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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – 2024 was a pivotal year for international humanitarian law. On the one hand, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court functioned as they were intended to by the idealists who founded them. On the other, the International Humanitarian Law that underpins those institutions was profoundly, perhaps fatally […]

Christianity

For Christmas: The Persian Poet Nezami’s Story of Jesus Finding Virtues even in the Lowliest

Juan Cole

On Christmas Day, I like to recall the significance of Jesus and the nativity for Muslims. I’ve talked about Rumi, Attar, and other mystics. Today it is Nezami’s turn. The great Persian poet Nezami (1141-1209) was from the city of Ganja in northwestern Iran when it was ruled by the Seljuk Empire. That was the […]

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The Great Sufi Qushayri on “Responding to Evil with the Greatest Good” (Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men in Islam)

Juan Cole

In honor of the season’s ‘Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men”

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Pope Francis: “I Think of Gaza, of so much Cruelty, of the Children Machine-Gunned”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the Sunday before Christmas, Pope Francis said, “May the weapons be silenced and Christmas carols resound!” according to Kristina Molare at the Catholic News Agency. The Pope continued, in a clear condemnation of the Israeli government, “With sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children […]

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Irony is Dead: Netanyahu cannot Attend Auschwitz Ceremony for Fear of Arrest on ICC Warrant for War Crimes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to travel to Poland for the 80th annual commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp because he fears being arrested on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court at the […]

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Gaza’s Afflictions: A Proem

Hugh J. Curran

Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Empathy will never be exhausted as gaza schools and hospitals are torn asunder by pilots in fighter jets, their grievances transposed from another time and place into strafing refugee villages with clinical precision; All good gained from sufferings of times long past, all dissipated by the voracious bombing of innocents […]

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Syria’s New Fundamentalist Government: Women “biologically” Unsuited to Politics, Universities to be Segregated

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Obeida Arnaout, the spokesman for the Sunni fundamentalist Levant Liberation Council (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham or HTS) gave an interview on Wednesday with the Lebanese Al-Jadid channel that provoked a firestorm of protest among Syrian women and, well, non-fundamentalists. He pledged, “There will be no imposition of the hijab on the […]

Climate Crisis

Scientists: Cyclone Chido, which Devastated Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte, was 40% more likely to be a Cat 4 because of Climate Change

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Cyclone Chido devastated the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, destroying an estimated 20,000 homes and wiping out entire shantytown neighborhoods. The island has about 65,000 households, so a third may be flattened. Godzilla-sized waves measured as high as 22 feet. About half the population still lacks electricity, and ironically water […]

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Closing Israeli Embassy does not Deter Ireland from Recognizing Palestine, Joining Genocide Case against Netanyahu Gov’t

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The current Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, is likely a war criminal by virtue of serving in the cabinet of a government pursuing a genocide. He nevertheless had the gall to accuse the Prime Minister of Ireland of being a bigot, closing the Israeli embassy in Dublin on the grounds […]