Colonialism

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A vehicular terror attack in Barcelona that left over a dozen people dead and 100 injured has been claimed by ISIL. Another terrorist attack in the small city of Cambrils was thwarted by Spanish police. The terrorist organization has repeatedly threatened Spain for its logistical and […]

Central Intelligence Agency

Want Iranian Democracy? We had one & CIA overthrew it

contributors

By Joseph McQuade | (The Conversation) | – – The US and Iran have a complicated relationship. At the moment, it is tense, divisive and delicate. Just over 60 years ago, things were not that different. In 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) organised a coup to oust Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Muhammad Mossadegh. […]

Colonialism

Was/Is there an Islamic Enlightenment? (de Bellaigue)

contributors

William Eichler interviews Christopher de Bellaigue | Informed Comment | – – Eichler: 1. In the conclusion to The Islamic Enlightenment you describe modern jihadists as “miracle-grow Muslims” who have been “incubated in the hothouse of modernity.” You write it is hard to attach the label “Muslim” to them. What is the relationship between today’s […]

Algeria

Dear Marine Le Pen: Only a Fascist would Praise Colonialism . . . Oh Wait

contributors

Jessica Northey | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – Marine Le Pen’s declaration that colonialism was a positive thing is not only a denial of France’s painful history, but an example of the fascism that we now face in Europe. When we see or hear evil we have a moral imperative to call it out. Otherwise […]

Arab World

Mideast Partition Plans won’t Bring Peace, just Imperial Social Engineering

contributors

By Laura Robson | (Informed Comment) | – – The idea that partition and population exchange might represent “solutions” to Middle Eastern conflict, long advocated by a wide variety of observers and commentators, is being put to the test. Diplomats and pundits alike have proposed the sectarian partition of both Syria and Iraq for years. […]

art and photography

Photo of the Day: Sad Girl, Happy Girl, Iran 1900 (Sykes)

Juan Cole

British Museum | Sir Percy Sykes | – – Two rural Iranian girls of the Qajar era, 1900, one sad, one mischievous. Via British Museum Museum number: Sykes.453 Description: Lantern slide, showing two young girls posing. Iran. Producer name: Photographed by: Gen Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes KCIE Date: 1900 (circa) Materials: glass

Archaeology

Top Five ways Jesus was not White

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Given the alarming rise of white nationalism in the United States and the ways in which it is often entangled with Christian nationalism, it is worthwhile remembering whose birth, exactly, is being commemorated today. The association of Christianity with whiteness is relatively new in history, as […]

Arab World

Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

contributors

By Christopher M. Davidson | (Informed Comment) | – – Swept along on a tidal wave of euphoria, by spring 2011 many had cautiously begun to believe that the wave of Arab uprisings that had already managed to topple the regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak would herald the dawn of […]

Colonialism

60 Years later, Suez Crisis looks a lot like Iraq War

contributors

By Nigel Ashton | (The Conversation) | – – Does history repeat itself? Never perfectly or precisely, but some of the parallels between Anthony Eden’s handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis and Tony Blair’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq are worth pondering. In both cases prime ministerial decision-making dictated the course of British […]