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 December 2014

Featured
Have the Kurds cut the ISIL/Daesh State in Two, Blocking Supply Lines?

Have the Kurds cut the ISIL/Daesh State in Two, Blocking Supply Lines?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Al-Mada newspaper in Baghdad had an interesting article in the aftermath of the fall of Shinjar to the Iraqi Kurdistan Peshmerga. The piece argued that the Peshmerga (Kurdistan’s paramilitary, meaning ‘one who stands before death’) have now effectively cut of the supply lines between Raqqa in Syria and […]

political Islam
Turkey again goes down Path of the One-Party State

Turkey again goes down Path of the One-Party State

contributors

By Erdağ Göknar (Istanbul) | (ISLAMiCommentary) — Erdağ Göknar If we read the recent government-ordered police raids against opposition media in reverse, we can get a better sense of how last year’s bribery and corruption investigation (December 17-25, 2013) — targeting figures connected to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) — hit close to […]

Christianity
Israeli forces suppress Christmas march in Bethlehem

Israeli forces suppress Christmas march in Bethlehem

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Tuesday suppressed a peaceful march calling for “Christmas without occupation” in Bethlehem. Demonstrators marched to the Israeli military checkpoint in northern Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas and hand out gifts to children in the area. Marchers held up signs reading: “Jesus came with a message of: Peace, Freedom and Justice” […]

Iraq
Reality TV Iraq Style:  Confronting your Terrorist

Reality TV Iraq Style: Confronting your Terrorist

contributors

AJ+ | — “It’s reality TV like you’ve never seen it before: Iraqi terrorists being escorted around their crime scenes, meeting their victims and confessing on camera. Co-funded by the Iraqi justice department and government antiterrorist forces, “In the Grip of The Law” has its audience, well … gripped.” AJ+: “Iraq TV Show Has ISIS […]

Climate Change
Year 6 of the Climate Activism Revolution

Year 6 of the Climate Activism Revolution

contributors

By Rebecca Solnit | (Tomdispatch.com) It was the most thrilling bureaucratic document I’ve ever seen for just one reason: it was dated the 21st day of the month of Thermidor in the Year Six. Written in sepia ink on heavy paper, it recorded an ordinary land auction in France in what we would call the […]

Bill of Rights
Is the NSA Responsible for N. Korea's Hack of Sony Pictures?

Is the NSA Responsible for N. Korea’s Hack of Sony Pictures?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — In all the discussions of what is alleged to be North Korea’s horrible cyber-vandalism against Sony Pictures, I haven’t seen anyone bring up a key issue: The National Security Agency has been for two decades a powerful behind-the-scenes lobby for weak internet encryption and privacy protocols. I don’t know enough […]

Apartheid
Victim of Apartheid Wall:  Christmas in Isolated Bethlehem

Victim of Apartheid Wall: Christmas in Isolated Bethlehem

Juan Cole

DW | — “Bethlehem – the traditional birthplace of Jesus is sacred for many believers. But it means big business for Palestinians who sell souvenirs there. Even with heightened tensions in the region, Christmas offers a bit of light in tough economic times.” DW: “Christmas in Bethlehem | Journal” What I wrote a few years […]

Iraq
3000 Yezidi Girls still Missing at Hands of Daesh/ISIL: "It costs more for a girl with blue eyes"

3000 Yezidi Girls still Missing at Hands of Daesh/ISIL: “It costs more for a girl with blue eyes”

contributors

BBC News | — “Kurdish authorities say Pershmerga forces are making headway in the Northern Iraqi town of Sinjar and have taken control of a ‘large area’ from Islamic State militants. Iraqi Kurds made the claim during a visit to nearby Mount Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis fled after the IS advance. However, the Yazidi […]

Islam
Not the Onion: Pakistanis Demand arrest of Cleric for not Condemning "Jihadis"

Not the Onion: Pakistanis Demand arrest of Cleric for not Condemning “Jihadis”

contributors

AJ+ |– “Pakistanis are calling for the arrest of a Muslim cleric, Abdul Aziz, who refused to condemn the recent Pakistan Attack that led to 148 deaths. Some feel the Taliban school attack in Peshawar is a turning point in Pakistan’s complex relationship with extremist groups. There’s been an ongoing controversy both inside and outside […]

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • …
  • Page 18
  • 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

  • America's worsening Solar Gap with China, which installs 100 Panels per Second
  • Siamese Criminals: Trump and Netanyahu
  • Early Farming in Middle East, Sometimes Matriarchal, Spread through Learning, not Conquest
  • Misreading and Misrepresenting Iran
  • The Day Evin Prison Burned: Why Israel's Attack Crossed a Moral Line

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