religion

( Middle East Monitor ) – The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli occupation forces storming a church in the Sanctuary of the Eleona in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday and arresting two security guards employed by the French Consulate General in Jerusalem. The two guards were tasked with securing the area ahead of […]

Featured

Conservative Muslim Cleric in North Gaza denounces Hamas for violating Islamic Laws of War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rushdi Abualouf of the BBC reported on a new fatwa or considered legal opinion issued by the conservative Salafi scholar Dr Salman al-Dayah, who had once been a dean at the School of Islamic Law and Civil Law at the Islamic University of Gaza. The controversial opinion lambasted Hamas for […]

Arab Americans

Palestinian-Americans Help Make the US Great: A Reply to Giuliani at the Trumpie Madison Square Garden Hatefest

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Great Trump Three Hours of Hate at Madison Square Garden on Sunday included a fatally unfunny comedian calling Puerto Ricans garbage and other racist swill directed at African-Americans, Hispanics and other groups. Trump alleged that a violent Venezuelan prison gang has taken over Times Square, which bears the same […]

Anti-Zionism

Protesting the Firing of Tenured Professor Maura Finkelstein for Criticizing Zionism

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Dear President Harring, Provost Furge and Professor Dowd: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about the announcement by Muhlenberg College that it intends to terminate […]

American Jews

In Anti-Semitic Trope, Trump says Jews will be to Blame if he Loses, calls them “Brutal Killers”

H. Scott Prosterman

Let’s get this straight: Donald Trump is not “good for the Jews,” nor “good for Israel.” Republicans have done a great PR job in conning many wealthy Jews into believing that Trump’s presidency was what it was not: good for the Jews and Israel. Any Republican perceived strength is founded upon and built on myth. […]

Arab Americans

How Campus Protests exposed the Flaws in Higher Education diversity Initiatives

Nancy A Khalil

( Middle East Eye ) – As the school year begins, universities across the United States are confronting their policies on free speech, protest and freedom of assembly. Some are revising these policies to include swift consequences for those who dare to follow what have been student protest norms for decades. Similar threats loom for […]

censorship

Rebuking New York University for trying to Outlaw Criticism of Israel by Conflating Zionism with Judaism

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Linda G. Mills President, New York University linda.mills@nyu.edu Georgina Dopico Provost, New York University georgina.dopico@nyu.edu . . . We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern […]

Featured

Muslims’ favorability Rating Falls this Year among Americans, as Gaza casts a Shadow and Biden spreads Misinformation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The University of Maryland issued a report this summer on a Critical Issues Poll that found an alarming rise in bigotry directed at Muslims and Muslim Americans during the past year, which seems certainly connected to the October 17 attack on Israel by Hamas in Gaza and the subsequent Israeli […]

Islam

The Verse “Hear O Israel” is Common to Judaism and Islam

Shamai Leibowitz

( The Times of Israel) – This Shabbat we read the second paragraph of the Shema, and last week we read the first paragraph which opens with a call — arguably the most famous prayer in our liturgy: Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). “The first paragraph of […]