Juan Cole

The background for the big news in Iraq, Iran and Pakistan on Saturday and Sunday is the Shiite mourning season. Saturday was the 9th of the month of Muharram and Sunday is the 10th. These ritual dates in the Shiite calendar commemorate the surrounding and then killing of Husayn b. Ali, the grandson of the […]

Christian Purefoy is reporting on CNN that Abdul Mutallib ran into a radical Muslim network while studying in London. He was last registered in class at University College London in June 2008. This fall he had wanted to go study in Cairo, but his father was worried about his unsavory friends and afraid he would […]

Airline suspect is Nigeria banker's son | Reuters Western wire services are picking up reports from the Nigerian press that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallib is the son of Umaru Mutallib, a prominent Nigerian banker and former cabinet official. The elder Mutallib was so disturbed by his son’s radical religious views that he reported him to […]

The details of the attempted attack on the Amsterdam/ Detroit flight Friday are still murky and I don’t trust the only official from whom we are hearing details, Rep. Peter King of New York. The LAT says Homeland Security is now downplaying the purported al-Qaeda or Yemen connection around which rumors swirled earlier Friday, saying […]

Aljazeera English reports on the economic difficulties facing the Palestinian Christians of Bethlehem: Palestinian Christians are calling on the world community to end their occupation, saying, “In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope.” For more on Palestinian Christians see Timothy Seidel. End/ (Not Continued)

Religious passions, guerrilla attacks, and politics marred Christmas Eve in Iraq, as the Shiite holy day of Ashura also approaches on Sunday. A wave of bombings targeting churches or Shiite mourning sessions struck throughout the country Thursday and Friday, killing 27 and wounding over 100. The biggest attack, in the Shiite city of Hilla, killed […]

Iran protests spread in heartland — latimes.com The LAT reports further on Wednesday’s demonstrations in Isfahan and Najafabad, pointing out that these central regions are strongholds for the regime in general, making the challenge mounted there seem especially threatening. There were also further demonstrations at Tehran University and the eastern city of Mashad. There was […]

The Real News Network on Grand Ayatollsh Montazeri snd Iranian democracy. Dr. Nader Hashemi is interviewed. End/ (Not Continued)

Unrest continued in Iran on Tuesday and Wednesday as dissidents combined mourning ceremonies for Grand Ayatollah Hosain Ali Montazeri with anti-regime demonstrations. In the important city of Isfahan, security forces attacked a throng of mourners and fifty were arrested. The ceremony was held at Sayyid Mosque, with reformist cleric Jalal al-Din Taheri presiding. The regime […]