Juan Cole This spring, the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism — this time…
Moshé Machover The relation between Zionism and Judaism (the Jewish religion) is paradoxical and complex. In its early days, Zionism was apparently a thoroughly secular political movement. Apparently….
Catherine Rottenberg. Posted on Jadaliyya on February 12, 2018. Farris’ new book In the Name of Women’s Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism illuminates the particular ways in which…
Geoff Dutton. Posted in CounterPunch on February 16, 2018. By all accounts, wherever the Islamic State has gained and held territory, its residents suffer terrible oppression and deprivation….
Jaleh Ahmadi. This article was first published in Iran Bulletin-Middle East Forum number 1, 2004. We are posting it in Middleast4Change because of its relevance in the current…
Malise Ruthven. Published on London Review of Books volume 39, no 17, September 7, 2017. It made perfect sense that the first port of call on President Trump’s…
Sonja Zekri. Sociologist Asef Bayat talks to journalist Sonja Zekri about his views on the Arab spring and his concept of post-Islamism. First published on Koepfe und Ideen…
Tam Hussein, Joshua Landis blog. Posted by Tam Hussein on Friday, April 14th, 2017 @tamhussein I entered Najiyeh, a small town of no consequence, without their permission. The…
Omar Hassan. First published at Red Flag and appeared in Socialist Worker on February 1, 2017. It is nearly impossible to find a mainstream news report about the…
Pulsemedia Leading experts on Syria discuss strategies for combating ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria Featuring Faysal Itani Senior Fellow, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East Atlantic…
James A Dorsey, Redress Information & Analysis. There has long been debate about the longevity of the Saudi ruling family. My initial conclusion when I first visited Saudi…
Owen Bennet-Jones, London Review of Books. Isis: A History by Fawaz A. Gerges Princeton; Isis: Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, Regan Arts;…
Verso Books. The controversial banning of the “Burkini” by several French municipalities – and it’s overturning by the state council – has once again brought the question of…
Aya Nader, Al Monitor. An Egyptian was conducting a study on sewage systems back during the times of Khedivial Cairo (1867-1914). He had to apply for a permit…
Ardeshir Mehrdad, Illustrations by Ardeshir Mohassess. An illegitimate child of advanced capitalism, Political Islam has profound effects on the society that gives birth to it both before and…
Ece Temelkuran reviews book in New Left Review Fall of the Turkish model, by Cihan Tuğal, Verso books, 2016 If Cihan Tuğal’s book was filmed as a political…
Julia Glum msn As the Islamic State group grows its presence online and in headlines, its influence among young people is shrinking. At least, that’s according to the…
Joseph Daher Problematica/Syria Freedom Forever Recent mass movements in Middle Eastern and North African countries, despite their defeats and failures, showed prospects and possibilities of a progressive change…
Ardeshir Mehrdad Illustration by Ardeshir Mohassess Despite claims to the contrary, political Islam is a child of late capitalism, growing where capitalist development is more advanced. There are…
Alain Badiou translated by Yassamine Mather Weekly Worker Alain Badiou discusses the consequences of neoliberal capital’s disastrous policies worldwide and what he calls new imperial practices. He writes:…
by Adam Hanieh Jacobin In the wake of the November 13 attacks in Paris, much of the Left has linked the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq…
By Mohammad Reza Shalguni Ernest Gellner is one of the most well known figures of modern sociology among Western academic circles and one of the most influential exponents of the…
By Mohammad Reza Shalguni There is a prevalent view of Islam that portrays it as incompatible with modernism. In its more extreme form, this is considered the main reason for the…
By Mohammad Reza Shalguni Is fundamentalism an inevitable development of Islam? The fifth part of a eight-part series Mohammad Reza Shalguni refutes the notion that whenever confronted by modernity, Islam…