Islam

Interfaith Peacemakers | – – [N.B. The interfaith ‘I am your Protector” Campaign, founded by Dani Laurence, last week commemorated in several cities the Muslims who saved Jews from the Holocaust. Laurence told Alarabiya, “”The way Muslims are often portrayed in the media, public discourses can lead to fear and hatred. I Am Your Protector […]

History

Toward a New Islamic Golden Age through Science

contributors

By Nidhal Guessoum | (Project Syndicate) | – – SHARJAH – The Muslim world’s past contributions to science and education were extraordinary. The Islamic “golden age” – during which scholarship and learning flourished across the Muslim world – lasted many centuries, and included the establishment of the world’s first universities. Today, however, Muslim-majority countries lag […]

Iraq

Iraq: Ethnic Fighting endangers Civilians; now it’s Kurds and Shiites

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Kurdish and Shia Turkmen armed groups have repeatedly harmed and endangered civilians in clashes in Iraq’s Tuz Khurmatu district, in Salah al-Din province, since October 2015. The armed groups have killed, wounded, and abducted civilians and destroyed scores, if not hundreds, of homes and shops. “Some of […]

Druze

Israeli plan for minorities slammed as bid to ‘divide and conquer’

contributors

By: Chloe Benoist | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A plan approved by Israel’s cabinet last week to provide half a billion dollars worth of assistance to Israel’s Druze and Circassian minorities has been denounced by leaders of Israel’s Palestinian community as a “divide and conquer” tactic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin […]

Islam

How I Explained to My Impressionable Student That Islam Is Not Monolithic

Juan Cole

Asma Afsaruddin | (Huffington Post) | – – On Sept. 29, 2015, President Obama addressed the United Nations summit on violent extremism. He stated that part of the international effort to stamp out terrorism “must be a continued rejection by Muslims of those who distort Islam to preach intolerance and promote violence, and it must […]

Islam

An Islamic Reformation? There have been Many

contributors

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 […]

Featured

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 […]