History

By IMEMC | – Solar panels finally brought electricity to the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank, but the residents’ joy was short lived. A few weeks after the panels were installed, Israeli authorities confiscated them, indicating the latest chapter in Israel’s long battle to quash the strategically located village. PNN reports […]

Featured

Ghosts of Saladin, Saddam & Khomeini: Tikrit Campaign’s Historical Meaning

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Iraqi forces (one-third army, two-thirds Shiite militias) that are surrounding Tikrit 80 miles north of Baghdad are not just Iraqi forces. They are mostly Shiite, though some Sunni irregulars have joined them. More important, the Tikrit campaign is being directed as to its strategy by Qasim Sulaimani, […]

History

Iraq: What is the meaning of the Assyrian capital ISIL just demolished?

contributors

Channel 4 News | – “[So-called] Islamic State [group] militants looted and bulldozed the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, government officials say.” Channel 4 News: “ISIS militants demolish ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud” For more on the Assyrian palace of Nimrud see Klaudia Englud at the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative Nimrud, Northwest […]

History

ISIL vs the Graven Idols of History

contributors

By Elliott Colla | (Baghdad Central) – ISIS’s destruction of antiquities at the Mosul Museum and the ancient city of Nimrud has generated a lot of discussion and disgust, all of it well deserved. But much of what has been said fails to adequately contextualize these attacks in two ways. First, in the history of […]

History

ISIL militants destroy Humankind’s heritage of Civilization from Ancient Iraq

contributors

RT | – The Islamic State has posted a video online showing a group of militants destroying ancient statues and other artifacts, saying they are symbols of idolatry. Some of the objects date from the seventh century BC. Specialists say the damage is incalculable. The video, which appeared online on Thursday, shows monuments and relics […]

History

The Dynamism of American Islam

contributors

By Joseph Richard Preville and Julie Poucher Harbin | (ISLAMiCommentary) How do Muslims fit into the quilt of American history? Jonathan Curiel investigates this question in his new book, Islam in America (I.B. Tauris, April 28, 2015). “America’s first Muslims,” he writes, “were perceived as less than human – people put in chains, forced to […]

Christians

Oklahoma: AP History Abandoned For Christian Agenda

contributors

TheLipTV | – “An Oklahoma legislative committee just approved an “emergency” bill introduced by Representative Dan Fisher that would cut state funding for Advanced Placement (AP) US History. Fisher’s agenda seems to be related to an attack on the separation between church and state and the exclusion of a Christian perspective in school history courses. […]

History

Can History Resolve the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict?

contributors

Joel Beinin, Stanford University (History News Network /American Historical Association) — “Joel Beinin is a professor of history at Stanford University. On January 3, 2015 he spoke at a roundtable convened by the Mid-Atlantic Radical Historians’ Organization (MARHO) on the subject: ”What is the Responsibility of Historians Regarding the Israel/Palestine Conflict?” ” HNNeditor: “Joel Beinin: […]

History

Allied Footage of Istanbul from 1915 in WW I

contributors

British Pathe | — “Footage from 1915 of Constantinople, in the Ottoman empire (now Istanbul, Turkey), as the allies approach the city during World War One. Tracking shot on the water (Bosporus straits), moving to left. We pass many old buildings, Hagia Sophia, as well as other churches and mosques with domes, minarets, etc. Low […]