Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the occasion of former President Jimmy Carter’s death, I am reprinting this column with some updates. The guinea worm may be the second major human disease after smallpox to be completely eradicated. It is a parasite that you get from drinking water with small fleas in it. The larvae […]
2024 Word of the Year: Genocide (as in, Gaza)
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The word of the year was certainly “genocide.” It was alleged of Israel’s Gaza campaign by South Africa in a case brought before the International Court of Justice, and this charge was also lodged by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders, and the UN Special Committee to investigate […]
Egypt opens 500 MW Solar Plant, Plans Factory with Sweden to Manufacture Photovoltaic Panels
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Egypt is perfect for solar power, even though the country has not implemented much of it yet. The Egyptians had installed 1.8 gigawatts of solar by the beginning of this year, most of it at the Benban Solar Park some 400 miles south of Cairo in the Aswan Governorate. But […]
Israel Brings its Doctrine of Total War to Yemen
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli Air Force on Thursday extended its total war on its neighbors to Yemen for a fourth time. The Air Force has gained the technical capability of refueling fighter jets in mid-air, for which the Israelis and other US allies in the region used to have to depend on […]
In 2024, did the US Demand for Israeli Impunity Fatally Undermine International Law?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – 2024 was a pivotal year for international humanitarian law. On the one hand, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court functioned as they were intended to by the idealists who founded them. On the other, the International Humanitarian Law that underpins those institutions was profoundly, perhaps fatally […]
For Christmas: The Persian Poet Nezami’s Story of Jesus Finding Virtues even in the Lowliest
On Christmas Day, I like to recall the significance of Jesus and the nativity for Muslims. I’ve talked about Rumi, Attar, and other mystics. Today it is Nezami’s turn. The great Persian poet Nezami (1141-1209) was from the city of Ganja in northwestern Iran when it was ruled by the Seljuk Empire. That was the […]
The Great Sufi Qushayri on “Responding to Evil with the Greatest Good” (Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men in Islam)
This fall I published an article, “Sufi Commentaries on a Quranic Peace Verse: Responding to Evil with the greatest Good in Q. 41:33–35,” in the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence 2 (2024): 213 – 232. Here, I’m blogging one of its sections. This essay is part of my project on Islamic Peace Studies, an extremely […]
Pope Francis: “I Think of Gaza, of so much Cruelty, of the Children Machine-Gunned”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the Sunday before Christmas, Pope Francis said, “May the weapons be silenced and Christmas carols resound!” according to Kristina Molare at the Catholic News Agency. The Pope continued, in a clear condemnation of the Israeli government, “With sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children […]
Irony is Dead: Netanyahu cannot Attend Auschwitz Ceremony for Fear of Arrest on ICC Warrant for War Crimes
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to travel to Poland for the 80th annual commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp because he fears being arrested on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court at the […]
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