Pacifism in Islam – University of Manchester. Juan Cole’s remarks at their conference. The Islamic Peace Studies Initiative Juan Cole and Samer Ali have directed the Islamic Peace Studies Initiative at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies in the International Institute of the University of Michigan from 2016. The initiative sought to […]
- Africa (253)
- Asia (1,254)
- Australasia (35)
- Authoritarianism (390)
- Canada (8)
- Culture (564)
- Economy (1,067)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Boycotts (1)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (54)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (16)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (426)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Insurance (1)
- Investment (93)
- Market Crash (12)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (204)
- Plutocracy (631)
- Poverty (208)
- Poverty (15)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (4)
- Tariffs (3)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (117)
- Weapons sales (7)
- Education (186)
- Energy (1,753)
- Batteries (52)
- Coal (140)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (329)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (422)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (1)
- Hydroelectric (15)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (160)
- Petroleum (302)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (421)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (346)
- Environment (2,718)
- Climate Change (1,663)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (13)
- Climate Refugees (4)
- CO2 (128)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (149)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (160)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (396)
- Extreme Weather (298)
- Flooding (138)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (41)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (62)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (12)
- Sea Level (338)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (265)
- wildfires (240)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,351)
- Drought (295)
- Ecology (1)
- Ecology (10)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (256)
- Ice Melt (139)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (103)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (234)
- Water (97)
- wildlife (21)
- Climate Change (1,663)
- Europe (1,386)
- Featured (4,245)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (710)
- History (363)
- Human Rights (1,627)
- Apartheid (263)
- censorship (320)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (4)
- Displaced and Refugees (581)
- Food Insecurity (30)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (63)
- Human Rights Watch (91)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (90)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (4)
- Torture (102)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (109)
- Unlwful Killing (81)
- War Crimes (422)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,125)
- Arms Sales (73)
- BRICS (3)
- Corruption (268)
- Crime (132)
- Democracy (336)
- Dissent (448)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (4)
- Immigration (21)
- Islamophobia (383)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (117)
- NATO (37)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (144)
- Policing (2)
- Politics (309)
- Politics&Culture (21)
- Propaganda (13)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (102)
- media (485)
- Middle East (10,013)
- Arab World (5,303)
- Iran (1,355)
- Israel (955)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,647)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (294)
- Red Sea (1)
- Turkey (601)
- Turkiye (128)
- Patriarchy (10)
- racism (472)
- religion (1,518)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (174)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (280)
- Terrorism (1,096)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,082)
- United Nations (177)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,378)
- US politics (5,478)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (80)
- Conspiracy Theories (23)
- Constitution (408)
- Courts (15)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (975)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (393)
- Far Right (398)
- FBI (48)
- Federal Government (1)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (249)
- Israel Lobbies (130)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (274)
- National Security State (477)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (576)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (9)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (13)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (68)
- Republican Party (3,080)
- Supreme Court (133)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (620)
- White Supremacists (237)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (568)
- workers (234)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (216)
Islamic History
A Great Muslim Scholar of Jewish Heritage Passes: Abdallah Schleifer (1935 – 2025)
Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Abdullah Schleifer, prominent Arab journalist and Professor Emeritus at the American University in Cairo, died last week at the age of ninety. The grandchild of European Jews who fled Europe and immigrated to the U.S. in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Schleifer converted to Islam […]
Why are Algorithms called Algorithms? A brief History of the Persian Polymath you’ve likely never Heard of
By Debbie Passey, The University of Melbourne | – (The Conversation) – Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without algorithms. So, we’ve all heard of them, but where does the […]
Europe’s Jewish Scholars of Islam
Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment) – At the end of the nineteenth century, the Turkish government asked its Minister of Education to prepare a report on European universities and the possibility of introducing Western style higher education to the Ottoman realm. The Minister travelled to the great European educational institutions and submitted his report […]
Dune Part Two: The Islamic Dimension
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Journalist and science fiction writer Frank Herbert’s Dune epic has many themes. One is, clearly, environmentalism and the need for humans to adapt to their environment. Another is the struggle between regimented bureaucratic civilization and individualism. Yet another is the temptation to use religion for liberatory purposes. The Denis Villeneuve […]
A Merry Muslim Christmas from India’s Hyderabad, c. 1630: Jesus, the Dutch, and Diamonds
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The nativity of the Christ child is not solely an occasion of Christian spirituality, but has been celebrated through the ages by Muslim writers and painters, as well. As I have pointed out, the story of the Annunciation and the birth of Jesus is told in the Qur’an: Verses 19:17-35: […]
Juan Cole: Infidel or Pagan? Understanding Kufr (كفر) in the Qur’an | Muhammad the Prophet of Peace
Gabriel Said Reynolds of Notre Dame writes: “In this video I interview Professor Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. We discuss the historicity of Muhammad’s raids as well as the picture of the messenger that is obtained when one focuses on the Qur’an alone. The bulk […]
Never Forget: Jews and Muslims have Often imagined themselves in History as Siblings and Allies
Excerpted from Tingis. Historically, and even theologically, Jews have always been closer to Muslims than they were to Christians. It was in Muslim lands, the late eminent historian Bernard Lewis told us, that Arabic “became the language of science and philosophy, of government and commerce, even the language of Jewish theology when such a discipline […]
ISIL Extremists Bomb Mosques in Pakistan, in Bid to outlaw Celebrating the Birth of the Prophet Muhammad (Yes)
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Muhammad Shahid at The National (Dubai) reports that there were two attacks on mosques in northern Pakistan on Friday. The bigger explosion targeted worshipers in Mastung, Baluchistan, near the provincial capital of Quetta. This bombing appears to have been aimed at Muslims who were staging a public procession to commemorate […]