International Politics and Economy

By Stuart Schaar | (Informed Comment) | – – In the early 1960s I was living in Rabat while researching my doctoral dissertation for Princeton University. My friend, the Pakistani Eqbal Ahmad (d. 1999), who was living in Tunisia and also researching his dissertation, had just driven through Algeria as the Algerians celebrated their victory […]

Egypt

Mexican Tour Organizers, Buddhist Healers, Baffled by Egyptian Army Attack

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Gabriela Bejarano Rangel, the sister and daughter of the Mexican organizers of the tour to Egypt that met with tragedy Sunday, has been interviewed at Excelsior.com. The Egyptian military mistook the tourist convoy in the western desert near Siwa Oasis for terrorists and attacked them, killing […]

Israel/ Palestine

Leftist Corbyn win as head of UK Labour alarms Israeli Right Wing

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party on Saturday quickly led to condemnation from the Israeli press who branded the veteran left-winger “anti-Israeli” and raised allegations of antisemitism. The 66-year-old socialist was named leader after clinching a landslide 59.5 percent of […]

Authoritarianism

The 3000: Why have some Tunisians joined ISIL/Daesh in Syria?

contributors

by Youssef Cherif | (Middle East Center Blog, LSE Political Science) | – – Tunisia, regarded as the Arab ‘beacon of hope’ and the cliché of Arab secularism and liberalism, raises a lot of expectations. Hence the most pressing point when Tunisia is discussed rotates around the 3000 Tunisian fighters who joined the ranks of […]

Christianity

Pope Francis’ call to host Refugees contrasts w/ anti-Immigrant US “Religious Right”

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Not all American Christian leaders have covered themselves in glory when it comes to the issue of Syrian refugees being accepted by the US ( not many are). Evangelist Franklin Graham sees these refugees as a security threat because many of them are Muslim (though there […]

Foreign Policy

American Workers need a Raise, & the Iran Deal, and Peace

contributors

By Michael Eisenscher | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | We’ll never rebuild this country if we keep wasting money on war. This Labor Day, like others before it, finds American workers squeezed on many fronts. Inequality is rising, union membership is dwindling, and wages aren’t keeping up with job growth. Naturally, addressing all those challenges […]

Dissent

Remember how Congress said we Should Support Iran Reformists? Well they want the Nuclear Deal

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/ RL Parvin Fahimi, who lost her son to repression by the Iranian state, hopes the agreement global powers reached with Tehran on its nuclear program last month will not only remove sanctions and the threat of war, but also lead to improved human rights inside the country. Fahimi, whose […]

Kurds

Fighting at Funerals: Turkey plunges back into Conflict

contributors

T. Deniz Erkmen | (Informed Comment) | – – It has been a month since the government of Turkey has ended the tenuous peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), by bombing Qandil mountains in Iraq and rounding up Kurdish activists. What instigated the resumption of the conflict was the killing of two […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey’s Snap Elections: Erdoğan is forcing his people to take sides

contributors

By Bahar Baser and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk | (The Conversation) | – – Ever since the June 2015 elections, which thwarted the proposed presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long craved, Turkey has been hurtling into one of its most turbulent periods in decades. And with a snap election called for November 2015, […]