International Politics and Economy

The US government continues to rain drones down on the tribal belt of Pakistan. While the Washington narrative is that these drones are precision machines that only kill terrorists, this story is not true. The drone program is classified, and so it cannot be publicly debated. It cannot even be acknowledged by President Obama and […]

Islamophobia

Michigan Republicans propose anti-Sharia law to Discriminate against Muslim Americans

Juan Cole

Michigan State legislator David Agema has introduced an anti-sharia bill that attempts to ban the implementation of ‘foreign law’ in the US that would contradict constitutional rights. Agema openly says he wants to target the Muslim-American community of southeast Michigan, falsely alleging that there are terrorist cells among them. Arab-Americans have emerged as an important […]

Drones

How US Drone Assassinations all Began (Woods)

Juan Cole

Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) usually gets all the credit for the first US drone targeted killing beyond the conventional battlefield. But it was the military which gave the final go-ahead to kill on November 3 2002. Lt General Michael DeLong was at Centcom headquarters in […]

Drones

The United Nations will Investigate Civilian Deaths in US Drone Strikes

Juan Cole

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism writes The United Nations plans to set up a special investigation unit examining claims of civilian deaths in individual US covert drone strikes. UN investigators have been critical of US targeted killings since they began in 2002. The new Geneva-based unit will also look at the legality of the programme. […]

Islamophobia

A Post-Mortem on Muslim Rage: What did the reaction to the Islamophobic Trailer Really Tell Us? (Abootalebi)

Juan Cole

Ali R. Abootalebi writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Today’s journalism and social media, with their increasingly short news cycles, are good at pitching issues but bad at analysis and summations. Stories are just abandoned, however important, as the blogosphere moves on to the Next Big Thing. There is no shortage of opinion […]

Drones

Obama set precedent with Drone Killings for Romney to become Terminator-in-Chief (Ross)

Juan Cole

Alice K. Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: President Obama’s personal involvement in selecting the targets of covert drone strikes means he risks effectively handing a ‘loaded gun’ to Mitt Romney come November, says the co-author of a new report aimed at US policymakers. ‘If Obama leaves, he’s leaving a loaded gun: he’s […]

Drones

Are Judges finally Standing up to Secretive Drone Assassinations? (Searle)

Juan Cole

Jack Searle writes at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Three federal appeal court judges greeted US government efforts to block the release of information on the CIA’s targeted killings programme with skepticism on Thursday, as they grilled the administration’s lawyers for double the scheduled time. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is challenging the Obama […]

Islam

Fury Unbound: the Muslim Dilemma (Majid)

Juan Cole

Anouar Majid writes from Rabat, Morocco, in a guest column for Informed Comment The French are in trouble. The publication Charlie Hebdo has just published cartoons of Islam’s prophet, Mohammed, and now the French government is taking measures to protect its citizens in Muslim countries. I hear Friday may be the D-Day of Muslim protests, […]

Islam

Calm Muslim Berates Violent Muslims for Defaming Islam and being Suckers

Juan Cole

Nouman Ali Khan of the Bayyinah Institute appeals to the Quran, the behavior of the Prophet Muhammad, and common sense in upbraiding the violent believers for letting Islamophobes get their goat and provoking them to actions that detract from the reputation of Muslims and Islam.