(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 […]
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Islam
‘They shot my two daughters in front of me’: Burma’s Rohingya tell heartbreaking stories of loss
By Ronan Lee | (The Conversation) | – – If there’s anything positive about the sprawling Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, it’s that the residents – despite their appalling recent experiences and obvious deprivation – are at least safe here from Myanmar’s military. I’ve been visiting Rohingya refugee camps close to the Bangladesh/Myanmar […]
Iraq: How Youtube & Facebook Fake News Raised Kurdish-Shiite Tensions
By Histyar Qader | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – After clashes in northern Iraq this week, hundreds of fake pictures have flooded Iraqi social media. Some are real, some not, but leaders on both sides say it’s leading to a dangerous escalation of tensions. Given the partisan nature of much of the media funding […]
Saudi women between online resistance and new physical realities
Heyla Selim | ( GlobalVoices.net ) | – – What role did collective action, and social media play in Saudi Arabia’s decision to lift its ban on women driving? Picture of the author taken in 2015 by Lujain Mirza as part of her research project about visual representation of Saudi Women at Brighton University. All […]
Top 7 ways Saudi could learn from Qatar about Moderate Islam
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman has announced that he wants to take his kingdom toward a more moderate Islam. The state religion of Saudi Arabia is what outsiders call Wahhabism, a puritanical and strident interpretation of the religion. Only about 40% of Saudis are thought […]
Iraqi PM Rebukes Tillerson on Popular Mobilization Militia
TeleSur | – – “Popular Mobilisation fighters should be encouraged because they will be the hope of country and the region,” Abadi said. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has defended the role of his country’s Popular Mobilization Forces, or Hashd al-Sha’abi, following a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that members of the […]
Burma: New Satellite Images Confirm Mass Destruction of Rohingya
Human Rights Watch | – – 288 Villages, Tens of Thousands of Structures Torched (New York) – Newly released satellite images reveal that at least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine State in Burma since August 25, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. The destruction encompassed tens of thousands […]
Eyewitness: the Rohingya horrors and Aung San Suu Kyi’s whitewash
By Ellen Wiles< | (The Conversation) | - - It was a bright autumn morning, and I had just dropped off my two children at nursery and was scrolling through Twitter, when I spotted a video of another mother’s two children. The youngest was a one-year-old boy, the same age as my own youngest; the […]
Alarmed Kurdistan forces Mobilized at Kirkuk as Iraqi troops said to Mass on Border
Kurds say Shiite militias heading for Kirkuk