Culture

By Michelle Hartman, McGill University | – Wherever you spend your summer, allow yourself to be transported to Syria and immerse yourself in the world of Shahla Ujayli’s sweeping historical novel Summer with the Enemy. The ongoing devastation of the war that began in 2011 has brought Syria to the world’s attention. Reading a Syrian […]

African-Americans

How Samuel Alito’s Attack on Privacy Rights could Make that famous Star Trek Kiss between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner Illegal Again

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Steve Chawkins writes in the LA Times that actress Nichelle Nichols died of a heart attack on Saturday at 89 in Silver City, New Mexico. Nichols was cast by Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry as Lt. Nyota Uhura, chief communications officer of the Federation star ship Enterprise and the fourth […]

Celtic Religion

In Celtic Culture, August 1 is a Harvest Feast for the Sun-God, Lugh, and its Traces are All Around Us

Hugh J. Curran

Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – We are approaching August 1 which, in Scottish and Irish tradition, is the Feast of Lughnasadh (La Lunasa), also known as Lammas Day. It is one of the four most important festival days in Celtic countries and was originally meant to celebrate Lugh’s birth. Lugh (pronounced Lu or […]

Books

What I Can Still Love about My Embattled Country (and World)

Frida Berrigan

(Tomdispatch.com ) – It’s hot and hazy as July rolls around. Growing up in the Baltimore swamplands, we used to say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” Meaning that the humidity was harder to deal with than the feverish temperatures. At some point in my family, the phrase morphed into: “It’s not the heat, […]

Culture

Why MCU’s Ms. Marvel matters so much to Muslim, South Asian Fans

The Conversation

By Safiyya Hosein, Toronto Metropolitan University | – (The Conversation) – The Disney+ TV show featuring Ms. Marvel, also known as Kamala Khan — the first Muslim superheroine of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), launched June 8 — and the internet has been alight with discussions about the lovable titular character. The comic book series, […]

Authoritarianism

Great Car Fight Movie Scenes Reminiscent of Trump’s attack on Agent Bobby Engel on Jan. 6

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Cassidy Hutchinson testified on Tuesday that Trump grew violent in the presidential limousine, nicknamed the beast, toward a member of his Secret Service detail. Trump had orchestrated the attack on the Capitol by the Oath Keeper and Proud Boys white nationalist militias and had promised them he would lead them […]

Modernism

New Identity: Religion, Nationalism and Foreign Policy in Turkey (Review)

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Filiz Çoban Oran, Religion, Nationalism and Foreign Policy: Discursive Construction of New Turkey’s Identity. London: I.B. Tauris, 2022. Tuebingen (Special to Informed Comment) – In 2009, US President Barack Obama advised Europe to welcome what was then called Turkey into its fold and benefit from the country’s “diversity of ethnicity, tradition and faith.” […]

Asian-Americans

Ms. Marvel: Can a 16-year-old Marvel Superhero Change the Image of Islam in America?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Marvel Cinematic Universe streaming superhero television show, Ms. Marvel dropped on Disney+ this week, and it is a revolution in the representation of Muslim Americans on television. The story revolves around a Pakistani-American 16-year-old girl from Jersey City who resents her strict and protective parents and wants to attend […]

art and photography

Contemporary Muslim Artists continue to adapt Islamic Patterns to challenge Ideas about fixed Culture

The Conversation

By Soheila Kolahdouz Esfahani, Western University | – What is culture? In today’s globalized world, we are familiar with seeing various cultural objects and ornamentation outside of their original location or context. If culture is not fixed and bound to a particular location, how does culture move and transform? Ornamentation in Islamic art — patterned […]