Juan Cole

Ahead of January’s parliamentary elections, Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a leader of the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq (ISCI) announced that the United Iraqi Alliance will announce five coalition partners next week. They include the Sadr Movement of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Islah Party of former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, the Badr […]

Sunni Arab guerrillas bombed a Shiite Turkmen mosque in a village outside Mosul on Friday, killing 39 persons and wounding dozens. Other attacks targeted Shiites in Baghdad. On the other hand, the big attack was on a village mosque, a very soft target, and it is unlikely to accomplish any significant political work in Iraq. […]

The leading Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, reports that there “is no doubt” that a US drone strike killed Baitullah Mahsud, the leader of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The report says that the US shared with Pakistan officials video from the drone that clearly showed that Mahsud’s body had been torn in half by the blast. […]

Statement by 40 Engaged Scholars ‘Human Beings are Members of a Whole’ Protecting the Iranian Civil Society Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, The name of human […]

Some experts are raising the question about whether Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will serve out his four year term. They wonder if the instability and substantial opposition to him from reformists as well as the hostility of some conservative hard liners will undermine him. CSM on why the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps relentlessly cracks down. […]

The allegation that a US drone strike in Waziristan killed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Movement, Baitullah Mahsud, cannot be dismissed but it has to be taken with a grain of salt. The strike on the house of Baitullah’s father-in-law, Ikramuddin, killed Baitullah’s wife. But it is now being thought that it may have […]

Hamid Dabashi at CNN points out that the US executive’s (the Obama administration’s) plans to engage Iran may come up against Congress’s desire to act aggressively toward the country, either through crippling sanctions or covert operations. A recent congressional hearing on Iran chaired by Howard Berman stacked the decks in favor of the Neoconservatives, 4 […]

Even the official Iranian site Press TV had to admit that of 70 reformist members of parliament, only 13 attended Ahmadinejad’s inauguration. AP has more on Wednesday’s protests. Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi called Wednesday for the regime to permit continued demonstrations by the reform faction. Freedom of assembly is guaranteed in the Iranian constitution. (But […]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as president of Iran on Wednesday, to scattered protests. Several hundred protesters were said to have marched around the parliament building where the ceremony took place, despite a heavy police presence. Cell phone and text messaging services are said to have been interrupted by the regime. Ahmadinejad responded to news […]