Juan Cole

On Friday, a suicide bomber detonated his payload inside a mosque in Hayagay Sharqi, in Upper Dir near Swat. The bombing is said to have killed 38 and wounded 70, but the tolls could rise as police sift rubble. Hayagay Sharqi’s population had defied the Taliban, and this strike seems likely payback. Obama’s special envoy […]

President Obama said relatively little about Iraq in his address to the Muslim world, and the US mass media have ceased covering it much (CBS has even closed its Baghdad bureau). Despite plans for a US withdrawal from Iraq and the fall in monthly civilian casualty rates, however, American troops are still fighting and dying […]

The USG Open Source Center translates reports about the reaction of the general public to Obama’s speech in Cairo. Al-Jazirah, Al-Arabiyah Highlight, Carry Reactions to Obama’s Cairo SpeechMiddle East — OSC SummaryThursday, June 4, 2009 Document Type: OSC Summary . . . From 1306-1322 GMT, Al-Jazirah conducts a live satellite interview with its Cairo bureau […]

The transcript of Obama’s speech in Cairo is here. In connection with Obama’s speech, Esquire presents an excerpt from my new book on the Muslim Brotherhood and the need to encourage it toward democratic practices and values. The presence of Muslim Brotherhood members in the audience at Cairo has been controversial among some Republican congressmen, […]

The USG Open Source Center translates and analyzes Syrian Press reports on Obama’s visit to the Arab world Syrian Papers Discuss Obama’s Arab Tour, Statements; Urge US Pressure on IsraelSyria — OSC SummaryThursday, June 4, 2009 Document Type: OSC Summary Syrian newspapers on 4 June discuss US President Barack Obama’s tour of the region and […]

President Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for consultations with Saudi King Abdullah. Reuters notes: “Saudi Arabia is among the United States’ top 15 trading partners, with two-way trade worth $67.3 billion last year. The kingdom, whose currency is pegged to the dollar, has expanded trade with Asia in recent years but still […]

My column at Salon.com is out, on the Arab world’s perception of President Barack Obama on the eve of his major address in Cairo. Excerpt: ‘ The Brookings poll shows that just three issues are cited by most Arab respondents as determinative of their view of the United States. In order, they are Iraq, the […]

The Taliban had kidnapped around 350 students and teachers from a school in the Bannu Frontier Region on Monday. According to some reports, the Pakistani military has now rescued all but 37 of them. This kidnapping is the sort of behavior that is turning the public against the Taliban. The Pakistani military says that it […]

Anouar Majid writes in a guest op-ed for Informed Comment: This year, a few scholars are commemorating the 400th anniversary of one of the darkest episodes in history, an event that should be widely known and discussed, but which, alas, has remained buried in the archives of memory. In April 1609, King Philip III of […]