The weekly readings blog posts are coming back after a long hiatus. I regret that I wasn’t able to stay up to pace with them, but the first quarter of 2017 came with significant developments in my academic and professional life, which kept me extremely occupied. I hope to discuss those developments in a future post.

As always, readings are split into categories for ease of access.

Required Readings 

• Why support for Syria’s nonviolent fighters is key to ending the war by Maria J. Stephan (Waging Nonviolence)
• This is what the beginning of the end of democracy looks like by Joshua Muravchik and Jeffrey Gedmin (Washington Post)
• The Real Reason Black Kids Benefit From Black Teachers by David Jackson (New York Times)
• How to Leave a Mark on People by David Brooks (New York Times)

Readings on American Politics and Culture

• You know the religious right. Here’s the religious left (and it’s fired up) by Holly Meyer (USA Today)
• How Berkeley became a hotbed of violence in the Trump era by David Siders (POLITICO)
• 100 Days of Horror by Charles M. Blow (New York Times)
• Andrew Sullivan’s column is more proof we need to stop resurrecting old myths about race by Zak Cheney Rice (Mic News)
• America’s Uncivil War Over Words by Kory Stamper (New York Times)

Readings on International Politics

• Iran’s Next Supreme Leader by Sanam Vakil and Hossein Rassam (Foreign Affairs)
• Saudi-Led Antiterror Coalition Sharpens Its Focus by Saeed Shah and Margherita Stancati (Wall Street Journal)
• Does the Quran Forbid Electing Christians? by Jon Emont (The Atlantic)
• Jakarta Governor Concedes Defeat in Religiously Tinged Election by Joe Cochrane (New York Times)

Readings on Syria

• Why so many Syrians living abroad support U.S. intervention by Dana M. Moss (Washington Post)
• As Atrocities Mount in Syria, Justice Seems Out of Reach by Anne Barnard, Ben Hubbard, and Ian Fisher (New York Times)
• Syria Changed the World by Anne Barnard (New York Times)
• How long can the UN endure the shame of chemical attacks on Syrian citizens? by Boris Johnson and Jean-Marc Ayrault
• Damascus: thin sheet of normality coats menace in once-friendly city by Ruth Maclean (The Guardian)
• Syria photographer takes action instead of pictures, picks up injured boy by Donie O’Sullivan and Waffa Munayyer (CNN)

Readings on Turkey

• Here’s why Erdogan’s victory may come back to haunt him by Asli Aydintasbas (Washington Post)
• Turkey’s Referendum: How Democracies Decline by Uri Friedman (The Atlantic)
• Erdogan Goes for the Death Blow Against Turkey’s Bureaucracy by Selim Koru (Foreign Policy)
• Erdogan Claims Vast Powers in Turkey After Narrow Victory in Referendum by Patrick Kingsley (New York Times)

Readings on France

• The Suspense Is Almost Too Much for the French by Mira Kamdar (New York Times)
• Anti-German, Soft on Putin – Melenchon is no saviour of the left by Natalie Nougayrede (The Guardian)

Readings on Israel-Palestine

• Why We Are on Hunger Strike in Israel’s Prison’s by Marwan Barghouti (New York Times)
• Will the NYT start noting the violent pasts of Israeli contributors too? by Lisa Goldman (972 Magazine)
• Israeli troops shoot Palestinian activist in head with ‘less lethal’ bullet by Mairav Zonszein (972 Magazine)
• Could Temple Mount Feud Unleash Netanyahu’s Worst Crisis Ever? by J.J. Goldberg (The Forward)

Reading on Muslim Americans and Islam in America

• It’s Not Enough to Dismiss Islamophobia by Emma Green (The Atlantic)
• Madrasa Graduates: Children of Abraham and Aristotle by Mahan Mirza (Contending Modernities – University of Notre Dame)
• This Islamic School Helps Students Build Their American And Muslim Identity by Tom Gjelten (NPR)

Readings on Religious Thought, Religious Life, Theology & Ethics

• Crucified man had prior run-in with authorities by Alexandra Petri (Washington Post)
• The Profound Connection Between Easter and Passover by R. R. Reno (Wall Street Journal)
• The Quiet Power of Humility by Peter Wehner (New York Times)
• Why Jews stopped sacrificing lambs and baby goats for Passover by Elon Gilad (Haaretz)
• 5 Perplexing Things About ‘Secular Orthodoxy’ by Rami Livni (The Forward)

Personal Essays

• Learning Arabic from Egypt’s Revolution by Peter Hessler (The New Yorker)

A short list of heartwarming holiday stories from this year that will uplift your spirits and restore your faith in humanity. The world can feel like a dark place sometimes, and there may be moments where we feel hopeless about the state of the human condition because of it, but we can’t allow hopelessness to defeat us.

