The great scholar Annemarie Schimmel quoted Arthur Jeffrey, the Australian scholar of Islam, to this effect: “Many years ago . . . the late Shaikh Mustafa al-Maraghi remarked on a visit to his friend, the Anglican bishop in Egypt, that the commonest cause of offence, generally unwitting offence, given by Christians to Muslims, arose from […]
- Africa (262)
- Asia (1,290)
- Australasia (37)
- Authoritarianism (418)
- Canada (10)
- Culture (615)
- Economy (1,090)
- Agriculture (4)
- Banking (67)
- Boycotts (1)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (56)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (23)
- Homelessness (18)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (431)
- Inflation (6)
- infrastructure (11)
- Insurance (2)
- Investment (93)
- Market Crash (12)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (9)
- Neoliberalism (206)
- Plutocracy (638)
- Poverty (212)
- Poverty (18)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (5)
- Tariffs (5)
- Taxes (38)
- Technology (5)
- Trade (121)
- Weapons sales (8)
- Education (214)
- Energy (1,808)
- Agrovoltaics (4)
- Batteries (54)
- Coal (141)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (337)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (438)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (2)
- Hydroelectric (16)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (109)
- Nuclear Energy (161)
- Petroleum (304)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (453)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (10)
- wind energy (367)
- Environment (2,820)
- Climate Change (1,709)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (16)
- Climate Refugees (6)
- CO2 (133)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (160)
- Desalinization (5)
- Desertification (163)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (7)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (410)
- Extreme Weather (304)
- Flooding (143)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (42)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (63)
- Methane (21)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (13)
- Sea Level (345)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (272)
- wildfires (248)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,443)
- Drought (303)
- Ecology (2)
- Ecology (12)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (262)
- Ice Melt (144)
- Invasive Species (3)
- Islands (3)
- Oceans (106)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (234)
- Water (103)
- wildlife (24)
- Climate Change (1,709)
- Europe (1,416)
- Featured (4,501)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (726)
- History (386)
- Human Rights (1,711)
- Apartheid (265)
- censorship (355)
- Death Penalty (32)
- Disappeared (4)
- Displaced and Refugees (590)
- Food Insecurity (33)
- Forced Displacement (1)
- Gay rights (30)
- Genocide (84)
- Human Rights Watch (94)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (93)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (6)
- Torture (104)
- Trans Rights (6)
- Transgender Rights (5)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (112)
- Unlwful Killing (89)
- War Crimes (442)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,182)
- Arms Sales (77)
- BRICS (4)
- Corruption (270)
- Crime (133)
- Democracy (341)
- Dissent (472)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- Espionage (1)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (22)
- Immigration (5)
- Islamophobia (387)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (119)
- NATO (41)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (151)
- Policing (3)
- Politics (318)
- Politics&Culture (22)
- Propaganda (14)
- Race (4)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (272)
- Latin America (120)
- media (496)
- Middle East (10,508)
- Arab World (5,406)
- Iran (1,443)
- Israel (1,014)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,967)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (298)
- Red Sea (1)
- Turkey (615)
- Turkiye (142)
- Patriarchy (12)
- racism (479)
- religion (1,557)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (178)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (286)
- Terrorism (1,101)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,088)
- United Nations (192)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,453)
- US politics (5,677)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (82)
- Conspiracy Theories (24)
- Constitution (424)
- Courts (16)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (980)
- Democratic Socialists of America (26)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (400)
- Far Right (408)
- FBI (48)
- Federal Government (1)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (259)
- Israel Lobbies (131)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (275)
- National Security State (478)
- Native Americans (42)
- Nuclear arsenal (8)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (584)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (10)
- Private Prisons (4)
- Progressive Politics (15)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (16)
- Reproductive Choice (69)
- Republican Party (3,237)
- South Asian-Americans (1)
- Supreme Court (133)
- USAID (1)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (36)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (643)
- White Supremacists (242)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (577)
- workers (237)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (220)
Qur'an
Headcanon: Review of Juan Cole, “Muhammad: Prophet of Peace” at Northwest Progressive Institute
David A. Johnson has written, for The Cascadia Advocate (a project of the Northwest Progressive Institute), a review of my new book on the Prophet Muhammad: Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires, published October 9, 2018 Available at Barnes and Noble And Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor And Hachette And Amazon Here […]
The Prophet’s Tribe: The First Mention of Quraysh in an Inscription from the Dawn of Islam
The Qur’an, the Muslim scripture, speaks of the Quraysh as a tribe that engaged in travel and worshiped at a shrine. Qur’an 106, “Quraysh,” says, Because of his benevolence toward the Quraysh they were enabled to undertake the winter and summer caravans. So let them worship the lord of this shrine, who provided them with […]
Love, Peace, Forgiveness and Light dominate the Qur’an
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Outside observers often have the incorrect impression that the Qur’an, the holy book of Muslims, is bleak, or harsh, or even violent. Philip Jenkins has found that the Bible is far more violent than the Qur’an, and the violence in the latter is about self-defense from attacking militant pagans. Jenkins […]
“The Nearest in Love:” On how the Sri Lankan Death Cult Betrayed the Islamic Values of the Qur’an
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, […]
Why the Qur’an denied that Jews were Responsible for Jesus’ Death on Good Friday
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 […]
On how Everything Sam Harris says about Islam is Wrong: Part 2 on “Unbelievers”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This is the second installment in a series on Sam Harris’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book, “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Religion” (Norton, 2005). Part 1 is here. On page 31, Harris says, “It is clear, however, that Muslims hate the West in […]
Why Muslim Survivors of N. Zealand Massacre can Forgive: Islam is about Compassion
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I confess that I was weeping uncontrollably as I posted the videos and the AFP wire service story on the memorial service in Christchurch, New Zealand for the 50 shot dead in a horrific Islamophobic massacre. I’m a big Polynesia fan and the Maori music is so haunting and beautiful. […]
Building Bridges: Juan Cole Interview on Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires
Andrew C Condon interviewed me in this podcast on my new book abut peace themes in the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Andrew is with the Bridge Initiative, aimed at combating Islamophobia, of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at Georgetown University Building Bridges Interview with Juan Cole […]



