by JUAN COLE for INFORMED COMMENT on MAY 23, 2013: Iran’s Guardian Council startled that country when it announced that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president (1989-1997) who was among the founders of the Islamic Republic, would not be allowed to run for president in the June election. Less surprising, it struck down the candidacy of Esfandiar [...]
by FARID SENZAI and HATEM BAZIAN for INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL POLICY AND UNDERSTANDING (ISPU) and ONE NATION BAY AREA PROJECT, MAY 2013: (Introduction) The San Francisco Bay Area has one of the largest Muslim populations in the United States: nearly 250,000 Muslims live in the six counties surrounding the city of San Francisco. It is home [...]
by JEREMY MENCHIK for TABLET on MAY 21, 2013: On May 30, Rabbi Arthur Schneier, the leader of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue and founder of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, plans to give the World Statesmen Award to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The award is given annually to world leaders who support the foundation’s [...]
by BRUCE LAWRENCE for ISLAMiCommentary on May 23, 2013: Any American who watched the grizzly footage of the broad daylight murder of an off duty soldier in London yesterday had to be reminded of the Boston Marathon massacres on April 15, scarcely a month and a week earlier. What most news reports have been quick [...]
David Schanzer: Obama Makes the Case, But Has No Realistic Plan to Close GITMO
by DAVID SCHANZER for ISLAMiCommentary on MAY 24, 2013: In his speech at the National Defense University, President Obama made his most impassioned and compelling argument to date about the need to close the prison for wartime detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. But logic and presidential will are not enough to achieve this [...]
Read More