International Politics and Economy

Crimean Tatars wary of Russia referendum (via AFP) Victims of Stalin’s mass deportations in 1944, Crimea’s Tatar Muslim minority look warily on next week’s referendum on joining Russia, which could well bring the crisis on the tense peninsula to new heights. At the Great Mosque in Bakhchysaray, near… —- Related video: CNN: “Muslims in […]

Human Rights

Can Int’l Community help stop Libya’s Slide into Chaos?

contributors

(By Sarah Leah Whitson) (Tripoli) – The international community should agree to provide assistance to Libya’s flailing judicial system, Human Rights Watch said . . . following the international ministerial conference on Libya . . . The assistance should include urgently needed training for judicial police and trained personnel to help Libya end the crime […]

Featured

Bill O’Reilly says Muslims will Diss Hillary; but 8 Muslim Countries Chose Female Leaders

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Bill O’Reilly maintains that one downside of having a woman president is that Muslims won’t respect her. For Mr. O’Reilly’s information, here are the women leaders of Muslim-majority countries, most of them freely elected by Muslim publics and all of them respected by the latter: Tansu Çiller, elected prime minister of Turkey, […]

India

India’s Elections: Religious Nationalism and the Future of Democracy

Juan Cole

(via The Economist) Elections in India: Carnival of democracy (via The Economist) LET the contest begin. On March 5th India’s electoral commission, at last, set the dates for the largest democratic exercise on Earth. By mid-May, India should have a new government. From April 7th until May 12th, across nine different phases of voting… […]

Dissent

Censorship: Turkish PM, President tangle over Bruited ban on Facebook, Youtube

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) President Abdullah Gul has rejected a suggestion by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey might ban Facebook and Twitter. Nearly half of Turkey’s 77 million people use Facebook at least once a month and the country ranks 15th in the world for Facebook use. Turkey had banned Youtube 2008-2010. The good news […]

military

The Tea Party Congress Slashed Childrens’ Food Stamps but secretly Protected Pentagon Budget

contributors

(By Mattea Kramer) Washington is pushing the panic button, claiming austerity is hollowing out our armed forces and our national security is at risk. That was the message Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel delivered last week when he announced that the Army would shrink to levels not seen since before World War II. Headlines about […]

Afghanistan

US Drone Kills 5 Allied Afghan Troops, mistaking them for Taliban

Juan Cole

A NATO air strike in eastern Afghanistan accidentally killed five Afghan soldiers on Thursday, officials said, the latest incident likely to worsen already fraught relations between Kabul and the US-led coalition. NATO offered its condolences over the…

Barack Obama

Least Transparent Administration Ever: A New Front in Obama’s War on Whistleblowers

contributors

(By Peter Van Buren) The Obama administration has just opened a new front in its ongoing war on whistleblowers. It’s taking its case against one man, former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Air Marshal Robert MacLean, all the way to the Supreme Court. So hold on, because we’re going back down the rabbit hole with the Most […]

Dissent

Paranoia strikes Deep: Russian Media Propaganda Feeds Ukraine Crisis

contributors

(By Dan Peleschuk) Russian TV beats war drum on home front (via GlobalPost) MOSCOW, Russia — Ukraine’s new authorities are an ultranationalist, neo-fascist gang who’ve seized power with covert Western support and are bent on marauding Russian-speaking southeastern Ukraine and forcing its peaceful citizens into submission… ——– Related video: Euronews: “Sergei Lavrov defends Russia’s […]