Featured

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Regulars at Pulse Nightclub are saying that Omar Mateen, the alleged shooter in the early Sunday morning massacre there, was himself a regular! The Orlando Sentinel writes, “‘Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would […]

Domestic Terrorism

Omar Mateen and Rightwing Homophobia: Hate Crime or Domestic Terrorism?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – US law enforcement is at least initially categorizing the horrific Orlando shootings as “domestic terrorism.” I don’t think it probably was terrorism in any useful sense of the term. I used to know what domestic terrorism was, before the term became politicized in the past decade. […]

Featured

Is Tel Aviv Mayor Right that Israel is unique in Occupation & denying Civil Rights?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Ron Huldai, the mayor of Tel Aviv, reacted with enormous sadness to Thursday’s terrorist attack on the Sarona Market restaurant district in Tel Aviv, which left 4 dead, committed by a teenagers from the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. But he then went on to put the […]

Featured

America’s First Communal Muslim Funeral: Muhammad Ali

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The funeral of Muhammad Ali, attended by a throng of 20,000, was the first national funeral for a national hero of the United States that was also a Muslim ceremony or janazah. Muhammad Ali crafted it as a interfaith event, but obviously Islam was central. The […]

Featured

World More violent in past Year, but Middle East drives Deterioration

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The 2016 Global Peace Index has been released, with the bad news that the world is slightly more violent this year than last. But much of the increase of violence happened in the greater Middle East, in Syria, Libya, Turkey, etc. If you subtracted the Middle […]

Featured

Clash Looming? Russia-backed Syrian Army heading for ISIL’s al-Raqqa in race with US-backed Kurds

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian Arab Army is advancing toward al-Raqqa city, the capital of the phony ISIS “caliphate,” with Russian air support. US Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Christopher Garver confirmed on Wednesday that the US has seen the movement of the troops of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad “to […]

Democracy

Welcome to the Party, America! 11 Muslim women who have been PM or President

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Hillary Clinton gave a victory speech Tuesday night positioning herself as the logical conclusion of the first women’s rights meeting at Seneca Falls in 1848. Along the way, other milestones have included women gaining the right to vote, in 1919 and the first woman elected to […]

Europe

France: White Terrorist not investigated for Terrorism even when he Vows attacks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – So Gregoire Moutaux, 25, was arrested last month by Ukraine. The French national had a large cache of deadly weapons. Ukraine Intelligence chief Vasyl Hrytsak said, “The Frenchman spoke negatively of the activities of his government on mass migration of foreigners to France, the spread of […]

BDS Occupied Territories

Israel-First McCarthyism: Cuomo’s vow to spy on, punish BDS Activists in long Tradition

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – After New York governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order directing the state to monitor and sanction activists in the Boycott, Sanctions and Divest Movement (BDS) against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, critics complained that the order is McCarthyism. They objected that […]