Islam

Pacifism in Islam – University of Manchester. Juan Cole’s remarks at their conference. The Islamic Peace Studies Initiative Juan Cole and Samer Ali have directed the Islamic Peace Studies Initiative at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies in the International Institute of the University of Michigan from 2016. The initiative sought to […]

Featured

A Great Muslim Scholar of Jewish Heritage Passes: Abdallah Schleifer (1935 – 2025)

Shalom Goldman

Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Abdullah Schleifer, prominent Arab journalist and Professor Emeritus at the American University in Cairo, died last week at the age of ninety. The grandchild of European Jews who fled Europe and immigrated to the U.S. in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Schleifer converted to Islam […]

Alawites

Syria: End Coastal Killing Spree, Protect Civilians

Human Rights Watch

Summary Executions, Indiscriminate Shootings, Outrages on Personal Dignity. ( Human Rights Watch – (New York) – Summary executions and other atrocities have taken place in Syria’s coastal region following insurgent attacks on Syrian security forces and during subsequent government security operations, with the Alawite community bearing the brunt of the violence, Human Rights Watch said today. […]

Salafis

Syria’s New Government is already Oppressing Women, Posing a dire Threat to their Future

The Conversation

By Vrinda Narain, McGill University and Fatemeh Sadeghi, UCL (The Conversation) – As the international community celebrates the fall of another dictatorship following the collapse of Syria’s Assad regime, the future of women’s rights remains precarious. Global leaders are commending Syria’s liberation and discussing the return of 5.5 million refugees, but women’s rights advocates are […]

Featured

The Qur’an’s Celebration of Diverse Skin Colors: Forms of Equality in the Muslim Scripture

Juan Cole

I am reprinting part of this essay that appeared in Renovatio, the literary magazine of a small Muslim liberal arts college — Zaytuna — in Berkeley, Ca. The Qur’an is the most hated book in America that no one has ever read, and there are already new visa bans on Muslims deriving from severe misunderstandings […]

Featured

NOLA Attacker was a Vet who fought the War on Terror against Extremists before Breakdown

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor – (Informed Comment) – I love New Orleans, and have been known to hit the jazz clubs on Bourbon Street into the wee hours myself. So what happened there is a gut punch, and I want to express my condolences to the families of the victims and to the community there for its […]

Christianity

For Christmas: The Persian Poet Nezami’s Story of Jesus Finding Virtues even in the Lowliest

Juan Cole

On Christmas Day, I like to recall the significance of Jesus and the nativity for Muslims. I’ve talked about Rumi, Attar, and other mystics. Today it is Nezami’s turn. The great Persian poet Nezami (1141-1209) was from the city of Ganja in northwestern Iran when it was ruled by the Seljuk Empire. That was the […]

Featured

The Great Sufi Qushayri on “Responding to Evil with the Greatest Good” (Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men in Islam)

Juan Cole

In honor of the season’s ‘Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men”

Alawites

Shiite Latakia Falls to new Syrian Government, as Sheikhs call for Reconciliation and Recruits are Pardoned

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday, the Levant Liberation Council (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham/ HTS) guerrilla forces extended their rule to Latakia, Syria’s major port, in the northwest of the country. One Syrian source maintained that there was an uprising of anti-Assad Alawites in Latakia, and that HTS rebels had not entered the city. Other […]