Christianity

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | The Qur’an, the scripture Muslims believe was brought from God by the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632), has a number of passages that mention Mary and the virgin birth of Jesus. The Chapter of Mary, 19:16, says (my interpretation): And mention in the Book Mary, when she withdrew from […]

Christianity

What’s the Difference between Roy Moore and a Muslim extreme Fundamentalist? A Cowboy Hat

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Both Christianity and Islam as religions comprise large numbers of people and contain a spectrum of believers from the secular to the moderate to the extreme. At the far right fringes of the Muslim extremists you get al-Qaeda. At the far right fringes of Christian extremists […]

Christianity

Christian Palestinians Reject meeting with Mike Pence

contributors

IMEMC News | – – Christian Palestinians, along with Muslims, held a protest in front of the historic Church of the Nativity, after Sunday prayers, to express their rejection of US president Donald Trump’s decision to consider Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. The protesters assured that they would not meet with Trump’s second […]

Archaeology

A mid-6th Century (Christian?) proto-Arabic Inscription from N. Arabia Mentioning Al-Ilah

Juan Cole

(Politically oriented readers of IC please excuse this reprint of a path-breaking but extremely technical discussion in Arabian religious and linguistic history. It is highly important for the study of the beginnings of Islam, since it discusses an inscription from al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia dated to 548 CE, i.e. some sixty years before the beginning of […]

African-Americans

Bannon & Trump lost Long ago: White Christians not a Majority in US

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In 1976,when Jimmy Carter was elected, a big majority (81%) of Americans identified as both white and Christian, with 4 in 10 of those being white Catholics. The country even had a majority (55%) of white Protestants! Carter, an Southern evangelical, benefited from the Christian vote […]

Copts

Who are Egypt’s Coptic Christians, ISIL’s latest Victims?

contributors

By Paul Rowe | (The Conversation) | – – Coptic Christians in Egypt have been attacked while traveling on pilgrimages and bombed while praying on Palm Sunday, amid an accelerating series of attacks over the last decade. The interrelated challenges of violence, economics and discrimination have led to the increasing departure of Christians from the […]

Egypt

Pope Francis, Islam and Peace-Building

contributors

Interview by Jayson Casper | (Informed Comment) | – – Dr. Kamal Boraiqa is a lecturer at al-Azhar University and a member of al-Azhar Center for Dialogue, the al-Azhar Observer for Combating Extremism, and the Egyptian Family House. With a PhD from al-Azhar in Islamic Studies, he has served as an imam at the Santa […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today

contributors

By Andrea Williams | (The Conversation) | – – The Syrian Civil War has been raging for six years. It has killed nearly half a million people and left over 12 million, about half of Syria’s total population, without a home. A few weeks ago, a devastating chemical attack brought this conflict back into the […]

Copts

Sharpening Contradictions: ISIL Strikes Egyptian Christians on Palm Sunday

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility Sunday for two suicide bombings at Christian churches in Lower Egypt on Palm Sunday, which left over 40 dead and over 100 wounded. The death toll would have been higher except that an Egyptian policeman stopped the suicide bomber in Alexandria […]