Ann Arbor (Informed Comment): According to the invaluable BBC Monitoring press surveys of Middle Eastern newspapers, the coverage of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has differed enormously from country to country. In Lebanon, which has a diverse and somewhat free press, former journalist Paula Yaqoubian told al-Jadid […]
Future of Climate Activism: Dutch Court orders Gov’t to Reduce CO2 Emissions Dramatically
An appeals court in the Netherlands has upheld a 2015 lower court ruling in a class action case that the Dutch government needs to do more to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. So far the Netherlands has only reduced 13% from 1990 levels. The court appealed to the principle […]
On not Writing Recommendation Letters for the Occupiers in Palestinian Territories
An Open Letter to the University of Michigan on Palestine | – My colleague John Cheney-Lippold in the American Culture Department of the University of Michigan has been disciplined by the Colleges of Letters, Sciences and Arts for declining to write a recommendation letter for a student to do summer study at Tel Aviv University. […]
Did Islam grow up as a Reaction to the Survival of Paganism in the Eastern Roman Empire?
Both the Qur’an and later Muslim sources indicate that there were controversies in Muhammad’s home town of Mecca (and perhaps elsewhere in the Near East) that began some three or four years after his initial experience of revelation in 610. If Muhammad did keep his teachings secret 610-613, then it was sometime after he began […]
Ron DeSantis’s Policies Helped Summon Hurricane Michael and he Should not be Governor
* WaPo reports of the most powerful storm to hit Florida’s panhandle in recorded history, coming in as a level 4 and briefly becoming 5: “Hurricane Michael roared ashore Wednesday near the Florida Panhandle, one of the most intense hurricanes to ever hit the United States. With winds as high as 155 mph, the Category […]
Muhammad, Peace and the Jews of Medina: Juan Cole Discussion at Reddit
Collective Interview with Juan Cole about his new book at AskHistorians, Reddit.com (Rearranged for readability.) AMA: I am Juan Cole, author of ‘Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires’ out today. AMA Here is the description from the publisher: “Many observers stereotype Islam and its scripture as inherently extreme or violent-a narrative that […]
Reminder: Top 5 Climate Catastrophes to which Denialist Trump Condemned his own Supporters
Reprint edition Trump delivered himself of one of the most brain-dead speeches ever given by an American president, more imbecilic even than Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” or Nixon’s “I am not a crook.” He withdrew from the Paris climate accords, saying that he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Trump alleged that he was somehow […]
Hating Muslims in the Age of Trump: The New Islamophobia looks like the Old McCarthyism
(Reprinted at Informed Comment courtesy Tomdispatch.com.) – These days, our global political alliances seem to shift with remarkable rapidity, as if we were actually living in George Orwell’s 1984. Are we at war this month with Oceania? Or is it Eastasia? In that novel, the Party is able to erase history, sending old newspaper articles […]
How a Map of Palestine Drove the American Neocolonial Elite Mad
Golden Oldie. I mirrored a map of modern Palestinian history that has the virtue of showing graphically what has happened to the Palestinians politically and territorially in the past century. Andrew Sullivan then mirrored the map from my site, which set off a lot of thunder and noise among anti-Palestinian writers like Jeffrey Goldberg of […]
© 2026 All Rights Reserved