Remember the words of Anne Frank: “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”

Do not be disheartened, always maintain hope, and most importantly, remember that love conquers all. 

Enjoy: 

‘No one eats alone’: Muslim-owned restaurant offers free Christmas meals for the homeless, elderly by Amy B. Wang (Washington Post)

The Hanukkah-Christmas convergence couldn’t be more symbolic of the light we must embrace by Petula Dvorak (Washington Post)

Slideshow: Christmas and Hanukkah Around the World by Wall Street Journal (Wall Street Journal)

A Syrian Jew’s message to Aleppo: Keep tradition and don’t lose hope by Ben Sales (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Christmas in Karachi: Who needs reindeer if you have camels? by Dawn News (Dawn News)

Christmas peace train inaugurated in Pakistan by WION (WION News)

Hebrew-Arabic Calligraphy From God’s Own Country by Paul Rockower (Huffington Post)

Why It’s Not Wrong To Wish Muslims Merry Christmas by Mustafa Akyol (New York Times)

Muslim choir girls sing Arabic Christmas carols in touching video from Beirut by Bethan McKernan (The Independent)

Iraqis Celebrate Christmas Near Mosul After ISIS Pushed Out by NBC News (NBC News)

King of Bahrain hosts menorah-lighting ceremony by Times of Israel Staff (Times of Israel)

Ma’oz Tzur and the “End of Christianity” by Yitzhak Y. Melamed (TheTorah.com)

To all those celebrating/observing Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or just another day of life, I send you much love and warmth. Have a joyous, festive, and blessed holiday season!

-Asad

Masha Gessen Readings

Masha Gessen is a Russian-American writer, philosopher, and activist who has written extensively on authoritarianism and autocracy as they relate to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. She grew up in a Jewish family and her great-grandfather was part of the Jewish resistance in World War II Europe (he joined the resistance after realizing that working “within the system” to save his people proved futile). As a part of history, her story is captivating, but as a part of reality, it is also foreboding.

Gessen published two important articles this week, but along with them I’m also sharing two older ones she’s written. Personally, I think all four are required readings. This is also the order in which they should be read:

1. Autocracy: Rules for Survival (New York Review of Books)
2. Trump: The Choice We Face (New York Review of Books)
3. The Putin Paradigm (New York Review of Books)
4. Arguing the Truth with Trump and Putin (New York Times)

American Politics

• What Those Who Studied Nazis Can Teach Us About The Strange Reaction To Donald Trump by Shawn Hamilton (Huffington Post) [must-read]
• I was a victim of a Russian smear campaign. I understand the power of fake news. by Anne Applebaum (Washington Post)
• Peter King’s Really Bad Idea by Mehdi Hasan (New York Times)
• How to Live Without Irony (for Real, This Time) by Christy Wempole
• To Understand 2016’s Politics, Look at the Winners and Losers of Globalization by Vincent Bevins (The New Republic)
• For Public Colleges, Funding Cuts Hit Hard by Beckie Strum (Wall Street Journal)
• How Republics End by Paul Krugman (New York Times) [must-read]
• Time to End the Electoral College by the Editorial Board (New York Times)
• Registry used to track Arabs and Muslims dismantled by Obama administration by Ed Pilkington (The Guardian) [must-read]

Syria

• Aleppo: Elegy for a doomed city whose history spans centuries by Hassan Hassan (The Guardian) [must-read]
• Aleppo’s “Evacuation”Is a Crime Against Humanity by Ben Taub (The New Yorker) [must-read]
• Russia’s influence has risen but Iran is the real winner in Aleppo by Martin Chulov (The Guardian)
• Here’s The Heartwarming Story Behind These Photos From Eastern Aleppo by Rose Troup Buchanan (Buzzfeed)
• Message from Syria to the United States:We’ll never again believe your lofty rhetoric by Abdulfattah Alkhaled (LA Times)

Other Middle East

• Turkey and Iran’s Dangerous Collision Course by Ali Vaez (New York Times)
• How Islam Can Fight the Patriarchy by Riada Asimovic Akyol
• The assassination of Russia’s ambassador in Turkey creates a crisis for Erdogan by Ishaan Tharoor (Washington Post)
• Liberal Zionism in the Age of Trump by Omri Boehm (New York Times) [must-read]
• Egypt’s Cruelty to Christians by Mona Eltahawy (New York Times) [must-read]
• Understanding the UN resolution on Israeli settlements: What are the immediate ramifications? by Barak Ravid (Haaretz) [must-read]
• Five takeaways: What the UN Security Council resolution means by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man (972 Mag)
• ‘No One’s Country Anymore’ by Nicholas Kristof and Lauren Bohn (New York Times)

Europe

• Romania Set for First Female, and First Muslim, Prime Minister by Kit Gillet (New York Times)

Extra: Most Read Stories – New York Times

• The Most-Read Stories of 2016 Ari Isaacman Bevacqua, Samarth Bhaskar and Danny DeBelius (New York Times)

-Asad

Required Readings:

• Why Trump’s Republican Party Is Embracing Russia by Peter Beinart (The Atlantic)
• Putin, Trump, and the West’s new ideological alliance by Ishaan Tharoor (Washington Post)
• What Is America Without Influence? Trump Will Find Out. by Antony J. Blinken (New York Times)
• Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy? by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (New York Times)
• Trump’s coming war against Islam by Jackson Diehl (Washington Post)
• Aleppo’s Destroyers: Assad, Putin, Iran by The Editorial Board (New York Times)

On Syria:

• How Can I Help People In Aleppo? 10 Charities Working To Provide Food, Shelter, Medicine And  Education To Syrians by Sarah Ann Harris (Huffington Post UK)
• Syria’s Assad says Trump’s campaign rhetoric was ‘positive’ by Ishaan Tharoor (New York Times)
• Analysis: The Fall of Rebel-Held Aleppo Is a Warning Sign to Others Who Oppose Assad by Annia Ciezadlo (News Deeply)
• Assad’s Choice: Fight Rebels but Give Way to ISIS by Yaroslav Trofimov (Wall Street Journal)

On Islam in the West:

• Why it could be incredibly difficult to be Muslim and political in the age of Donald Trump by Rashid Dar (Washington Post)
• Why Islam Gets Second-Class Status in Germany by Alexander Gorlach (New York Times)
• Americans Think There Are 54 Million Muslims In America. There Are Only 3 Million. by Christopher Mathias (Huffington Post)

On Global Student Activism:

• American Universities in a Gulf of Hypocrisy by Kristina Bogos (New York Times)
• Student Leaders Spark Hope for Change on Iran’s National Student Day by Hamid Yazdan Panah (Global Voices)

On media engagement, propaganda, and conspiracy theories:

• There Are No Child Sex Slaves at My Local Pizza Parlor by Alexandra Zapruder (New York Times)
• Journalists and Trump voters live in separate online bubbles, MIT analysis shows by Alex Thompson
• Don’t call it post-truth. There’s a simpler word: Lies by Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian)
• These 6 Easy Steps Will Help You Spot Fake News Every Time by Craig Silverman (Buzzfeed)
• Donald Trump’s War on Science by Lawrence M. Krauss (The New Yorker)

Other Middle East:

• U.S. Blocks Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia Amid Concerns Over Yemen War by Helene Cooper (The New York Times)
• Trump Taps David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel by Haaretz (Haaretz)

-Asad

This week’s readings were pretty intense and lengthy, so I’ve separated them into categories to make it easier to sift through them. In each category, I’ve highlighted important analysis in purple and must-reads in red.

Israel and Palestine News/Analysis

• ‘We Are Orphans Here’ by Rachel Kushner (The New York Times)
• Israel readies for ‘super-tech’ stealth fighters by Mike Smith (Yahoo News)
• The IDF’s new ‘Visit Palestine’ campaign refuses to say Palestine by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man (972 Magazine)
• The Smear Campaign Against Keith Ellison Is Repugnant but Reveals Much About Washington by Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept) [important analysis]
• Anti-Semitic? Disqualifying? Keith Ellison’s Views on Israel Are the Same as Most U.S. Jews by Rebecca Zimmerman Hornstein (Haaretz)
• Yair Lapid Promises to Recognize Reform and Conservative Judaism ‘My First Week in Government,’ if Elected by Judy Maltz (Haaretz)
• ‘Alt-Right’ Leader Ties White Supremacy to Zionism – Leaves Rabbi Speechless by Josh Nathan-Kazis (The Forward) [must-read]
• Analysis: Liberman breaks Israel’s secrecy over Syria policy by Yossi Melman (The Jerusalem Post) [important analysis]
• The ‘Anti-Semitism Awareness Act’ Is the Opposite of What Jews and Muslims Need Now by Rachel Roberts (The Forward) [must-read]

Syria

• ‘We Are Dead Either Way’: Agonizing Choices for Syrians in Aleppo by Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad (The New York Times) [must-read]
• Turkey’s Autocratic Turn by Yaroslav Trofimov (Wall Street Journal)
• From Syria, With Love by Amanda Avutu (The New York Times) [must-read]
• How to Salvage Syria by Hassan Hassan and Michael Weiss (The Daily Beast) [important analysis]
• US officials: The fall of Aleppo would be a win for Russia and a defeat for the US in the Middle East by Jonathan Landay and Arshad Mohammed (Business Insider) [important analysis]
• Chaos and Desperation as Thousands Flee Aleppo Amid Government Advance by Anne Barnard and Nick Cumming-Bruce (The New York Times) [must-read]
• Russia and Assad ‘creating new generation of terrorists who will be threat to us all’, MI6 Warns by Kim Sengupta (The Independent)
• Syrian troops enter Aleppo’s Old City, poised for war’s biggest victory by John Davison and Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters)

U.S. Politics 

• Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House by Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima, and Greg Miller (The Washington Post) [must-read]
• Russian Hackers Acted to Aid Trump in Election, U.S. Says by David E. Sanger and Scott Shane (The New York Times) [must-read]
• Digital Security Tips for Protesters by Bill Budington (Electronic Frontier Foundation) [must-read]
• The Torture Report Must Be Saved by Carl Levin and Jay Rockefeller (The New York Times)
• Climate Change Conversations Are Targeted in Questionnaire To Energy Department by Coral Davenport (The New York Times) [must-read]
• 17 Muslim American Women Who Made America Great in 2016 by Antonla Blumberg (Huffington Post)
• Libraries Become Unexpected Sites of Hate Crimes by Christopher Mele (The New York Times)
• Harry Reid: Farewell, Fair Senate by Harry Reid (The New York Times)
• The System Didn’t Work by Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal) [important analysis]
• Top US bankers look to Trump administration to help big finance by Alistair Gray (Financial Times)
• Donald Trump’s Military Government by Gordon Adams (The New York Times)
• What Women Really Think of Men by Irin Carmon (The New York Times) [important argument]
• Ohio Passes Bill That Bans Abortion After A Month And a Half by Emma O’Connor (Buzzfeed)

Europe

• What Europe Needs: Hope by John Cassidy (The New Yorker) [important analysis]
• Putin’s Plot Against Europe by Brian Whitmore (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• No country with a McDonald’s can remain a democracy by George Monbiot (The Guardian) [important analysis]
• Italy’s Muslims Celebrate Christmas to Calm Integration Fears by Barbie Latza Nadeau (The Daily Beast)
• Italian PM Resigns After ‘Extraordinarily Clear’ Referendum Defeat by RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Harvard research suggests that an entire global generation has lost faith in democracy by Gwynn Guilford (Quartz) [important analysis]
• U.S. Intelligence Officials: Our Warnings To Europe About Russian Hacking Were Too Late by Sheera Frenkel (Buzzfeed)

Hitler (yes, this is an actual category this week)

• A New Biography of Hitler Separates the Man from the Myths by Adam Kirsch (The New York Times) [important analysis]
• High on Hitler and Meth: Book Says Nazis Were Fueled by Drugs by David Segal (The New York Times)
• Know who else was Time’s Person of The Year? by Graham Vyse (The New Republic)

Miscellaneous

• The 4 essential facts about Islam you really need to know by Sarah Harvard (Mic News)
• Burma: 21,000 Rohingya Muslims flee to Bangladesh amid ‘attempted genocide’ by Adam Withnall (The Independent) [must-read]

-Asad

This is the first time I’m sending my ‘weekly readings‘ blog post being via my newsletter, so just a few things:

• Most news sites have paywalls, which means that they only allow you to read a certain number of articles per month until you have to pay to read more. For example, the New York Times has a paywall of 10 articles. Some ways to get around this: 1) If your you’ve reached the limit on your phone, read them on your laptop, which gives you a fresh start. 2) Read articles in different browsers. 3) Type the title of the article in the search bar and load it from there. This doesn’t count toward the paywall.
• However, I would nonetheless suggest subscribing to the New York Times. For a few dollars a month, you’ll have full access to all online publications and it is fully worth your money. You do not have to agree with everything you read, but the exposure to high-quality content and a diverse range of views on a whole host of issues is vital to your intellectual development. It will help you challenge your own thoughts, polish your ideas, and improve your vocabulary.

I don’t necessarily agree with everything I read or share. In fact, I may vehemently disagree with some readings. But I am also a firm believer in engaging with challenging ideas, which first requires understanding what they are. I see it as an inextricable part of my growth to challenge my own ideas and to continuously revise them as I develop. With that said, here are some articles I read this week which helped me to do exactly that. I’ve divided them into sections based on category, and have emphasized in red which ones I think are must-reads. Enjoy!

American Politics

1. Is 90% of the Quran a legal document? CNN, Myth and Math by Imam Joe Bradford (Joe Bradford) [must-read]
2. Trump Excuses the White Working Class from the Politics of Personal Responsibility by Peter Beinart (The Atlantic) [must-read]
3. How Stable Are Liberal Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’ by Amanda Taub (The New York Times) [must-read]
4. Trump: The Choice We Face by Masha Gessen (The New York Review of Books) [must-read]
5. Of Nine Tech Companies, Only Twitter Says It Would Refuse to Help Build Muslim Registry for Trump by Sam Biddle (The Intercept)
6. Mr. Trump, Meet the Constitution by The New York Times Editorial Board (The New York Times)
7. White-Collar Supremacy by Kelly J. Baker (The New York Times)
8. Glenn Beck Is Sorry About All That by Ana Marie Cox (The New York Times)

Syria

1. For Bashar al-Assad, Winning the Syrian War May Lead to New Troubles by Alissa J. Rubin (The New York Times)
2. Foreign fighters pour into Syria to bolster Assad regime by Erika Solomon (Financial Times)
3. Syrian crisis: Air strike kills the last clown of Aleppo, Anas al-Basha by Eryk Bagshaw (The Sydney Morning Herald)
4. Inside Kerry’s race to stop the siege of Aleppo by Josh Rogin (The Washington Post)

Global Politics

1. Pakistan Names New Military Leader by Salman Masood (The New York Times)
2. Jimmy Carter: America Must Recognize Palestine by Jimmy Carter (The New York Times) [must-read]
3. Why encourage Palestinian hope with mosque loudspeakers? by Sayed Kashua (Haaretz)
4. Reform and Conservative Jews try a new tactic in battle for Israeli religious pluralism by Michele Chabin (Religion News Service)

Don’t forget to tell your friends to subscribe to the newsletter!

-Asad

Thanksgiving reading

1. The First Amnesty by Lawrence Downes (The New York Times)

Election Commentary 

1. Blame Trump’s Victory on College-Educated Whites, Not the Working Class by Eric Sasson (The New Republic)
2. Sanders: Dems must move beyond ‘identity politics’ by Mallory Shelbourne (The Hill)
3. Shirtless Trump Saves Drowning Kitten by Brian Phillips (MTV News)

Post-Trump America

1. No Trump, We Can’t Just Get Along by Charles M. Blow (The New York Times)
2. Living In Trump’s Soviet Union by Gary Shteyngart (The New Yorker)
3. Alt-Right Gathering Exults in Trump Election With Nazi-Era Salute by Joseph Goldstein (The New York Times)
4. White Nationalists Celebrate ‘an Awakening’ After Donald Trump’s Victory by Alan Rappeport and Noah Weiland (The New York Times)
5. Museum Condemns White Nationalist Conference Rhetoric (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
6. Climate Change in Trump’s Age of Ignorance by Robert N. Proctor (The New York Times)
7. Obama Reckons With A Trump Presidency by David Remnick (The New Yorker)

Law and Activism

1. The Art of the Protest by Tina Rosenberg (The New York Times)
2. Why Korematsu Is Not A Precedent by Noah Feldman (The New York Times)
3. Power Imbalance at the Pipeline Protest by the New York Times Editorial Board (The New York Times)

Global Politics

1. League of nationalists by the Economist (The Economist)
2. Angela Merkel to Seek 4th Term as Germany’s Leader by Alison Smale (The New York Times)
3. Pakistan Names New Military Leader by Salman Masood (The New York Times)
4. Israeli Muslims Want to Save the Muezzin – and So Do Ultra-Orthodox Jews by Eatta Prince-Gibson (The Forward)
5. How the Iranian-Saudi Proxy Struggle Tore Apart the Middle East by Max Fisher (The New York Times)

This post consists of some of my selected readings from the week before the 2016 presidential election, the week of the election, and the week after the election. Because of the sheer number and magnitude of events that took place during this short yet tumultuous period, I don’t have the time to share all of my thoughts on the individual readings. However, I am sharing them here nonetheless as a reference.

Week of October 30 – November 5 (Pre-Election Week)

• The GOP’s Age of Authoritarianism Has Only Begun by Jonathan Chait (New York Magazine)
• I can’t vote. If you can, you must by Chelsea E Manning (The Guardian)
• Assad in Person: Confident, Friendly, No Regrets by Anne Barnard (The New York Times)
• The Khizr Khan Voters by Wajahat Ali (The New York Times)
• FT endorsement: For all her weaknesses, Clinton is the best hope by Financial Times Editorial Board (Financial Times)
• Judge to OK deal over police surveillance if changes made by Larry Neumeister (Salon)
• Immigrants Are Keeping America Young – And The Economy Growing by Ben Casselman (Five Thirty Eight)
• The sectarianization of Syria and smearing a revolution by Leila al-Shami (The New Arab)
• Ranked: ‘Trumps’ ‘Round the World by Matt Peterson (The Atlantic)
• WikiLeaks Isn’t Whistleblowing by Zeynep Tufekci (The New York Times)
• Beyond Lying: Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Reality by Jason Stanley (The New York Times)
• The Voter Fraud Lie We Can’t Shake by Dale Ho (The New York Times)
• Paris Climate Change Agreement Enters Into Force by Fiona Harvey (The Guardian)
• Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded by the Dalai Lama (The New York Times)
• National Geographic’s Afghan Girl Becomes Face Of Plight of Afghan Refugees In Pakistan by Frud Bezhan (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Why Israel Still Refuses to Choose by Roger Cohen (The New York Times)

Week of November 6 – November 12 (Election Week)

