religion

Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century Judge and Ambassador, travelled further than Marco Polo. The Rihla records his Adventures

By Ismail Albayrak, Australian Catholic University In our guides to the classics, experts explain key literary works. (The Conversation) – Ibn Battuta, was born in Tangier, Morocco, on February 24, 1304. From a statement in his celebrated travel book the Rihla (“legal affairs are my ancestral profession,”) he evidently came from an intellectually distinguished family. […]

Asian-Americans

After Mamdani Victory, Progressives Call for Primary Challenges to Democratic Establishment

Common Dreams

“The establishment has never been more weak than they are now,” one advocate told potential progressive candidates. “You need to run.” By Julia Conley | – ( Commondreams.org ) — New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s victory over disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary was quickly dismissed by some […]

Iran

Israel’s Attacks have Exposed Iran’s Weaknesses, but it is in Little Danger of Collapsing

The Conversation

By Farhang Morady, University of Westminster The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that his country’s campaign in Iran “could certainly” lead to regime change. In an interview with Fox News on June 15, he called the government in Tehran “very weak” and added that, given the opportunity, “80% of the [Iranian] people would […]

Featured

Iraqi Shiites Demand Expulsion of US Troops after Israel Attacks Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli-Iranian War of 2025 has put Iraq in an extremely difficult situation. The country’s Shiite majority sympathizes with Iran and with the Palestinians, and resents Israel’s use of Iraqi airspace to attack their Shiite neighbor. On Sunday the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Soudani met with Thomas Seiler, the […]

Archaeology

Genetic Study finds Echoes of the Early Modern Ethnic Cleansing of Spain’s Muslims

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A genetic history study of Spain by Gonzalo Oteo-Garcia et al. in Genome Biology eloquently confirms the story of the great seventeenth-century ethnic cleansing of the remaining crypto-Muslims of Spain. As Mar Jonsson writes in his 2007 “The expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609–1614: the destruction of an […]

Featured

Islam: A New History

Joseph Richard Preville

A Review of Islam: A New History, from Muhammad to the Present (Princeton University Press, 2025) by John Tolan Detroit (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Islam has had a major influence on the world as a religion, a culture and a civilization. As a religion, Islam is based on two main sources: the Quran […]

Featured

From Gaza to America and Vietnam, the Prospect of a Peacemaker Pope

Richard Penaskovic

Auburn, Al. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – It’s not surprising that Pope Leo XIV took the name Leo in honor of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). Why so? In 1891, Leo XIII wrote the encyclical, Rerum Novarum, that stated Capital and Labor must cooperate and there should be a just wage for workers. Leo also […]

Immigration

Pope Leo XIV’s Link to Haiti is Part of a broader American Story of Race, Citizenship and Migration

The Conversation

By Chelsea Stieber, Tulane University (The Conversation) – Early coverage of Pope Leo XIV has explored the first American pontiff’s Chicago upbringing, as well as the many years he spent in Peru, first as a missionary and then as a bishop. Genealogist Jari Honora broke the story of the pope’s ancestors’ connection to the Creole […]

Israel/ Palestine

Pope’s final Wish: his Car to become a mobile Clinic for Gaza’s Children

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Swedish Television announced on Sunday a humanitarian initiative to convert the late Pope Francis’s car—used during his 2014 visit to Bethlehem—into a mobile clinic for children in the Gaza Strip, fulfilling his final wish. The initiative is being carried out in coordination between Peter Brune, Secretary General of Caritas […]