religion

The Associated Press reports that Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo hosted a conference of 70 prominent Muslim clergymen from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Indonesia at the presidential palace in Bogor just south of Jakarta to combat extremism. The clergymen issued a joint fatwa or reasoned jurisprudential ruling declaring that suicide bombing is contrary to Islamic law. […]

Music

Pakistan’s Sufi music fights to be heard after singer’s Killing

AFP

By David STOUT | – – Karachi (AFP) – Nearly two years after Pakistan’s foremost qawwali singer Amjad Sabri was gunned down in Karachi, the devotional music of Islam’s Sufi mystical sect is struggling to survive, as fears of sectarianism and modern pressures slowly drown out its powerfully hypnotic strains. Thousands poured into the streets […]

Antisemitism

Palestinian president widely condemned for ‘anti-Semitic’ comments

AFP

By Jean-Luc Renaudie | – – Jerusalem (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas drew widespread condemnation Wednesday, including from the European Union and the United States, over alleged anti-Semitic comments suggesting the “social function” of Jews in banking had led to past massacres. The 82-year-old Abbas made the comments during a free-wheeling speech that led […]

Judaism

Tunisia: Muslim Religious Right endorses Jewish Candidate for Parliament

AFP

By Kaouther Larbi | – – Monastir (Tunisia) (AFP) – Decked out in a striking blue suit and white shirt, matching his political allegiance, Simon Slama rubs shoulders with fellow candidates ahead of Tunisia’s municipal elections. Nothing unusual about that — except he is the only Jewish candidate, standing for the Islamist Ennahdha party. AFP […]

Israel Lobbies

Exposing Canary Mission’s campaign against Palestinian human Rights: A Resource for College and University Leaders

contributors

N.B. Yes, I have been smeared by this odious hate group, but there’s not much they can do to me. But they are trying to ruin the careers of our young Americans who care about human rights. Please alert your university administrators to their scam. – J. C. Committee for Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies […]

Islam

Peace in Islam: Qur’an 73:10 on Patience as Tolerance

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Chapter 73 of the Qur’an, “The Robed” (Al-Muzammil), contains what is probably the earliest Islamic injunction to turn the other cheek. 8 Remember the name of your Lord and devote yourself to Him wholeheartedly– 9 the Lord of the East and the West. There is no god save He, so […]

Christianity

Pope, after Gaza violence, says ‘defenceless’ being killed in Holy Land

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Pope Francis, in his Easter address on Sunday, called for peace in the Holy Land two days after 15 Palestinians were killed on the Israeli-Gaza border, saying the conflict there “does not spare the defenceless”, Reuters reports. The pope made his appeal in his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the […]

Christianity

Jesus wasn’t white: he was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew: & why that matters

Juan Cole

By Robyn J. Whitaker | (The Conversation) | – – I grew up in a Christian home, where a photo of Jesus hung on my bedroom wall. I still have it. It is schmaltzy and rather tacky in that 1970s kind of way, but as a little girl I loved it. In this picture, Jesus […]

Featured

Ultimate Hypocrisy: Saudi Crown Prince touts Religious Tolerance in NYC

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s charm offensive in New York allegedly involved meeting Oprah Winfrey, which may be the only canny thing I’ve ever heard of him doing. He also had some religious leaders over to his condominium in NYC to stress the importance of […]