Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon of the social-democratic Scottish National Party has called a “climate emergency,” doing so in response to a call from “Extinction Rebellion Scotland.” The latter is a youth protest group that has staged walk-outs from high schools and engaged in civil disobedience in numerous cities around […]

Antisemitism

Hatred of One is Hatred of All: San Diego Synagogue Shooter had Attempted to Burn down Mosque

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – One person is dead and three are wounded after a shooting at a synagogue in San Diego, which the mayor has branded a “hate crime.” The attack came a day after an Iraq War veteran was arraigned in Sunnyvale, Ca. in the north of the state for running over 8 […]

Featured

The American Tragedy: Veteran Rams Hindu Family, thinking they were Muslims, in Sunnyvale

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – An Iraq War veteran, who had spent 5 years in that country, was arraigned Friday. On Tuesday, he had plowed into 8 people in an intersection in Sunnyvale, California, particularly aiming at a South Asian family who he assumed to be Muslims. They weren’t. The names indicate that they are […]

Featured

Israel Lobby AIPAC slams Bernie Sanders for branding Netanyahu’s Gov’t “right-wing, racist”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday at a CNN town hall, Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “I am not anti-Israel. But the fact of the matter is Netanyahu is a right-wing politician who I think is treating the Palestinian people extremely unfairly . . . What I believe is not radical. I just believe that […]

Featured

Saudi Mass Execution of Shiites draws UN, NGO Condemnation and raises tensions with Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saudi authorities tweeted Wednesday that they had executed 37 persons. Two of the bodies were hung from light poles in public as a warning to the Saudi public to avoid any sort of dissidence. The widely condemned step came while the kingdom was hosting a two-day economic forum that attracted […]

Featured

Iran designates US CENTCOM Troops “Terrorists”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran is responding in kind to Trump’s harassment, with the Iranian parliament having voted to declare that the US troops of the Central Command or CENTCOM (which is responsible for the Middle East) are terrorists. The move came in retaliation for Trump’s designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), […]

Featured

In Drive to Overthrow Iran, Trump stops Waivers for Oil Purchases from Tehran

Juan Cole

The Trump administration announced Monday that it would cease granting waivers to countries allowing them to buy Iranian petroleum as of May 2. Iran is only exporting 1.1 million barrels of petroleum per day, down from 2.5 million before the Trump administration violated the 2015 Iran deal and imposed unilateral severe sanctions. Secretary of State […]

Featured

“The Nearest in Love:” On how the Sri Lankan Death Cult Betrayed the Islamic Values of the Qur’an

Juan Cole

A tiny death cult in Sri Lanka calling itself “Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaat” (not to be confused with a big mainstream organization of the same name in India) appears to be responsible for the eight coordinated bombings at luxury hotels and Christian churches on Sunday. By now the tactic is familiar, if monstrous. These small, […]

Christianity

Why the Qur’an denied that Jews were Responsible for Jesus’ Death on Good Friday

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – That the Qur’an recognizes the virgin birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus is something worth remembering on Easter. In a nativity scene about Jesus’s supernatural precociousness, the Qur’an has him speak in the cradle, saying, (Mary 19:33): “So peace be upon me, the day I was born, and […]