religion

By Aaron Scott | – ( Otherwords.org ) – I grew up in a church community that pitted people against each other and called it “Christianity.” As a pastor now myself, I know there’s another way. By Aaron Scott | June 1, 2022 I grew up in rural upstate New York, where life was difficult […]

Jewish History

Shavuot: A Jewish holiday of renewing commitment to God

The Conversation

By Alan Avery-Peck, College of the Holy Cross | – The festival of Shavuot, marked this year on June 5 and 6, celebrates the biblical story of God revealing Torah – Jewish scriptures and teachings – to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. This gift, and the observance of Torah’s principles, is at the core of […]

Featured

In Final Slap to Bush-Era Neoconservatives, Iraq Criminalizes Contacts with Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Neoconservatives who pushed for the Bush-Cheney war on Iraq in 2003 hoped that by toppling the Arab nationalist dictator Saddam Hussein they could recreate Iraq as a country friendly to US interests and regional allies like Israel. I was told by one military officer that he was in the […]

Islam

Jerusalem is not an internal Israel Affair to be Discussed before its Judiciary

Middle East Monitor

By Fayez Abu Shamaleh | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The Israeli government took note of the statement issued by the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs, which condemned an Israeli court’s decision to allow extremists to perform rites in the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli government gave […]

Afghanistan

Central Asian Stans Fear Afghan Militancy while their Russian Ally is Bogged down in Ukraine

Global Voices

By Zhar Zardykhan | – Read this post in Malagasy ( GlobalVoices.org) – On May 8, 2022, the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan reported that they are investigating Islamic State (IS) rockets attack on Tajikistan from Afghanistan’s Takhar Province, as IS admitted firing eight rockets on May 7 towards “unspecified military targets in Tajikistan.” In reaction, […]

African-Americans

Tucker Carlson’s “Great Replacement” Theory Comes From an Anti-US Nazi French Thinker who considered all Americans Negroes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A hate-filled 18-year-old murdered 10 and wounded 3 African-Americans in Buffalo on Saturday, having penned a rambling screed about replacement theory. The most common version of this whiny idea, imported from the more hysterical fringes of the French Right wing, holds that Jewish capitalists are importing cheap immigrant labor to […]

American Jews

Majority of Americans of all Religions or None want Legal Abortion, except for Evangelicals and 47% of Catholics

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Pew Research Center has a poll out on views about abortion of American religious groups. It shows that in most American religious groups, as well as religious “nones” (people without strong religious beliefs, including agnostics and atheists), the majority believes that abortion should be legal in “all or most […]

Feminism

SCOTUS Dispensing with Roe v. Wade Is Attack on Religious Freedom and Jewish Law

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland (Special to Informed Comment) – The leaked SCOTUS draft to overturn Roe v. Wade leaves a lot to unpack. For Jews, Muslims and other religious minorities, this is a threat to religious liberty in general. Jewish law, (Halacha), does not consider the fetus to be a being with a soul until it is born, […]

Christianity

Cole Interview: The Qur’an, the Crucifixion and Jews: Rebutting Iranian War Propaganda against Byzantium

Juan Cole

Ziryab Jamal interviewed me on my article: Juan Cole, “‘It was made to appear to them so’: the crucifixion, Jews and Sasanian war propaganda in the Qur’ān,” Religion 51, 3 (2021): 404-422. He kindly permitted me to put up the raw video of the interview with video here: Some of the points in the article […]