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Archives: July 2012
Can You Pass the Hezbollah Quiz? (Rudolph)
CAN YOU PASS THE HEZBOLLAH QUIZ? By Jeffrey Rudolph Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamic organization, has evolved over the last three decades from a guerilla movement to the most influential political and…
Looking out from the Misrata War Memorial Museum, Libya (Photo)
Photograph by Juan Cole, late May 2012. View from the Misrata War Memorial Museum, looking across the street. The Misrata revolutionaries raided Qaddafi's compound in Tripoli and confiscated the famous sculpture of…
“Now the King loved science and geometry…” (Chagall Lithograph from Arabian Nights)
Marc Chagall, "Now the King loved science and geometry..." Color lithograph 14 1/2 x 11 inches 1948 "Four Tales from the Arabian Nights," Plate 10. Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was a Russian-French modern…
Romney on Jerusalem: A World of Hurt for America
As expected, Mitt Romney in Israel tried his hardest to make casino mogul and Likud Party stalwart Sheldon Adelson happy. Adelson has pledged $100 million to Romney's presidential campaign. Romney put all…
“Kuwait Stock Exchange” (Andreas Gursky Photograph)
Andreas Gursky, "Kuwait Stock Exchange," Photograph, 2007. Discussed here at Quaerentia as showing us a new way of looking at 'capitalism in its temple.'Top Ten Most Distasteful things about Romney Trip to Israel
The trip of Republic Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to Israel is in bad taste for lots of reasons. 1. He is holding a fundraiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It…
“Dubai World III” (Gursky Photograph)
Andreas Gursky, "Dubai World III," Photograph, 2008. Gursky (b. Leipzig, 1955) studied at the Dusseldorf Art Academy and is known for his large scale prints and interest in world tourist sites. This…Diary from Damascus (John Wreford)
John Wreford writes at Yourmiddleeast.com Photographer John Wreford has lived in Syria for many years and still remains in his house in Damascus’ Old City. Here, he gives a very personal account…The Olympics and the Muslims
The Olympic Games are rooted in an ancient Greek custom, but they were revived in the 1890s very much in the framework of the emergence of a world of nation-states. Athletes are…
“The Bride” by Sughra Rababi (Painting)
Sughra Rababi, The Bride, 1986 Sughra Rababi (1922-1994) is a major modern Pakistani painter. She studied in Karachi and at Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan Fine Arts University in Bengal.Defections mount as Syrian Regime invests Aleppo
The Baath regime of President Bashar al-Assad is preparing for a major military operation to crush the uprising in Aleppo on Friday afternoon, according to rebel and Western sources. Even as the…Romney in the Land of the Anglo-Saxon Uncertain Olympics: Not Ready for Prime Time
Mitt Romney, astonishingly, managed to turn what should have been an easy set of photo-ops and feel-good platitudes into a diplomatic comedy of errors that raise strong questions about his readiness for…
Tripoli, Libya: Martyr’s Square (Photo)
Martyr's Square, Tripoli, Libya on a Friday afternoon. This is the area of the former "Green Square" where Qaddafi gave his hours-long crackpot speeches. It now has a carnival atmosphere on the…
“The Whirling Dervishes” by Mahmud Said (Painting)
Mahmoud Said (Egyptian, 1897-1964) The Whirling Dervishes signed and dated 'M. SAID 1929' (lower right) oil on panel 38 3/8 x 27½in. (97.5 x 69.8cm.) Painted in 1929 Sold by Christie's. Mahmoud…Top Ten Reasons Fracking won’t Last Long
Proponents of natural gas fracturing and oil drilling are delirious with joy over the ability to recover shale gas, which has brought down world gas prices and made the US a major…The World’s Super-Rich have Stashed $21 Trillion in Offshore Accounts (Mathiason)
Nick Mathiason writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Investigative economist James Henry exhaustively trawled through financial information held by the IMF, World Bank, Bank for International Settlements, central banks and national…
Egypt: Military Pulls the Strings (Tahrir Graffitti)
Photograph by Juan Cole of graffiti, Tahrir Square, mid-May 2012, showing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces as the puppeteer of Egyptian politics. (Since erased in a government campaign to clear…
Syrian Baath Escalates, Uses Jets to Bomb Aleppo
When I was interviewed by the BBC last week about rebel advances in Damascus, I cautioned that putting some armed bands in some neighborhoods would not result in a revolution. Nor did…Romney, and Aryan Racial Theory as a basis for Foreign Policy
I heard Mitt Romney's tepid and unremarkable foreign policy speech, which had a lot of posturing but no substance, on Tuesday. I was taken aback when he said, "I will leave Reno…
Dear Fox Cable News: Muhammad Morsi is not the new Prime Minister of Egypt (I know you don’t really care, just sayin’)
