religion

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Sean Hannity manages to combine being sneaky with being a bully. You think of a bully as maybe too straightforward, someone who hulks over others glaring and tries to impose his will on them. It is the 89 pound weakling we think of as sneaky, going […]

Colonialism

Israeli forces suppress protests marking Balfour Declaration centenary

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces in Bethlehem city on Wednesday following a march commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 document which supported establishing a Jewish state on what would become British Mandate Palestine, and paved the what for the to […]

African-Americans

Upshot of Mueller Probe: Putin did to US what we did to Iran and Iraq

Juan Cole

US Middle East policy often seemed similar to Putin’s Plot on America via Trump

Archaeology

A mid-6th Century (Christian?) proto-Arabic Inscription from N. Arabia Mentioning Al-Ilah

Juan Cole

(Politically oriented readers of IC please excuse this reprint of a path-breaking but extremely technical discussion in Arabian religious and linguistic history. It is highly important for the study of the beginnings of Islam, since it discusses an inscription from al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia dated to 548 CE, i.e. some sixty years before the beginning of […]

Displaced and Refugees

‘They shot my two daughters in front of me’: Burma’s Rohingya tell heartbreaking stories of loss

contributors

By Ronan Lee | (The Conversation) | – – If there’s anything positive about the sprawling Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, it’s that the residents – despite their appalling recent experiences and obvious deprivation – are at least safe here from Myanmar’s military. I’ve been visiting Rohingya refugee camps close to the Bangladesh/Myanmar […]

Iraq

Iraq: How Youtube & Facebook Fake News Raised Kurdish-Shiite Tensions

Juan Cole

By Histyar Qader | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – After clashes in northern Iraq this week, hundreds of fake pictures have flooded Iraqi social media. Some are real, some not, but leaders on both sides say it’s leading to a dangerous escalation of tensions. Given the partisan nature of much of the media funding […]

Feminism

Saudi women between online resistance and new physical realities

contributors

Heyla Selim | ( GlobalVoices.net ) | – – What role did collective action, and social media play in Saudi Arabia’s decision to lift its ban on women driving? Picture of the author taken in 2015 by Lujain Mirza as part of her research project about visual representation of Saudi Women at Brighton University. All […]

Iran

Fundamentalism overrules Science in Iran (See, they’re just like us)

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | – – Getting a minister approved in Iran is not a perfect science; finding the right formula for the sensitive post of science minister is particularly difficult. More than two months after beginning his second term in office, President Hassan Rohani is still looking to complete his cabinet. […]

Featured

Top 7 ways Saudi could learn from Qatar about Moderate Islam

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman has announced that he wants to take his kingdom toward a more moderate Islam. The state religion of Saudi Arabia is what outsiders call Wahhabism, a puritanical and strident interpretation of the religion. Only about 40% of Saudis are thought […]