Islam

Sami Zubaida | ( Open Democracy) | – – We keep hearing calls for an ‘Islamic Reformation’, but the Protestant Reformation was not a liberal enterprise: it was the original ‘fundamentalism’, whence the label now applied to Islam. < Martin Luther’s Rycina Chrystusa i Antychrysta. Wikicommons .Some rights reserved. We keep hearing calls for an […]

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Iraqi Shiites up in Arms, claim Saudi “Spying on behalf of ISIL/Daesh”

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Arabia’s execution on Saturday of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr Baqir al-Nimr has so far not created a crisis between Riyadh and the Shiite-dominated Baghdad government. But Saudi Arabia’s name with the rank and file Shiites and parliamentary backbenchers is mud. On Tuesday, thousands (or perhaps […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia Executes Top Shia Cleric Nimr Al Nimr Under “Terrorism” Charges

contributors

By Amira Al Hussaini | ( GlobalVoices.org) Saudi Arabia announced today it had executed 47 people under “terrorism” charges, including top shia cleric Nimr Al Nimr who was seen as a leader in anti-government protests that took place in the Eastern province of the absolute monarchy at the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring. Saudi […]

Featured

Top 5 Things for which We should be grateful to Arabic Writing

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – When a teacher in rural Augusta county, Virginia, decided to expose her students to the Arabic script (a piece of calligraphy writing out the Muslim profession of faith), the backlash from some furious parents so hinted at violence that county schools had to be closed for […]

Christianity

Muslims Shield Christians from al-Shabab Terror

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks Video Report) | – – “Al-Shabaab is a terrorist group that operates in Somalia and Kenya. Lately they have been attacking buses full of civilians, particularly non-Muslims. Cenk Uygur, host of the The Young Turks, breaks it down. “Their M.O. is a tried and terrifying one: Launch a raid, […]

Iraq

If Iraq can take Ramadi from ISIL/ Daesh, it will Need to reach out to Sunnis

contributors

By Balsam Mustafa and Scott Lucas | (The Conversation) | – – After days of mounting expectation, the Iraqi government finally announced a serious offensive to retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of western Iraq’s Anbar Province, from [the so-called] Islamic State [group] (IS). This is far from the first announcement of the imminent […]

Christianity

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Wheaton College suspended a tenured professor of Political Science for quoting Pope Francis that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. So, do they? History Buff blog asked me what I thought, and this is what I told them: “Hebrew, the language of the Hebrew Bible, […]

Featured

If Defeating ISIL/ Daesh is so imp’t, why isn’t Ramadi Campaign all we’re talking about?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Given the large number of vehement pronouncements by US presidential candidates about the dire threat from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), and attacks on President Obama for not doing more, you would think that the American public would be hanging on every word about any progress against the […]

American Jews

Top 6 Times US government Excluded Millions based on Race or Religion

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and other bigots on the far right are nothing new in American history. Rather, they remind us of the worst and most shameful detours of the American Republic in the past. From the mid-nineteenth century racial theory became prominent in European and […]