religion

( Middle East Eye ) – As the school year begins, universities across the United States are confronting their policies on free speech, protest and freedom of assembly. Some are revising these policies to include swift consequences for those who dare to follow what have been student protest norms for decades. Similar threats loom for […]

censorship

Rebuking New York University for trying to Outlaw Criticism of Israel by Conflating Zionism with Judaism

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Linda G. Mills President, New York University linda.mills@nyu.edu Georgina Dopico Provost, New York University georgina.dopico@nyu.edu . . . We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern […]

Featured

Muslims’ favorability Rating Falls this Year among Americans, as Gaza casts a Shadow and Biden spreads Misinformation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The University of Maryland issued a report this summer on a Critical Issues Poll that found an alarming rise in bigotry directed at Muslims and Muslim Americans during the past year, which seems certainly connected to the October 17 attack on Israel by Hamas in Gaza and the subsequent Israeli […]

Islam

The Verse “Hear O Israel” is Common to Judaism and Islam

Shamai Leibowitz

( The Times of Israel) – This Shabbat we read the second paragraph of the Shema, and last week we read the first paragraph which opens with a call — arguably the most famous prayer in our liturgy: Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). “The first paragraph of […]

Iraq

The Kurdish Town of Kocho is the ‘Guernica’ of the 21st Century

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

( Rudaw.net) – A decade ago, on August 3, 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) conquered the village of Kocho (Kojo) in the Sinjar (Shingal) area of northern Iraq. On August 15, it began massacring several hundred men and elderly women of the Yazidi community, an ethno-religious minority in Iraq and Syria, after they failed to […]

Featured

Ascending the Temple Mount: Political Act in a Site of Holiness

Yakov M. Rabkin

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Every year, Jews recite the entire Pentateuch aloud in synagogues. It is divided in weekly portions. This week’s one (Vaet’hanan, Deuteronomy 3 :23 – 7 :11) contains passages that are central to Jewish liturgy, including the Shema, a declaration of loyalty to God, or more precisely, a declaration […]

Islam-hatred

Refusing to call out Islamophobia has emboldened the Far Right – and Britain’s current Violence is the Result

The Conversation

By Chris Allen, University of Leicester | – (The Conversation) – As someone who has researched Islamophobia in Britain for a quarter of a century, it is clear to me that the current violence on the streets of Britain is an example of it. This was true from the first outbreak of violence, after a […]

Islam-hatred

As Far Right Islamophobic Mobs riot in the UK, Online Merchants of Hate work their Audiences

The Conversation

By Richard Fern, Swansea University | – The frightening scenes of far-right extremists clashing with police and even rioting in British towns and cities in recent days have many wondering how to stop the spread of the propaganda that encourages racism, violence and misogyny. The tough truth is that in seeking to fact check misinformation […]

Christan Nationalists

Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country

ProPublica

By Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented | – ( ProPublica; Co-published with Documented ) – A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of […]