iran

What does it mean for the possibility of a military strike on Iran that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has consulted Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef whose remarks in the past have caused a great deal of embarrassment for Israel?

What’s to come when a right wing billionaire funnels money to Newt and a columnist jokes about killing the president?

But it’s politics, not religion, at stake here.

As Egyptian protests rock the casbah, the U.S. responds with cautious words and a noncommittal position. What are the risks if the Egyptian people don’t feel that America is supportive of their struggle?

Be an Esther, or else.

Kadivar’s condemnation of all fatwas that call for the death of a “blasphemer” or “apostate” is in the spirit of his general approach to Islamic law. In his opinion as a legal scholar, an interpretation of Islam is fully compatible with the provisions of the UN declaration of Human Rights. When I asked him if he was optimistic about the possibility of reform in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a reform that would bring Islam into congruence with Human Rights ideas, he answered affirmatively and assertively. “Yes,” he said, “I am optimistic. That is why I am writing.”

Ferguson always manages to discover himself at the head of the next great cause; how convenient for him, and for whole countries.

The first episode of my new Bloggingheads show.

Will he make the Christian Zionists happy?

If Egypt’s democracy takes hold it will, along with Turkey, help elbow out the Islamist movements we’re used to hearing about.