Nasar Meer (Strathclyde) and Tariq Modood (Bristol): Religious Pluralism in the United States and Britain: Its Implications for Muslims and Nationhood. For more than 200 years, America has shunned a “war on Islam”. Just so you know: The government already has a list of Muslims in the U.S. In the first majority-Muslim U.S. city, residents tense about its future. Southwest Airlines is allowing its racist passengers to kick Muslim passengers off their flights. Ana Swanson on the refugees Americans have fought against over 200 years. Maria Cristina Garcia on how America has never actually welcomed the world’s huddled masses. Just because one side of the refugee question is obviously correct, and the other side is wrong and crazy and evil and unconstitutional, you can’t disparage the wrong side. Is America a nation of xenophobic Trumps? His surging campaign is forcing a debate over American identity. Susan J. Demas on how Trump’s flirtation with fascism tests us all. George W. Bush needs to speak to his party: The former president may be the one person who can stop the rise of a new strain of ugly, divisive politics.
The terrorist among us: These 681,713 dots represent Syrians seeking asylum in Europe — how many dots would you turn away or push back out to sea to make sure the red one didn’t get in? Judd Legum on the big logical error made by everyone linking Syrian refugees to the Paris attack. Should the atrocities in Paris affect our response to the refugee crisis? Michael Ignatieff on the refugees and the new war. The strategic value of compassion: Aisha Ahmad on welcoming refugees is devastating to IS. Greg Miller and Souad Mekhennet go inside the surreal world of the Islamic State’s propaganda machine. Does ISIS really have nothing to do with Islam? Shadi Hamid on how Islamic apologetics carry serious risks. Adam Shatz on magical thinking about Isis. From Vice, there’s an apartheid in France and the Paris attacks could make it worse. With the attacks in Paris, ISIS has declared war on the ‘‘gray zone’’ — but the language of some American politicians is also questioning coexistence.
Americans want Isis eliminated, but they don’t want to have to do very much about it — that gives candidates like Marco Rubio with vague, theoretical plans an advantage over Hillary Clinton. GOP Lawmakers rip Obama for not being faithful enough to Saudi Arabia. Saudi court sentences poet to death for renouncing Islam: Friends of Palestinian Ashraf Fayadh believe he is being punished for posting video showing religious police lashing a man in public. Kamel Daoud on Saudi Arabia, an ISIS that has made it: “The West wages war on one, but shakes hands with the other”. Until we recognize that repressive governments are doing most of the killing and maintaining the perfect conditions for murderous strife and nihilistic extremism, our machinations against the Islamic State are likely to lead to nothing more than another dead end.
