Featured

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — I caught the Detroit Auto Show on Saturday afternoon. As always, it was great to see the concept cars of the future. But if you know me, you know I was there for news about electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids. This is mostly just window shopping — […]

Featured

French Pres. Hollande: Anti-Muslimism is as bad as Antisemitism: Muslims Must be Protected

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) French President Francois Hollande addressed the Institute of the Arab World on Friday, in a bid to reassure French Muslims, who fear being the victims of a collective guilt campaign or reprisals after the attack of radicals on Charlie Hebdo. Hollande said: “It is the Muslims who are the […]

Belgium

Top 7 Things to know about Belgium anti-terror Op that left 2 Dead

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Belgian police launched a counter-terrorism operation on Thursday in the eastern city of Verviers (pop. 56,000) near the German border. Verviers is one of the towns in Belgium that has a large number of Muslims, with many of the young men in that community being unemployed. Belgium is a […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Will France intervene in Yemen after its al-Qaeda Claims Paris Attacks?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in south Yemen, claimed on Wednesday to have been behind the attacks in Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week. Said and Sharif Kouashi are known to have visited Yemen in 2011 for weapons training, assisted by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born terrorist later […]

Featured

In aftermath of Charlie Hebdo, German Chancellor Merkel says Islam Belongs to Germany

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The thinly veiled hate group PEGIDA, which says it is against the “Islamization” of Germany (by which it means it wants German to be Muslimrein or purified of Muslims), staged a demonstration of 18,000 in the eastern city of Dresden on Monday, in the wake of the Paris terrorist […]

censorship

Paris Rally: Charlie Hebdo Team regret not Parading Caricatures of Hypocritical World Leaders

Juan Cole

Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Le Monde reported on the Charlie Hebdo team at the Paris rally on Sunday, the largest demonstrations in France since the end of World War II. They were emotionally exhausted, having lived through a nightmarish week that saw 10 of their colleagues murdered in cold blood. (One of the staffers […]

European Union

After Paris attacks, could David Duke style Racist Parties Sweep to Power in Europe?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Anti-immigrant sentiment and Islamophobia was already raging through Europe before the Kouashi al-Qaeda Cell targeted the staff of the magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish deli in Paris. Although President Francois Hollande insisted that the attacks had nothing to do with the religion of Islam (and rightly so), […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

From Yemen to Paris: The al-Qaeda Franchise from the 15th to the 60th Parallel N.

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Analysts have been understandably cautious about the nature of the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo staff and a Jewish deli in Paris. On the one hand, they appear to be the work of a small cell. On the other, members of the cell have long and clear links […]