Juan Cole

British Official: Basra Shiites who Oppose Sistani and Muqtada Keep Quiet According to the London daily ash-Sharq al-Awsat, an informed Brtish diplomat says that Muqtada al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani have wide support in the southern, largely Shiite port city of Basra. He said it is to the extent that those who disagree with […]

Americana Translation Project More on the new project I’ve launched, to translate works of American thought, history and culture into Arabic and have them printed, probably in Baghdad, and properly distributed. Some kind readers are already donating to the project, and I am deeply grateful for their generosity. Someone suggested that if any Michigan lawyer […]

Guerrilla War continues in Iraq The London Times reports that another 48 were killed and dozens wounded in a bombing of a police recruitment center in Baghdad on Wednesday. This comes after a similar and even more devastating bombing in Iskandariyah. The Times report has a fascinating aside: ‘It is quite bizarre, but many Iraqis […]

Unemployed plan Protests Al-Zaman reports that the Union of Unemployed Workers has decided to begin its demonstrations outside the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Interim governing Council again on the coming Sunday. These demonstrations were common last fall, and sometimes turned a bit violent. Although estimates for Iraqi unemployment have fallen, the […]

Iraq to Participate in “Conference of the Neighbors” Interim Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari told the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas Wednesday that Iraq will for the first time participate in a conference of Iraq’s neighbors to be held this Saturday in Kuwait. He said Iraq will be a full and equal participant. The last meeting of […]

Safire gets it wrong: Zarqawi William Safire’s piece, ‘Finally, a smoking gun,’ provoked a lot of dissent among my readers, who asked me to say something. I am waiting to see the Arabic text of the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi letter before commenting on it; I am told it was released today in Baghdad but I […]

Americana in Arabic: Translation Project I was talking yesterday about the tragedy that American culture is so little known (except through bad television shows) in the Arab world. One of the problems is that so few books of American thought, literature and history have been translated into Arabic and published accessibly, and kept accessible through […]

Tens of Thousands of Pilgrims Flock to Najaf, Support Sistani Wire services report that tens of thousands of Shiites thronged to the holy city of Najaf yesterday to celebrate a holy day. Many of them also took the occasion as an opportunity to show banners and chant slogans in favor of direct elections, which Grand […]

Sistani in a Secure Location; Annan worries about Partition of Iraq az-Zaman and Deutsche Press Agentur report that UN Secretary General gave a speech Tuesday expressing concern about ethnic tensions tearing Iraq apart. Murtada Kashmiri, a spokesman for Sistani, announced to az-Zaman that the UN team in Iraq to advise on elections will meet this […]