Roman Catholicism

Justice Alito Laments Disrespect for Religion as Americans Abandon Faith – Will his Dobbs Push them Further Away?

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – CNN’s Ariane de Vogue, reports that Justice Samuel Alito, a right wing Catholic, gave a speech in Rome for Notre Dame last week, which has finally become public. Alito posed as a defender of religious freedom, but what he seemed to mean by that was the religious people who are […]

Evangelicals

Who is More Advanced? 29 Muslim-Majority States will Have more Liberal Abortion Laws than much of America if Roe Falls

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The American Religious Right as a political force is in some ways a creation of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that made abortion a woman’s right grounded in Americans’ constitutional right to privacy. Opposition to abortion and to a right to privacy united previously divided factions within […]

Christianity

Could Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “Satan’s Controlling” the Catholic Church Stance Break up the Republican Party?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In an interview with a far-right Roman Catholic pundit, conspiracy theorist and extremist white nationalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) discussed those church groups, such as Catholic Relief Services, who seek to help resettled undocumented immigrants and refugees as satanic. She said, “What it is, is Satan’s controlling the church. […]

Christianity

No Santa Claus for Christians of Lebanon, Syria or Palestine this Year as US Piles on With Sanctions or Neglect

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Why is America imposing hardships on the Christians of the Middle East? Xinhua’s reporter visited Syria and found that the Christians in Damascus don’t appear to be able to put up much in the way of Christmas lights in the Christian district of Bab Touma. They complain of a lack […]

Arab World

Don’t Compare Texas Abortion law to Islamic Law: Most Muslims are and have been More Liberal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Texas “heartbeat law” banning abortion after six weeks has prompted comparisons of Texas evangelicals to Afghanistan’s Taliban. There is a resemblance globally of religious-Right movements on women’s issues, since religious conservatism is usually patriarchal and aims at controlling women. If, however, the comparison is between Christianity and Islam in […]

Archaeology

The Catholic Reconquista in Spain outlawed Islam in 1502, but Secret Muslims kept their culture — and Cuisine — Going

The Conversation

By Aleks Pluskowski, Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, and Marcos García García | – Granada, in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, was the final remnant of Islamic Iberia known as al-Andalus – a territory that once stretched across most of Spain and Portugal. In 1492, the city fell to the Catholic conquest. In the aftermath, native Andalusians, who […]

Featured

Ayatollah Sistani Affirms Religious Freedom to Pope Francis in HIstoric Iraq Meeting

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, Pope Francis met in the holy city of Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of most of the world’s Shiite Muslims outside Iran. Back in 2004 when US Marines were fighting young Shiite militiamen in Najaf (quite against Sistani’s will), I tried to signal to […]

Chaldeans

Pope Francis Preaches Tolerance in War Torn Iraq, and Even Militias Welcome Him

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera reports that Pope Francis began his unprecedented trip to Iraq on Friday, his first visit abroad since the beginning of the pandemic. No pope had ever visited Iraq, though the country once had a significant Christian population. Part of the reason for the pope’s visit is to give […]

Iraq

Pope’s upcoming visit brings attention to the dwindling population of Christians in Iraq

The Conversation

By Ramazan Kılınç | – Pope Francis will arrive in Iraq on Friday in a first-ever papal visit to the country that is expected to raise awareness about the challenges facing Iraqi Christians – a majority of whom are Catholic. In the past two decades, the Christian population in Iraq has fallen by over 80%. […]