roof, who murdered nine African-Americans in a church, including a sitting state senator, confessed himself deeply disturbed by various white grievances. Before murdering his hosts, he accused them of “taking over our country” and “raping our women.” He wrote in his manifesto, “From this point I […]
Is Trump’s Fascism part of the Reason for Cohen’s Willingness to Indict Him?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I can only imagine that some Jewish and other minority members of the Trump administration experience significant discomfort at being part of the promotion of white nationalist fascism with strong overtones of anti-Semitism or outright neo-Nazi hatred of Jews. We have seen that the most prominent African-American close to Trump, […]
Unindicted Co-Conspirator again in White House: A Turning Point in American History
Historians will mark August 21, 2018, as a turning point in American history. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer pleaded guilty to 8 counts of criminal wrongdoing that could carry a sentence of up to 65 years. Most significantly, he pleaded guilty to having attempted illegally to interfere in an election “in coordination with and at […]
Early Arabic Inscriptions and the Life of the Prophet: A new Source for History
Among the anecdotes told in the early biographies of the Prophet Muhammad is one about him being harassed by his immediate neighbors in Mecca, in roughly the period 614-622. One way they bothered him was to throw sheep offal through the window of his home in Mecca where he lived with his first wife, Khadija. […]
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