Egypt's president, Muhammad Morsi, appointed a new prime minister today, Hisham Qandil. Given that Fox Cable News spends its time falsifying video of president Obama and others, bullying its guests, and generally…
Zorah in a Yellow Robe (Matisse Painting)
. Henri Matisse, Zorah: La Robe Jaune. Oil on Canvass. Morocco, 1912. Collection Cowles it has been argued that Matisse stepped back, on his first trip in Morocco, from painting "wild, Fauvist…Cole Twitter, Facebook,, Email, Books (Repeat)
Some book keeping for new readers. Subscribe to postings by email here You can follow the blog via Twitter @jricole. The Facebook Informed Comment fan page is here One of my Facebook…
The Three Lies Michele Bachmann Tells about American Muslims (Saunders)
Doug Saunders writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: The Three Myths About Muslims That Have Poisoned American Politics The attacks on two of the most prominent Muslims in American public…Omar Khayyam (196) “I’m going to completely divorce reason and religion”
I'm going to murder my grief with a bottle of wine, and make myself a wealthy man…
Tunis: View of Coast from Sidi Bu Said (Photograph)
Photograph by Juan Cole, May, 2012
Could Michelle Bachmann cost Romney the Presidency?
Michele Bachmann is flailing around accusing all the US government officials of Muslim heritage of being connected to the Muslim Brotherhood (which in turn she misunderstands as a radical group). Not only…
300,000 Violent Gun Crimes a Year in the US (Poster)
Some 300,000 violent crimes are committed each year in the US with the aid of a firearm.. One of the arguments for not banning the sale of military weapons to any old…
The Absolute State and the Star Chamber are Back (Chomsky)
Noam Chomsky writes at Tomdispatch.com (excerpt Down the road only a few generations, the millennium of Magna Carta, one of the great events in the establishment of civil and human rights, will…If a Jammed Assault Rifle saved Lives, wouldn’t no Assault Rifle?
Police are concluding that the semi-automatic rifle with 100-round drum attached used by the Aurora shooter jammed. He was then forced to use his Glock pistol and shotgun (a lot of the…Syrian Rebellion Enters new Stage with Aleppo, Border operations
On Saturday and Sunday, the Free Syrian Army launched attacks on government facilities and personnel in Aleppo, with fighting raging in several districts of the country's largest city. Fighting raged near a…
“On the Back of a Camel” (Renoir Painting)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) A dos de chameau signed 'Renoir.' (lower right) oil on canvas 28 3/8 x 29½ in. (72 x 75 cm.) Painted in Algeria in 1881 ( Just sold by…Omar Khayyam (312) “let’s not fret about tomorrow’s grief”
Old friend, come on and let's not fret about tomorrow's grief today; let's spend this instant's cash in hand-- because tomorrow when we pass away from this decrepit bar we'll be laid out with those…
58 Murders a year by Firearms in Britain, 8,775 in US
Updated Number of Murders, United States, 2010: 12,996 Number of Murders by Firearms, US, 2010: 8,775 Number of Murders, Britain, 2011*: 638 (Since Britain's population is 1/5 that of US, this is…How Long will We let the National Rifle Association and Corrupt Politicians Kill our Children?
Police in Aurora, Colorado say that they do not think that James Holmes had an accomplice. Of course he had an accomplice. He had lots of them. He had much of the…
Free Syrian Army Controls Border Areas
Free Syria exists along Syria's borders with Turkey and Iraq. The Free Syrian Army, somewhat to my surprise, is beginning to take and hold territory, acting more like a conventional army than…
“A View Toward Hamamet” Tunisia (Paul Klee Painting)
Paul Klee, the Swiss-German modernist painter, experienced epiphanies during the 'student trip' he took with two other young artists to Tunisia in 1914. It was there that he, deeply influenced by the…Omar Khayyam (209) “those oceans of learning never…”
Those oceans of learning and culture who burned with the light of science in their day, never found…
Your Government’s 92 Million Secrets are Safe . . . from You! (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com That Makes No Sense! Your Security’s a Joke (and You’re the Butt of It) By Tom Engelhardt When my daughter was little and I read to her…Syria Crisis: Cole on BBC Newshour (Audio Link)
My appearance on BBC's Newshour re: Syrian developments on Wednesday afternoon. I come in about 8 minutes in, and make comments throughout the rest of the show.Top Ten Implications of the Damascus Bombing
The bombing of the Security Headquarters of the Baath government of Syria on Wednesday killed the Minister of Defense, the deputy Minister of Defense, and the Assistant to the vice-president and head…
Marionette 2 (Painting by Syrian Modernist Marwan)
Marwan, Marionette 2 (2007), gouache on paper, 21 x 30.2 cm 2011,6020.2. Mirrored from [pdf] the British Museum Modern Syrian Art Collection. Marwan (Kassab Bachi), born in Damascus, Syria, in 1934, did…Is Michele Bachmann an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood?
