(Politically oriented readers of IC please excuse this reprint of a path-breaking but extremely technical discussion in Arabian religious and linguistic history. It is highly important for the study of the beginnings of Islam, since it discusses an inscription from al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia dated to 548 CE, i.e. some sixty years before the beginning of […]
Top Six Trump Admin. Crimes that ought to bring Indictments
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – 1. Jeff Sessions lied under oath, saying he never met with any Russian official during the Trump presidential campaign. He met the Russian ambassador twice. The GOP impeached Bill Clinton for perjury in what was a minor personal matter, but stand by Sessions despite his perjury […]
Barzani gambled it all and Lost– Kurdistan Pres. ending Career
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has written a letter to the parliament of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government announcing that he will not run for president again and will go out of office on November 1 as his much-extended term of office ends. Barzani had taken heart from […]
Scotland Wind Revolution: First Offshore floating Turbines power 20,000 Homes
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The BBC reports that five massive floating wind turbines off the coast of Aberdeenshire in Scotland have gone operational. They generate enough electricity to power 20,000 homes. This “Hywind” project was built by the Norwegian firm Statoil. It is an exciting development, since a lot of […]
Iraq: How Youtube & Facebook Fake News Raised Kurdish-Shiite Tensions
By Histyar Qader | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – After clashes in northern Iraq this week, hundreds of fake pictures have flooded Iraqi social media. Some are real, some not, but leaders on both sides say it’s leading to a dangerous escalation of tensions. Given the partisan nature of much of the media funding […]
Continued Conflict: Iraqi PM rejects Kurdish offer, insists Referendum be Annulled
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi was in Tehran on Thursday for consultations with the Iranian government (no, Abadi isn’t afraid of Trump.). During his meeting with Iranian vice president Ishaq Jahangiri, his office released a statement replying to Massoud Barzani. Barzani is the president of the […]
“Secret” JFK Assassination Files Reveal Bizarre Allegations
TeleSur | – – Nearly 3,000 documents previously kept secret are now in the process of being published online by the National Archive. As much as 88% of the collection has been available to the public since the late 1990s, but a small portion is still being withheld. Conspiracy theorists have been quick to seize […]
Solar: Elon Musk already got a San Juan Hospital running & more to Come
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – As Techdirt reported, Elon Musk has already put up a solar power generating facility at the Hospital del Nino in San Juan, with a Powerwall storage capacity so that the electricity will still be there at night. Musk believes that this model could replace Puerto Rico’s […]
Top 7 ways Saudi could learn from Qatar about Moderate Islam
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman has announced that he wants to take his kingdom toward a more moderate Islam. The state religion of Saudi Arabia is what outsiders call Wahhabism, a puritanical and strident interpretation of the religion. Only about 40% of Saudis are thought […]
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