Of all the violence that has plagued Pakistan in the last few years perhaps none is more symptomatic of the larger war over the country's future than the double suicide bombing that occurred in the International Islamic University in Islamabad last week.

The Taliban confirmed it was behind the attacks....

At first I thought the New York Times website must have been hacked. The idea of President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize seemed too far-fetched to believe. But when I clicked back a few minutes later the headline was even bigger. Then a colleague, a senior Swedish diplomat who's...

In California today a dangerously small revenue base is perceived as an irreversible fact of nature rather than a reversible artifact of politics. Can this perception change?

Imagine the role that the administrative leadership of University of California and the newly created "Commission on the Future of the University of...

It took President Obama two weeks of intensified government repression against protesters in Iran before he moved from cautious commentary to describing the crackdown "violent and unjust."

The acknowledged elephant in the room preventing a more robust American response to the Iranian crisis is the US and British organized coup...

Please note: I'm updating this post as I get new emails/tweets/calls from artists in Iran, so keep checking for new material.

Despite a general ban on most forms of popular music by the Islamic government in Iran, rock music has become one of the most vibrant forces for...

It was just one of thousands of photos circulating across the internet and adorning the home pages of major newspapers as they struggled to keep up with events in Iran, and it's already disappeared off the Huffington Post home page where I briefly glimpsed it. But for me the picture...

Near the start of his much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world, President Obama described himself as "a student of history;" by the end it was clear that he needs to get back to the classroom.

For all its well-intentioned rhetoric, President Obama's speech was, sadly, conceptually flawed, empirically challenged, and...

One of the most glaring ironies of the Middle East conflict is the righteous indignation displayed by the region's leaders towards each other's policies. In a region where violent and oppressive rule is the norm, leaders have no trouble pointing out each other's flaws, often menacingly. And so Israeli Prime...

You've never experienced "The Trooper" or "Run to the Hills" until you've heard Iron Maiden perform them in front of 15,000 screaming Muslim metalheads in Dubai. Or so I thought as I stood in the middle of an ecstatic crowd in the sands of the Dubai Desert Rock Festival a...

Apparently, the dreams of millions of Led Zeppelin fans are now over. Only two days after raising hopes by "confirming" that the remaining members -- Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham -- were planning to record and tour with a new singer (thankfully, under a new name), Jimmy...

One by one the justifications given by Israel for its latest war in Gaza are unraveling.

The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a five-month old ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as former President Jimmy Carter,...

Below is the text of a petition I have written calling on the US government immediately to suspend all military aid, sales and deliveries of weapons to Israel and the PA, and to demand that other governments to the same with Israel, the PA and Hamas. From my experience and...

January 7, 2009

Dear Dr. Pipes,

After several years blogging "next" to you, as it were, on our blogs on History News Network (hnn.us), it was a pleasure to finally "meet up," at least via satellite, during our joint appearance on al-Jazeera International last night to discuss the situation...

Press Release
January 3, 2009

California Scholars for Academic Freedom
Condemn Bombing of Gaza Educational Institutions

Contacts:
Sondra Hale, 310-836-5121 (UCLA) [sonhale@ucla.edu]
Rabab Abdulhadi, 914-882-3180 (AMED-SFSU) [amed@sfsu.edu]
Sherna Berger Gluck, 310-455-1028 (CSULB) [sbgluck@csulb.edu]
Jess Ghannam, 415-726-3951 (UCSF) [jess.ghannam@ucsf.edu]

The renewed Israel-Hamas war in Gaza presents the incoming Obama Administration with its most difficult immediate foreign policy challenge. Yet it also offers Obama a well-timed opportunity to act on his promise to return to the aggressive Mideast diplomacy that characterized the final years of the Clinton Administration.

But with...

Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!"

"Hope things will get better for U in the US...."

"I'm so happy!"

These are just a few of the comments I've received from friends and colleagues in the Muslim world, most of whom seemed to be more excited about Barack Obama winning the presidency than am...

If Barack Obama is elected President in six days there will be little doubt that the financial crisis of the last few months helped win him the election. But will an Obama Administration be able to solve the world's most complex economic crisis in almost a century?

Of the two...

With few exceptions, it's now possible to say that most everybody everywhere is an environmentalist, especially politicians running for higher office. Even the major oil companies and oil rich Gulf state are sponsoring environmental initiatives and research into alternative energy sources.

Of course, we all want to wean the world,...

About a month ago, I walked into my local Guitar Center to buy some equipment and noticed banners all over the store which read, simply, "Make Rock History." There was no other information indicating what the banners meant, but one of the salesman filled me in on the secret: On...

Among its many goals, Barack Obama's historic July 24 speech in Berlin sought to demonstrate the Senator's command of the world stage, particularly with regard to creating a united front with Europe against global terrorism. Given the largely positive reception it has received, the presumptive Democratic nominee likely achieved this...