Alice Rice writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism; alas, the breaking news is that she could have added Tunisia to the list: Today the United Nations highlights the pressures and dangers facing journalists across the world with a conference in Tunis and a themed day, World Press Freedom Day. Tunis is a slightly strange […]
Deaths of Protesters Lead Egyptian Politicians to Suspend Presidential Campaign
Thugs, very possibly backed by the continued military dictatorship in Egypt, attacked protesters at dawn on Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Defense in al-Abbasiya, Cairo, leaving some 20 dead. The protesters suspect that they were actually plainsclothes police. The 500 or so protesters had been gathered to object to the disqualification of their […]
Almohad Tower of Gold, Seville (Photo)
Photograph by Juan Cole, July 27, 2010 The Torre del Oro in Seville, Spain, was built in the 1200s by the Almohad (Berber Muslim) dynasty to serve as a watchtower to guard the Gualdalquivir River (in Arabic, Wadi al-Kabir or ‘big river valley.’)
It is a fine thing to establish one’s own religion in one’s heart … (D. H. Lawrence Poster)
Collapsing Afghanistan & Pakistan Refuse to Cooperate with Obama Photo Op
President Barack Obama sneaked in and out of Afghanistan by the cover of night, his advance security team clearly too worried about the situation in Kabul to allow him to appear in public by day. And they would have been right, since shortly after Obama departed, Taliban hit a foreign workers’ guest house (which was […]
“Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful” (George Orwell Poster)
Romney wants to Fight Whole Muslim World, not Concentrate on Bin Laden
Mitt Romney said Monday that of course he would have taken out Bin Laden and that ‘even Jimmy Carter would have made that call.’ Since Jimmy Carter ordered a brave and risky but failed military mission into Iran, that was a cheap shot on the part of someone who has never had anything to do […]
A man’s duty to understand his world (Hemingway Poster)
Omar Khayyam (125)
That lapis lazuli dome and golden tray have turned time and again, and will revolve yet more. We, too, by the command of fate, arrived and left again. Translated by Juan Cole from [pdf] Whinfield 125