Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Archives for July 2012

Uncategorized
The Olympics and the Muslims

The Olympics and the Muslims

Juan Cole

The Olympic Games are rooted in an ancient Greek custom, but they were revived in the 1890s very much in the framework of the emergence of a world of nation-states. Athletes are envisioned as representing their nation, and the abstraction, that everyone now has a nation-state, covers up a lot of cultural conflict that besets […]

Uncategorized
“The Bride” by Sughra Rababi (Painting)

“The Bride” by Sughra Rababi (Painting)

Juan Cole

Sughra Rababi, The Bride, 1986 Sughra Rababi (1922-1994) is a major modern Pakistani painter. She studied in Karachi and at Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan Fine Arts University in Bengal.

Uncategorized
Defections mount as Syrian Regime invests Aleppo

Defections mount as Syrian Regime invests Aleppo

Juan Cole

The Baath regime of President Bashar al-Assad is preparing for a major military operation to crush the uprising in Aleppo on Friday afternoon, according to rebel and Western sources. Even as the regime continues to pound rebel-held neighborhoods with tank and helicopter gunship fire, it is massing troops and armor to invest the city. But […]

Uncategorized
Romney in the Land of the Anglo-Saxon Uncertain Olympics: Not Ready for Prime Time

Romney in the Land of the Anglo-Saxon Uncertain Olympics: Not Ready for Prime Time

Juan Cole

Mitt Romney, astonishingly, managed to turn what should have been an easy set of photo-ops and feel-good platitudes into a diplomatic comedy of errors that raise strong questions about his readiness for the presidency. First, an adviser to the Romney campaign referred to “our” common Anglo-Saxon heritage with the United Kingdom, and said that President […]

art and photography
Tripoli, Libya: Martyr’s Square (Photo)

Tripoli, Libya: Martyr’s Square (Photo)

Juan Cole

Martyr’s Square, Tripoli, Libya on a Friday afternoon. This is the area of the former “Green Square” where Qaddafi gave his hours-long crackpot speeches. It now has a carnival atmosphere on the weekends. Families are out, into the evening, and according to the informal interviews I did, most seem quite happy with the new political […]

Uncategorized
“The Whirling Dervishes” by Mahmud Said (Painting)

“The Whirling Dervishes” by Mahmud Said (Painting)

Juan Cole

Mahmoud Said (Egyptian, 1897-1964) The Whirling Dervishes signed and dated ‘M. SAID 1929’ (lower right) oil on panel 38 3/8 x 27½in. (97.5 x 69.8cm.) Painted in 1929 Sold by Christie’s. Mahmoud Said was a central figure in modern Egyptian art, born in Alexandria. He is called the “father of Egyptian modern art.” He abandoned […]

Energy
Top Ten Reasons Fracking won’t Last Long

Top Ten Reasons Fracking won’t Last Long

Juan Cole

Proponents of natural gas fracturing and oil drilling are delirious with joy over the ability to recover shale gas, which has brought down world gas prices and made the US a major player again. Likewise, North Dakota wells are set to produce up to 800,000 barrels of oil a day soon. (Although, since the world […]

Uncategorized
The World’s Super-Rich have Stashed $21 Trillion in Offshore Accounts (Mathiason)

The World’s Super-Rich have Stashed $21 Trillion in Offshore Accounts (Mathiason)

Juan Cole

Nick Mathiason writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Investigative economist James Henry exhaustively trawled through financial information held by the IMF, World Bank, Bank for International Settlements, central banks and national treasuries to come up with the most definitive report ever written on the super-rich and offshore wealth. Henry’s Price of Offshore Revisted report, […]

art and photography
Egypt: Military Pulls the Strings (Tahrir Graffitti)

Egypt: Military Pulls the Strings (Tahrir Graffitti)

Juan Cole

Photograph by Juan Cole of graffiti, Tahrir Square, mid-May 2012, showing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces as the puppeteer of Egyptian politics. (Since erased in a government campaign to clear graffiti).

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • …
  • Page 11
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Are Cyberattacks and Iran's Port Explosion the First Salvo in Disrupting U.S.-Iran Nuclear Talks?
  • Trump, the Suez Canal, and the end of Eisenhower's World Order
  • My Palestine: An Impossible Exile
  • Rümeysa Öztürk freed, as Judge Warns of Grave Threat to Free Speech
  • When Politics Leaves Reality Behind

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved