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Where’s the Fear?

Andrew Sullivan asks where the fear has gone in the Obama administration.

Karen Armstrong Interview

She talks a lot about religion and politics in this particular piece. I think her history of the Sunni-Shi’ah political divide is a bit off. Arguably the first empires fighting about this were in the 11th century (Fatimids and Abbasids), but I would argue the political division goes back to the time of the Prophet. However, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t live well together. Karen Armstrong

Iran’s Jewish Rorschach Test

This kind of complexity, so second-nature to Iranian Jews, always eludes the outsiders looking in. Thus, the Jews of Iran — lately a bitterly contested talking point for pundits of all stripes — have become a looking glass in which all find what they wish to see. Hawks hear Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and see another Holocaust in the making. Doves cite the existence of Hebrew schools and synagogues in Iran, and see no reason for alarm. Who is right? Everyone and no one at once. Full story here via here.