Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iranian news agencies announced Saturday that the government had released four dual nationals (Iranian-Americans with both passports). A fifth release was later reported. The release is another major diplomatic victory for President Obama and Sec. of State John Kerry, and is good news indeed for the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian Kids Dodge Settler Attacks Daily

contributors

AJ+ | – – “These Palestinian kids need an army escort to get to school.” AJ+: “Palestinian Kids Dodge Settler Attacks”

Arab Spring

Five years on, Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution continues from the ground up

contributors

By Adnan Saif | (The Conversation) | – – Tunisians are marking five years since the culmination of their “Jasmine Revolution”. Since its longtime authoritarian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced out of office in January 2011, Tunisia has been embarking on a long transition to constitutional democracy – a transation that, although […]

Israel/ Palestine

Swedish FM: Israel Extrajudicial killings; Netanyahu: OK to Kill Assailants

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday waded into a growing row over a call by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom for an investigation into the possibility that Israeli forces have been carrying out “extrajudicial executions.” Speaking to foreign reporters at a new year’s reception, Netanyahu […]

Featured

Noam Chomsky slams Turkish Pres. Erdogan for Arresting Academics, supporting Extremism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Matthew Weaver of the Guardian reports retired MIT linguist Noam Chomsky’s reply to a personal attack by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan criticized Chomsky and other international scholars who signed a petition against the Turkish government’s current vendetta against Kurdish-Turkish citizens in the country’s southeast. Erdogan […]

Assyrians

For Iraqi Minorities, ‘Immigration No Longer A Choice, It’s Inevitable’

contributors

By Saad Salloum | Baghdad| (Niqash.org) | – – In an interview, Raad Jabar al-Khamis, a representative of the Christian Sabean-Mandaean minority, talks about why all minorities in Iraq will leave the country over the next decade. Raad Jabar al-Khamis has held many senior political positions on behalf of Iraq’s Sabean-Mandaean minority. The Sabean-Mandaeans are […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel Sued in US over Flotilla Attacks

contributors

By IMEMC | – – Four people, including three Americans, have filed a civil suit against the state of Israel, seeking compensatory damages for injuries suffered during an attack aboard a U.S. ship in international waters during the year 2010. At a Washington press conference, Tuesday, the plaintiffs said they wanted compensation for “the harm […]

Arab World

How a Medieval Muslim thinker invented Sociology

contributors

Stephen Dale/ Joseph Preville/ Julie Harbin | (ISLAMICommentary) | – – Column » ‘By the Book’ with Joseph Preville by JOSEPH RICHARD PREVILLE and JULIE POUCHER HARBIN for ISLAMiCommentary on JANUARY 7, 2016: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was a colossus among Muslim scholars. Stephen Frederic Dale gives us a portrait of this extraordinary man in his […]

Arab Spring

The Fifth Anniversary of Arab Uprisings: A Turning point in Modern History?

contributors

By Farhang Jahanpour | (Informed Comment) | – – The tumultuous developments that have rocked the Arab world and have come to be known as the Arab Spring resulted in the toppling of the first Arab ruler on 14 January 2011, exactly five years ago today. The Arab revolutions have not turned out as expected, […]