religion

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 […]

Assyrians

For Iraqi Minorities, ‘Immigration No Longer A Choice, It’s Inevitable’

contributors

By Saad Salloum | Baghdad| (Niqash.org) | – – In an interview, Raad Jabar al-Khamis, a representative of the Christian Sabean-Mandaean minority, talks about why all minorities in Iraq will leave the country over the next decade. Raad Jabar al-Khamis has held many senior political positions on behalf of Iraq’s Sabean-Mandaean minority. The Sabean-Mandaeans are […]

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

Britain’s Debate over Banning Trump by the Numbers

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The British parliament will debate a motion to ban Donald Trump from the UK on January 18. Typically 100,000 signatures on a petition will provoke such a debate, but many more Britons asked for it than that. Trump would hardly be the first person banned there […]

Islam-hatred

Why have we normalized Islamophobia?

contributors

By John Esposito | ( OUPBlog) | – – The horrific attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have captured headlines and triggered responses from journalists, politicians, and religious leaders. Some Western heads of government have once again threatened a global war against terrorism, while some political commentators have even invoked World War III. In the […]

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 […]

Arab Americans

Radical Al-Shabab uses Trump in Recruiting Video & Muslim preachers denounce him along with ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The foremost academic expert on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and Muslim radical thought, Will McCants at Brookings, tweeted out late Friday: Shabab uses Trump's anti-Muslim statement in new recruitment video (10:50 mark): https://t.co/Amdr4NUH3l — Will McCants (@will_mccants) January 1, 2016 (I apologize that YouTube removed the content […]