Ken Chitwood | (The Conversation) | – – In his address in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, May 21, while calling on Muslim leaders to lead the fight against terrorism, President Donald Trump identified Iran as a despotic state giving safe harbor and financing terror in the Middle East. As Iran is a Shia state and […]
Archives for May 2017
Fascist, Go Home! After Bombing, Manchester Residents Shut Down Anti-Muslim Demo
TeleSur | – – “The people of Manchester don’t stand with your xenophobia and racism,” one man shouted at the English Defence League racists. In the aftermath of Monday’s tragic bombing, the people of Manchester showed little patience with the racist opportunists of the extreme right English Defence League, quickly confronting EDL attempts at provoking […]
The Other Terrorism: Toxic CO2 Gas Promoted by Trump Budget, Shell
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Terrorism is properly defined as non-state actors using violence against civilians to achieve a political purpose. Some argue that this definition lets states off the hook too easily, and that there is state terrorism as well. International law, however, puts those actions under the rubric of […]
Supreme Court Strikes down N. Carolina’s Racial Gerrymander
TeleSur | – – Ultra-conservative Justice Clarence Thomas sided with four liberal justices in the 5-3 majority decision. Yesterday the Supreme Court struck down North Carolina’s congressional map. The court found the that the Republican legislature was unconstitutional when it used race to draw the district lines, which reduced the voting power of minorities in […]
Trump, Saudi Arabia and yet another arms deal
Russell E. Lucas, Michigan State University The first stop on Donald Trump’s first trip as U.S. president was to Saudi Arabia. That was no accident. His decision was surely based on the fact that the alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States is one of the foundations of American foreign policy in the Middle […]
Terror and Geopolitics: Manchester 2017 and 1996
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Manchester, UK, was hit with the deadliest bomb attack on Monday since a June Saturday morning in 1996, when a massive 3000 lb. Provisional Irish Republican Army blast leveled the city center shopping district to rubble and left 200 wounded. The toll at the Ariana Grande […]
Rouhani’s win a Victory for Reform, will Trump waste Opportunity?
By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – In Iran’s election, Hassan Rouhani’s re-election was not a forgone conclusion. Criticism of Rouhani’s performance focused on growing unemployment, as the economy was not keeping pace with new entries into the workforce. Official rates put unemployment at 12% but this rate is estimated to be much […]
Erdogan, Trump, the Russians and General Flynn: The Tangled Web
By Carl Max Kortepeter | (Informed Comment) | – – When Sally Yates testified that she had told the Trump Organization, before his appointment as National Security Adviser, that General Flynn was in the pay of Turkey, for $600,000, President Trump should not have made the appointment. Appointments have consequences. General Flynn was acting erratically […]
Was/Is there an Islamic Enlightenment? (de Bellaigue)
William Eichler interviews Christopher de Bellaigue | Informed Comment | – – Eichler: 1. In the conclusion to The Islamic Enlightenment you describe modern jihadists as “miracle-grow Muslims” who have been “incubated in the hothouse of modernity.” You write it is hard to attach the label “Muslim” to them. What is the relationship between today’s […]
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