religion

( RFE/RL ) – Less than a month before Iran’s June 18 presidential election, there are few signs of enthusiasm about the vote. For many Iranians, voting in the Islamic republic has often been a choice between bad or worse. Elections in Iran are tightly restricted, with candidates being preselected by hard-liners on the country’s […]

Entertainment

As Boteach comes for Dua Lipa, has Tactic of Smearing People as anti-Semites for Backing Palestinian Human Rights jumped the Shark?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Orthodox Rabbi Shmuely Boteach has come after the brilliant, Grammy-award-winning Kosovar-British pop star Dua Lipa with an ad in the New York Times accusing her of anti-Semitism for supporting Palestinian rights. She vigorously denied the charge and denounced the ad. She should also sue for libel. Boteach is a huge […]

Islam

Why the Al-Aqsa Mosque has often been a site of conflict

The Conversation

By Ken Chitwood | – The violence that spread from Jerusalem to cities across Israel and the Palestinian territories, leaving at least 60 dead so far, has both historical and contemporary roots. In recent weeks, tension has flared over the eviction of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities blocking access to the […]

Islam

Anti-Muslim Racism remains a Blind Spot in American Efforts for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Sumbul Ali-Karamali

(Special to Informed Comment) – When I first read Jack Shaheen’s seminal book, Reel Bad Arabs, which documents negative stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in American film, I was shocked. Not shocked that such stereotypes have saturated film and television. Rather, shocked that I myself had seen several of these films and never noticed the […]

Featured

For 1st time, Ultra High Resolution Photo released of Black Stone in Mecca, sacred relic of Islam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Saudi commission for the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina revealed in a tweet on Tuesday that it was making new high resolution pictures of the Black Stone of the Kaaba shrine in Mecca available. The stone has for over 1,400 years had an important place in Muslim […]

Archaeology

Were Humanity’s Oldest Monumental Religious Sites Erected in NW Saudi Arabia? 1,000 ‘Rectangles’ Older than Stonehenge

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Hugh Thomas and a team of Australian researchers have just published a groundbreaking article in the journal Antiquity describing their research into the mysterious “Rectangles” (mustatīl) dotting Northwest Arabia. This region lies due south of Israel-Palestine and Jordan. Rectangles. h/t ‘Antiquity.’ The Rectangles date from roughly 7,500 years before present, […]

Iran

The Iranian Government is more Pragmatic in dealing with Sunnis than its Sectarian image Implies

Shivan Mahendrarajah

St. Andrews (Special to Informed Comment) – The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is often depicted by its enemies and their press (the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel in particular) as an ideological and sectarian Shiite state, drunk on fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalism, however, is a key part of the politics of these […]

Archaeology

The Catholic Reconquista in Spain outlawed Islam in 1502, but Secret Muslims kept their culture — and Cuisine — Going

The Conversation

By Aleks Pluskowski, Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, and Marcos García García | – Granada, in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, was the final remnant of Islamic Iberia known as al-Andalus – a territory that once stretched across most of Spain and Portugal. In 1492, the city fell to the Catholic conquest. In the aftermath, native Andalusians, who […]

Antisemitism

Tucker Carlson touts ‘Replacement’ Conspiracy Theory; but his own Ancestor could have been Lynched

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Grand Dragon Tucker Carlson went on another Fox News show to push his streaming program, and while there was struck with diarrhea of the larynx, oozing amid loud excretions a hateful farrago of antisemitic white supremacy. He openly embraced the tin foil hat conspiracy theory of “replacement,” the notion that […]