Terror and Geopolitics: Manchester 2017 and 1996

Juan Cole Common Dreams
The attack in Manchester was likely by Sunni radicals (ISIL has claimed it), and came two days after President Trump blamed all terrorism on Shiite Iran at a speech in Saudi Arabia, the proponent of a form of extreme Sunni supremacism. In 1996, Manchester had also been victimized by a bomb at a civillian center; in that instance left by the Provisional IRA. The question is: can anything be learned from looking at 1996 and 2017 in the same historical frame?

Muslim Americans and Opposition to Misguided Wars

Moustafa Bayoumi; Peter Certo; Clancy Sigal
While Khan's speech was meant to tell everyone that Muslim Americans are proud and patriotic citizens, which is fine and true, there are also other ways to work for the good of the nation than fighting in its wars. To be a Muslim citizen of the United States, you don't have to die as a Muslim American. You can live as one, too.

Friday Nite Videos -- February 5, 2016

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Jesus Reads Quotes From Republican Candidates. Six Responses to Bernie Sanders Skeptics. Movie 'Requiem For The American Dream.' New York Times Parody Edition. President Obama Speaks at the Islamic Society of Baltimore.

books

Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire

hasan Suroor The Hindu
Today's conflicts in the Middle East is often played out in a language laden with stereotypes. This can also be true of how history is told and understood. Hasan Suroor offers a glimpse of history that breaks through these barriers, in a review of a new book by Seem Alavi. This book focuses on Islam and nationalism in colonial India, but it also offers a nuanced view of relations between Muslims and the West that contests received wisdom.

Islamic Declaration Blasts Short-Sighted Capitalism, Demands Action on Climate

Jon Queally Common Dreams
Released during an international symposium taking place in Istanbul, the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change is signed by 60 Muslim scholars and leaders of the faith who acknowledge that—despite the short-term economic benefits of oil, coal, and gas—humanity's use of fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming which increasingly threatens "a functioning climate, healthy air to breathe, regular seasons, and living oceans."

books

Houellebecq Submits

Adam Shatz London Review of Books
Soumission, Michel Houellebecq's novel about a Muslim party's takeover of France, is "a melancholy tribute to the pleasure of surrender." It's 2022, the National Front is set to win the presidency, so the Socialist and Gaullist parties bloc so that a charismatic centrist Islamist politician wins instead. Whether or not France deserves a moderate Islamist state, "it has found in Houllebeque a sly and witty chronicler..." An English version will appear in September.

Tidbits - February 19, 2015 - Vietnam War, Chapel Hill Murders, Radical Change, Adjunct Profs, Coal Miners, Water, and more...

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Reader Comments - Vietnam - What Really Happened?; Chapel Hill Murders - Honor Their Memory; Chocolate, Mayan civilization; Ukraine; How Radical Change Occurs; Adjunct Profs; Teacher Unions; West Virginia Coal and Blood; Public Pensions; Water Privatization; Save the Postal Service; Timbuktu; UMass Backs Down on Iranian Student Ban; Artistic Expression; Support the Greek People; Announcements; Today in History - FDR Signs Order for Internment of Japanese Americans
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