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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 […]

al-Qaeda

Yes, they’re Condemning the Paris Attacks: The Muslims’ War on Terror

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — When American commentators like Carl Bernstein complain that Muslim authorities have not sufficiently denounced the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo staff in Paris, they show a profound ignorance of the current situation in the Middle East. The fact is that both governments of Muslim-majority countries and the […]

al-Qaeda

Paris Terrorist was Radicalized by Bush’s Iraq War, Abu Ghraib Torture

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Sharif and Said Kouashi, the two brothers for whom the French police are searching, were born in Paris of Algerian parents, Mokhtar et Freiha Méguireche, according to a profile published by Le Monde. Said was born in 1980. Sharif was born in 1982. The brothers were poor and […]

al-Qaeda

Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The horrific murder of the editor, cartoonists and other staff of the irreverent satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, along with two policemen, by terrorists in Paris was in my view a strategic strike, aiming at polarizing the French and European public. The problem for a terrorist group like al-Qaeda is […]

Climate Change

Why was 2014 Hottest Year on Record? The Humans did it

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — A Japanese team has confirmed that 2014 was the hottest year on record. Moreover, ten of the warmest years have occurred since 1998. What the scientists are measuring is that average temperature of the earth’s surface, including the oceans, throughout the world. Thus, the cold winter in North […]

Featured

Whatever Happened to besieged Kurdish City of Kobane, Syria?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Kurdish forces (including both the local YPG and Peshmerga units from Iraqi Kurdistan), and supported by Free Syrian Army troops and coalition air strikes, have largely recovered Kobane from rule by Daesh (called in the West ISIL or ISIS). Kurdish forces have recovered control of the downtown where the government […]

Democracy

Iran’s Rouhani & Direct Democracy: Wants Referendum to Sidestep Hardliners

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Iran’s system of government is a hybrid. One wing of it consists of a dictatorial theocracy, centered on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The other wing is elected and comprises the parliament and the presidency. President Hassan Rouhani, a reformer, is worried about being stymied in his economic and […]

Climate Change

Wind supplied 98% of Scotland’s household Power in 2014 and other Amazing Green Energy Stories

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Some 41% of the electricity consumed in Scotland annually is for households, while industrial and other facilities use the other 59%. With regard to the households, i.e. domestic energy consumption, Scotland’s wind turbines generated enough to cover 98% of it in 2014. In addition, in some months of […]