It has become increasingly apparent that politics and business often attract psychopaths, because of the opportunities they offer for the gratification of narcissism, grandiosity, sadism and other severe pathologies. For psychopaths, really…
Street Art in Honor of 100 Years of LaMarsa, Tunisia (Photo)
Photo by Juan Cole, LaMarsa, Tunisia, May 2012 (Note that if you are viewing with an internet browser, you can enlarge the photo by pressing Control and the plus sign.) In May,…Omar Khayyam (442) “I wish there were a place to rest…”
I wish there were a place to rest or that this long, long road would end; and that a hundred thousand years from now, there were a hope that from the earth…
The Moroccans (Matisse Painting)
The Moroccans Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) Issy-les-Moulineaux, late 1915 and fall 1916. Oil on canvas, 71 3/8" x 9' 2" (181.3 x 279.4 cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Marx.…
Fighting Spreads to Damascus; but is it a Turning Point
It is significant, but not decisive, that fighting raged for a second day in the Syrian capital of Damascus Monday. The southern district of Tadamun was especially affected, though there were reports…
The Tanks that did not Defeat Misrata (Photo)
Photograph by Juan Cole, May 2012 Line of tanks that Mu'tasim Qaddafi deployed against the civilians of the city of Misrata, Libya, March-August 2011-- destroyed and kept as a memorial outside the…Omar Khayyam (493) “I passed a potter at his wheel”
The other day I passed a potter at his wheel, displaying every moment a new skill; and it occurred to me, though one less clear-eyed wouldn't see it: It is our ancestors' clay in…
Matisse: “Algerian Woman” (Painting)
Henri Matisse. The Algerian Woman. 1909. Oil on canvas. Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France The depiction of the Middle East has, since Edward Said's Orientalism, often been approached…
Jimmy Carter’s Greatest Victory: Guinea Worm on Verge of Extinction
The guinea worm may be the second major human disease after small pox to be completely eradicated. It is a parasite that you get from drinking water with small fleas in it.…Dear Microsoft: Please give us Non-Profit News
Microsoft has sold its remaining 18% share of MSNBC, which now becomes, just NBC. It is being reported that Microsoft wants to be free to develop MSN.com as a news portal. MSN…
Entrance to Grand Mosque, Kairouan
Photo by Juan Cole, May, 2012 Aghlabid, rebuilt 863. For another traveler's view of Kairouan, see this blog.Morsi Reaffirms Israel Peace Treaty to Clinton
The establishment press in Egypt, al-Ahram ("The Pyramids"), reported cautiously on the meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi (from the Muslim Brotherhood party). 1. It noted…
Kairouan, Tunisia
Kairouan, Tunisia, May 2012, from a rooftop. Photo by Juan Cole For more on this UNESCO Heritage City, see this link.Omar Khayyam (313) “wine loosens even cast-iron shackles”
Wine-bibbing makes people less full of themselves, and wine loosens even cast-iron shackles. If satan had only tippled every night, he would not have been…
Lemurs are the Species most threatened with Extinction
A new study finds that the Madagascar lemur primate is the vertebrate species most threatened by extinction. One reason for the threat is not only human encroachment on habitat but hunting for…
Ghoul’s Glossary: From Atrocity (Syria) to CEO (Romney)
Atrocity: What a mass murder is called when the world is too blind or timid or divided to prosecute it as a war crime. Synonym (mainly Syr.): Treimseh. CEO sabbatical: The practice…
Omar Khayyam (152) “so many hearts have been left bleeding”
A shame that bankruptcy has left us without capital in hand, and that so many hearts have been left bleeding by the blade of fate. No one has come back…
Syria: You know you’re in Trouble When…
Some observations for the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad: You know you're in trouble when you can only rule over people if you massacre them: Opposition sources said that a major massacre…
Obamas Scramble for Africa (Turse)
Nick Turse writes at Tomdispatch.com Obama’s Scramble for Africa Secret Wars, Secret Bases, and the Pentagon’s “New Spice Route” in Africa By Nick Turse They call it the New Spice Route, an…Omar Khayyam (412) “Don’t waste a minute of your life”
Don't give your body over to lamenting cruel destiny; Don't dedicate your soul to grief at recollections of the dead. Don't throw away your heart save on the locks of your beloved's…
Top Five Reasons Israel is Losing the Public Relations Battle
Right wing Israeli officials are concerned about attempts to 'delegitimize" Israel, and fund former officials and intellectuals to attempt to combat this perceived trend. But it seems obvious that Israel is gradually…Omar Khayyam: “The elders and the newborns”
The elders and the newborns trace the footsteps of each other, and it is the way of this world that no one can live forever here. They have departed and we're on…Did Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood just Blink?
Some members of the Egyptian parliament met briefly on Tuesday, in defiance of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and in accordance with the call of President Muhammad Morsi to…
Video on Syrian Gov’t Torture Centers (Human Rights Watch)
Syria's torture centers, as revealed by Human Rights Watch:
States with Highest Religiosity most Opposed to Obamacare
I once read an article in a sociology of religion journal. Sociologists placed a person who seemed to have fallen off his bike, and was bleeding a little (ketchup) and dazed, on…Morsi and Brotherhood isolated vs. Military, Courts, Secularists
The reaction to Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi's call to reinstate the dissolved parliament was largely negative on Monday and Tuesday morning, except among supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and among small leftist…
States with Highest White Teen Births most Opposed to Obamacare
[Some responses to this rather damning series have suggested that minority health statistics skew the averages. So in this map, we'll just look at the majority population. Ooops.) Source.Morsi provokes Constitutional Crisis in Egypt by recalling Parliament
Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi tried to steal third base on Sunday, announcing that he was calling back into session the dissolved Egyptian parliament. It would continue to meet, he said, until new…Top Ten Surprises on Libya’s Election Day
Most Western reporting on Libya is colored by what is in my view a combination of extreme pessimism and sensationalism. It has been suggested that because most reporters don't stay there for…
Voters in Libya: Indescribable Joy, “Libya is Free”
Saturday morning, 2.8 million registered voters in Libya went to the polls to choose a parliament for the first time since 1965. One woman standing in line to vote said she was…Omar Khayyam (492) “What’s with your supposed zodiac?”
What's with your supposed zodiac, then, that it is so helpful to the nasty? It bestows on them palatial baths, and mill works, and long walkways to their mansions-- while the honorable have to pawn everything…Libya’s Elections Hold Vast Promise, Pose Hard Challenges
Libya goes to the polls on Saturday for the first time since 1965. Since in that 1965 election parties were banned, and since King Idris's establishment tampered with the ballots, it wasn't…
States with fewest Passports most Opposed to Obamacare
Only about one third of Americans have passports, and if it weren't for the post- September 11 requirement that one travel to Canada and Mexico on a passport, it would no doubt…
Romney Praised Individual Mandate in 2010
Andrew Kaczynski points out at Buzzfeed that in a 2010 interview, Mitt Romney compared his Massachusetts universal health insurance plan to that of President Obama, listing positive similarities and negative differences. He…Ghoul’s Glossary
Offshore account: Something that a gentleman creates, puts in his wife's name, and carefully hides when he goes into politics because good breeding forbids him to utter obscenities in public. Frerrorist: (on…
Real Patriotism is Recognizing the Cost for Vets of War (Jamiol Cartoon)
Courtesy Jamiol's WorldThe Arab World’s Fourths of July
Young Americans followed the events of 2011 in the Arab world with great interest and remarkable sympathy, such that a real difference now shows up in polls between younger and older Americans…Omar Khayyam (170) “For a hand … which always grips a wine glass”
For a hand like mine, which always grips a wine glass, it would be a shame to put scripture or a rosary in it. You're a dry ascetic, and I'm a soused…
Dear ExxonMobil: This is What Global Warming Looks like
This summer is what global warming looks like: Increased average temperatures, forest fires, extreme weather episodes. Climate change is gradual and a matter of averages. Different parts of the globe will be…Syria Spirals down
The news out of Syria is bad and worse. The regime is being accused of widespread torture, and it is having to fight the rebels on the doorstep of the capital. Human…
Aphorisms: Outrage
When you see some politicians reacting with outrage to a new law, ask yourself which firms face a loss of profits from it.Hajizadeh: If Israel attacks Iran, it will be Destroyed
On Sunday, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force gave a speech about Iran's ballistic missile capability. At the very end of it, he…