(By Juan Cole) There were conflicting reports on Sunday morning about whether the Iraqi government and its allied tribal levies had regained control of the western city of Falluja, which had fallen to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) on Saturday. What was not in doubt was that some in the […]
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Uncategorized
Bringing medieval Persian verse to the West: Dick Davis Interview
PBS Newshour’s Jeff Brown interviews Dick Davis, among the foremost Persian scholars and translators of our time, on the delights and glories of Persian poetry. Davis is the translator of Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz For Barnes and Noble fans the book is here. And here it is at the indie […]
Iraq’s Sunni Civil War
(By Juan Cole) The attempt launched earlier this week by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) to take and hold city quarters in Falluja, Ramadi and Khalidiya in al-Anbar province has provoked an enormous political crisis in Iraq. The insurgents and supporters chased police and soldiers away from their stations, burned […]
Space Exploration as Reality Show: 1000 chosen for Private Mars Colonization Mission
(By AFP> More than 1,000 chosen for one-way Mars reality-TV mission (via AFP) More than 1,000 candidates — from 200,000 hopefuls — have been chosen to train for a private Mars colonisation mission to be partly funded by a reality-TV show following their training and subsequent steps, organisers said Thursday. They are to be… […]
GOP isn’t Getting more Ignorant on Evolution, it is Just getting Older
(By Juan Cole) Polling by the Pew Charitable trust shows that the gap between Republicans and Democrats on evolution has substantially widened in just 5 years. The percentage of Republicans who say that human beings have been unchanged since they originated rose from 39% to 48% just since 2009. Meanwhile, the percentage of Democrats who […]
Solar Ascendancy: Minnesota Court Ruling for Solar over Gas a Harbinger of Things to Come
(By Juan Cole) Minnesota Judge Eric Lipman found that solar is a better deal than natural gas for Xcel Energy, permitting Geronimo Energy to construct 20 huge solar facilities worth $250 million in Xcel’s service area in that state. The amount of solar power in the state would increase by a factor of 7. The […]
Top Ten Middle East Stories 2013: How the Region has Changed
(By Juan Cole) 10. Tunisia suffered the assassination of two leftist politicians, provoking demonstrations bigger than the ones that brought down the government of dictator Zine El Abidin Ben Ali in 2011. The second of these assassinations, this summer, provoked students, youth activists and the major national labor union to mount concerted demonstrations demanding that […]
Iraqi Troops sent by Shiite PM al-Maliki arrest Sunni Parliamentarian, kill his Brother
(AFP reports) also at the Jordan Times Iraq forces arrest Sunni MP, kill brother and guards (via AFP) Iraqi security forces on Saturday raided the home of a Sunni MP who backs anti-government protesters, arresting him and sparking clashes that killed his brother and five guards, police said. The raid threatens to inflame widespread discontent […]
Egypt’s Veiled Rapper Speaks out about Women’s Issues (Video of the Day)
The BBC reports: “Mayam Mahmoud is Egypt’s first rapper who wears a hijab. The 18-year-old recently made it to the semi-finals of the talent show Arab’s Got Talent and spoke to the BBC about why she feels it is important to express herself in this way.