Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Main Content

Conflict in Mecca: The Prophet Muhammad and Soft Power
Featured

Conflict in Mecca: The Prophet Muhammad and Soft Power

Juan Cole

I believe that the earliest source we have for the life of the Prophet is the Quran itself. And I believe the Quran is early.

Juan Cole Fundraiser
DONATED:$20,200
SUPPORTERS:234
TARGET:$30,000
REMAINING:$9,800
“Into this Universe:”  Heidegger and FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:29

“Into this Universe:” Heidegger and FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:29

12/14/2025 By Juan Cole

“Identity is never fixed:” Interview with Iranian-American Artist Soraya Sharghi

“Identity is never fixed:” Interview with Iranian-American Artist Soraya Sharghi

12/14/2025 By Global Voices

More Stories

Human Rights
Iraq's Freedom Agenda shouldn't Include Child Marriage and Summary Divorce

Iraq’s Freedom Agenda shouldn’t Include Child Marriage and Summary Divorce

(Human Rights Watch) (Baghdad) – Iraq’s Council of Ministers should withdraw a new draft Personal Status Law and ensure that Iraq’s legal framework protects women […]

Juan Cole

Dissent
Has Consumerism forever Killed the American Revolutionary Spirit?

Has Consumerism forever Killed the American Revolutionary Spirit?

(By Lewis Lapham) [This essay will appear in “Revolution,” the Spring 2014 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly. This slightly adapted version is posted at TomDispatch.com with the […]

contributors

Featured
Crimea Vote provokes fear of Domino Effect in Eurasia: Turkish FM

Crimea Vote provokes fear of Domino Effect in Eurasia: Turkish FM

(By Juan Cole) Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday warned that Crimea’s referendum on seceding from Ukraine pose the threat of a “domino effect” […]

Juan Cole

Climate Change
BP Permitted back into The Gulf Despite all the Damage Done

BP Permitted back into The Gulf Despite all the Damage Done

(By Sarah Lazare) Four years after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, oil still washes up on the Gulf Coast shore, and residents and cleanup workers face […]

contributors

Politics
RIP: Tony Benn - "We'll never have Democracy as long as Big Business can buy Both Parties

RIP: Tony Benn – “We’ll never have Democracy as long as Big Business can buy Both Parties

British socialist stalwart Tony Benn dies at 88 (via AFP) Political foes and allies paid tribute to Tony Benn, the totem of the British left […]

Juan Cole

Climate Change
Irony Alert: Climate Change Threatens delivery of Energy from Oil and Gas

Irony Alert: Climate Change Threatens delivery of Energy from Oil and Gas

By Bobby Magill Follow @bobbymagill Oil refineries and drilling platforms in the U.S. are vulnerable to sea level rise and greater storm surge. Fuel pipelines, barges, railways and storage tanks are vulnerable to melting permafrost and severe weather…

Juan Cole

Turkey
Turkey's PM Erdogan can weather Corruption and Islamic Politics: But Can he Weather Twitter?

Turkey’s PM Erdogan can weather Corruption and Islamic Politics: But Can he Weather Twitter?

(By Ahmet T. Kuru) Erdoğan has consolidated the executive, legislative, and the judicial powers under his authority; yet he has been unable to control another […]

contributors

Featured
Israelis slam Kerry over "Jewish State" Remarks as Abbas Rejects Demand

Israelis slam Kerry over “Jewish State” Remarks as Abbas Rejects Demand

(By Juan Cole) Right wing Israeli officials over the weekend expressed rage at US Secretary of State John Kerry for saying that Prime Minister Binyamin […]

Juan Cole

Iraq
Has the US lost Iraq to Iran over Arms Deal?

Has the US lost Iraq to Iran over Arms Deal?

(By Mustafa Sadoun in Baghdad) Documents indicating that Iraq was going to buy almost US$200 million worth of armaments from neighbouring Iran have had foreign […]

contributors

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 1930
  • Page 1931
  • Page 1932
  • Page 1933
  • Page 1934
  • …
  • Page 3058
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Latest

Featured

War, Peace, and Erasure: Lessons from Wakara for Gaza and Beyond

Max Perry Mueller

Climate Crisis

Climate Breakdown: Each Child Today is being Born into a Slow-Motion Hiroshima

Tom Engelhardt

censorship

Syria: One Year since Assad’s Fall

Human Rights Watch

Climate Change

Was Volcano-Driven Climate Change partially Behind the Black Death?

Juan Cole

Popular

  • Israel is Sinking into the Abyss of Netanyahu's Dictatorship
  • War, Peace, and Erasure: Lessons from Wakara for Gaza and Beyond
  • Peacemaker or Pirate of the Caribbean? Trump Celebrates Murder on the Open Seas
  • How the pro-Palestine Movement is outsmarting the Algorithms
  • Rumi and Shakespeare: On Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved