Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We’ll know later today whether prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will succeed in forming a government. If not, Israel will have snap elections in September. In parliamentary systems, coalitions are often made after the election. In the US, the two big parties have already made their coalitions before the election. The […]
- Africa (127)
- Animals (1)
- Asia (703)
- Authoritarianism (125)
- Cats (1)
- Culture (372)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (179)
- Dissent (266)
- Economy (557)
- Education (59)
- Elderly (2)
- Energy (919)
- Environment (1,181)
- Europe (642)
- Featured (2,092)
- fiction (5)
- Food (7)
- Guns (9)
- History (186)
- Human Rights (912)
- Immigration (17)
- International (636)
- Islamophobia (263)
- Juan Cole (264)
- Latin America (52)
- Latinos (3)
- leisure (21)
- media (343)
- Middle East (6,317)
- Arab World (4,241)
- Iran (688)
- Israel (648)
- Israel/ Palestine (1,595)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (235)
- Turkey (369)
- military (103)
- Modernism (1)
- nationalism (98)
- NATO (4)
- Natural Disasters (11)
- nuclear weapons (41)
- Patriarchy (1)
- Peace (63)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Popular Culture (22)
- Poverty (6)
- privacy (19)
- racism (259)
- Rape (5)
- religion (726)
- Rights (124)
- Romance (1)
- science (98)
- Secular (West) (7)
- Secularism (20)
- Sexual Assault (2)
- South Pacific (1)
- Spirituality (20)
- Statelessness (14)
- Surveillance (255)
- Terrorism (1,005)
- Tolerance (4)
- Uncategorized (8,023)
- United Nations (64)
- Urbanization (3)
- US Foreign Policy (448)
- US politics (2,940)
- Anti-War Movement (5)
- Campaign Finance (23)
- Censors (21)
- Central Intelligence Agency (56)
- Civil Rights (75)
- Constitution (237)
- crime (3)
- Democratic Party (438)
- Democratic Socialists of America (2)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drone Warfare (24)
- Espionage (108)
- Ethnicities (218)
- Far Right (156)
- FBI (34)
- Foreign Policy (193)
- Gay Rights (12)
- Guns (59)
- Immigration (148)
- Israel Lobbies (73)
- Marijuana (1)
- Militarization (207)
- National Security State (363)
- Native Americans (20)
- Nuclear arsenal (5)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (254)
- Police (19)
- prison reform (3)
- Puerto Rico (25)
- Religious Right (1)
- Reproductive Choice (7)
- Republican Party (1,710)
- Supreme Court (41)
- Voter suppression (18)
- Whistleblowers (3)
- Xenophobia (7)
- Veterans (18)
- Voting Rights (4)
- War (228)
- Western Religion (347)
- White Supremacists (46)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (259)
- workers (112)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (111)
Secularism
You’ve Got Veil: Secular Tajikistan Gov’t sends Millions of Texts imposing Hijab Ban
RFE/RL’s Tajik Service | – – DUSHANBE — Private mobile-phone companies in Tajikistan have begun sending out text messages to millions of citizens, reminding them to obey a new law that makes Tajik national clothing obligatory at “traditional” gatherings such as weddings and commemorative ceremonies for the dead. The legislation is widely seen as an […]
Rebuking Fundamentalists, Funeral for Palestinian-Israeli Istanbul Victim draws Thousands
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the thirty-nine victims of the Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) shooting at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Layan Nasser, 19, was buried on Tuesday in her home town, Tira, in central Israel. Roughly a fifth of Israeli citizens are of Palestinian heritage, the majority of them […]
Top 5 things that Make Bangladesh a natural Target for Extremists
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bangladesh has been plagued by extremist violence for years, but the violence and hostage-taking in Dhaka on Friday and on Saturday morning was a whole new level of disruption. Why Bangladesh? Here are some reasons: 1. Bangladesh is a multicultural state, where some 9 percent of […]
Majorities of Muslim Arabs in N. Africa want a Separation of Religion and State
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – You know those silly anti-sharia laws passed by evangelicals in US state legislatures? They may as well not bother. (Sharia is Muslim law; but it is much more diverse and fluid than fundamentalists of both stripes think it is). It turns out a lot of Muslims […]
Rare victory for Freedom of speech in Turkey, as Pianist allowed to quote Omar Khayyam
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a rare victory for freedom of speech in Turkey, the country’s Supreme Court of Appeals has completely overturned a lower court ruling that sentenced world-famous pianist Fazil Say to a suspended sentence of 10 months in prison. Say’s crime? To tweet out passages from the […]
Can Muslim Fundamentalism be Criminalized? Militant Secularism in Central Asia
By Farangis Najibullah and Charles Recknagel | ( RFE/RL) | – – Nabijon spends nearly 10 hours a day inside his one-room barbershop on a dusty backstreet in Khujand, Tajikistan’s second-largest city. He has no shortage of customers. “Business has never been this good,” says the third-generation barber, who politely declines to give his full […]
Iraq needs another National Party: Tariq Aziz’s Baath Party Ruined the Country
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister and former foreign minister of Iraq, is dead at 79. He died in prison in the custody of the Shiie-dominated government he tried to forestall. Aziz was born Mikhael Yuhanna (Michael John) into a Chaldean Catholic family. He gravitated to […]
On eve of Turkish Election, Leftist Women Turn backs on Pres. Erdogan in Twitter Campaign
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In Turkey, left of center and Kurdish women took to Twitter on Wednesday to post pictures of themselves turning their backs to President Tayyip Erdogan. The campaign came after Kurdish women supporting the HDP (People’s Democratic Party) turned their back to the president at a rally […]