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Juan Cole

al-Qaeda
Obama and the Golden Calf of National Security:  Broken Commandments

Obama and the Golden Calf of National Security: Broken Commandments

Juan Cole

(Karen J. Greenberg) In January 2009, Barack Obama entered the Oval Office projecting idealism and proud to be the constitutional law professor devoted to turning democratic principles into action.  In his first weeks in office, in a series of executive orders and public statements, the new president broadcast for all to hear the five commandments […]

Featured
Who Favors Discrimination against Gay Newlyweds?  Most Republicans, old People, Southerners, Evangelicals

Who Favors Discrimination against Gay Newlyweds? Most Republicans, old People, Southerners, Evangelicals

Juan Cole

A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute sheds light on the divisions in the US over gay marriage. Over all, acceptance of gay marriage is on an upward trajectory, with a majority of Americans now supporting it compared to only about a third in 2002. What is interesting is who has not joined […]

Islam
Israel Parliament debates incursion into Holy Muslim site in Jerusalem

Israel Parliament debates incursion into Holy Muslim site in Jerusalem

Juan Cole

(Via AFP) Israel police, protesters clash at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque (via AFP) Israeli police clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians Tuesday in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound of Jerusalem’s Old City, ahead of a parliamentary debate on Jewish access to the site, holy to both faiths. Israel captured the Old City from Jordan during…   ——- Related video: […]

Islam
Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" video Decried as Blasphemous by Some Muslims

Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” video Decried as Blasphemous by Some Muslims

Juan Cole

Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” music video, set in ancient Egypt, has stirred controversy because of a scene where a man is struck down who is wearing a pendant with “God” (Allah) written on it in Arabic. An online petition decries it as blasphemous. Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks points out that in ancient Egypt […]

Barack Obama
Dick Cheney Broke US Military, now blames Obama for Cuts

Dick Cheney Broke US Military, now blames Obama for Cuts

Juan Cole

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has lambasted the Obama administration for its announcement that it will cut 8% out of the military budget and reduce standing army troop levels to the lowest level since before World War II (from 550,000 at the height of the Iraq War to 440,000). Cheney told CNN he believed that […]

Human Rights
Angelina Jolie launches Syria Refugee Appeal; UNICEF: 2,000 Syrian Children in Lebanon at Risk of Death

Angelina Jolie launches Syria Refugee Appeal; UNICEF: 2,000 Syrian Children in Lebanon at Risk of Death

Juan Cole

(UNICEF writes): UNICEF report: Silent threat emerging among Syrian refugee children in Lebanon BEIRUT, 25 February 2014 – A UNICEF-led joint nutrition assessment on the situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon was launched today, revealing malnutrition as a silent, emerging threat. UNICEF, in partnership with Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), the UN Refugee Agency […]

Climate Change
A World Multiply Endangered:  Horseman of the Four Apocalypses

A World Multiply Endangered: Horseman of the Four Apocalypses

Juan Cole

(Ira Chernus) For those of us of a certain age, it seems as if the world has always been ending.  It’s easy now to forget just how deep fears and fantasies about a nuclear apocalypse went in the “golden” 1950s.  And I’m not just thinking about kids like me “ducking and covering” at the advice of Bert the […]

Afghanistan
Obama Plans for complete US Withdrawal from Afghanistan in December

Obama Plans for complete US Withdrawal from Afghanistan in December

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) America’s longest war may be over by the end of this year, and it is making Afghans and neighbors like Pakistan nervous. On Tuesday President Obama called Afghan president Hamid Karzai for the first time since last summer, saying that since Karzai had declined to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement, he had […]

Arab Spring
As Egyptian Gov't Falls, Leftist Presidential Candidate seeks Youth Vote

As Egyptian Gov’t Falls, Leftist Presidential Candidate seeks Youth Vote

Juan Cole

(Via AFP) Egypt presidential hopeful fears return to autocracy (via AFP) Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi said he fears a return to autocratic rule in Egypt, telling AFP that the army chief, a likely election frontrunner, has failed to dispel these concerns. Sabbahi, 59, who came third in the 2012 presidential election…   —— Related video: […]

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