• Imagining America on Nov. 9 by The New York Times Editorial Board (The New York Times)
• American democracy’s gravest trial by Edward Luce (Financial Times)
• FBI questioned American Muslims in 8 states over weekend about possible pre-election terrorism, says civil rights group by Katie Mettler (The Washington Post)
• This Time, Hamas Doesn’t Endorse by Sheera Frenkel and Ben Smith (Buzzfeed)
• Afghanistan Itself Is Now Taking In the Most Afghan Migrants by Rod Nordland (The New York Times)
• Misogyny Was Enough to Tarnish Donald Trump – But Neo-Nazism Wasn’t? by Lisa Goldman (The Forward)
• How to Rig an Election by Paul Krugman (The New York Times)
• This Time, There Really Is a Hispanic Voter Surge by Nate Cohn (The New York Times)
• Donald Trump Has Shattered Campaign Norms In Damaging, Potentially Lasting Ways by Sam Stein (Huffington Post)
• The Real Voter Fraud by David Leonhardt (The New York Times)
• Donald Trump is moving to the White House, and liberals put him there by Thomas Frank (The Guardian)
• Trump’s America, Hiding In Plain Sight by Evan Osnos (The New Yorker)
• America Elects a Bigot by Charles M. Blow (The New York Times)
• Clinton aides blame loss on everything but themselves by Annie Karni (Politico)
• Trump won because college-educated Americans are out of touch by  Charles Camosy (The Washington Post)
• Online, Everything Is Alternative Media by John Herrman (The New York Times)
• Trump’s Revenge by McKay Coppins (Buzzfeed)
• Obama has handed a surveillance state and war machine to a maniac by Trevor Timm (The Guardian)
• A primer on executive power: Trump can’t end same-sex marriages, but he could speed up deportations by David Lauter (LA Times)
• Grappling With the Language of Love by Emily Robbins (The New York Times)
• Bernie Sanders: Where the Democrats Go From Here by Bernie Sanders (The New York Times)
• “Hitler’s only kidding about the antisemitism” New York Times, 1922 by boing (Boingboing)
• After Trump, Fear and Gloating In Pakistan by Mohammed Hanif (The New York Times)
• After Trump Win, Parallel Path Is Seen for Marine La Pen of France’s Far-Right by Adam Nossiter (The New York Times)
• After Brexit and Trump, Populists Target Next Dominoes In Europe by John Follain (Bloomberg)
• Autocracy: Rules for Survival by Maha Gessen (New York Review of Books)
• The Myth of Female Solidarity by Susan Chira (The New York Times)
• A Time for Refusal by Teju Cole (The New York Times)
• The Alt-Right Hails Its Victorious God-Emperor by Andrew Marantz (The New Yorker)
• The Alt-Right is Modernizing White Supremacy – And Trump is Helping by Sam Kestenbaum (The Forward)

Week of November 13 – November 19 (Post-Election Week)

• Stay angry. That’s the only way to uphold principles in Trump’s America by Leon Wieseltier (The Washington Post)
• Stephen Bannon and Reince Priebus to lead Trump’s White House by Alan Yuhas (The Guardian)
• Citizens, United by Jonathan Chait (New York Magazine)
• Lies In the Guise of News In the Trump Era by Nicholas Kristof (The New York Times)
• Donald Trump’s Long To-Do List for Day 1 by Michael D. Shear (The New York Times)
• What Normalization Means by Hua Hsu (The New Yorker)
• Who Believed In Trump, And Who Is To Blame by Benjamin Wallace-Wells (The New Yorker)
• Obama Reckons With a Trump Presidency by David Remnick (The New Yorker)
• The Incendiary Appeal of Demagoguery In Our Time by Pinkaj Mishra (The New York Times)
• The ACLU Is Receiving An Outpouring of Support. Here’s What We Plan on Doing With It. by Anthony D. Romero (ACLU Blog)
• Research says there are ways to reduce racial bias. Calling people racist isn’t one of them. by German Lopez (VOX)
• Facebook’s Damage to Democracy by David Leonhardt (The New York Times)
• Blame Trump’s Victory on College-Educated Whites, Not the Working Class by Eric Sasson (The New Republic)
• How the Iranian-Saudi Proxy Struggle Tore Apart the Middle East by Max Fisher (The New York Times
• Living in Trump’s Soviet Union by Gary Shteyngart (The New Yorker)
• George Takei: They interned my family. Don’t let them do it to Muslims. by George Takei (The Washington Post)

This is it for now.

This week’s readings are divided into three topics: U.S. politics leading up to the historic 2016 election which is right around the corner; the Middle East; and some miscellaneous thought-provoking pieces that I think were worth reading. Enjoy!

U.S. politics leading up to the 2016 election

• Endorsements in New York and New Jersey by The Editorial Board (The New York Times)
• Dear Republican Voters … by David Leaonhardt (The New York Times)
• The Conservative Intellectual Crisis by David Brooks (The New York Times)
• The Lonely Life of A Republican Woman by S.E. Cupp (The New York Times)
• Hillary Clinton’s Mandate Problem by Ryan Lizza (The New Yorker)
• Seven Score and 13 Years Later, Trump Impersonates Lincoln by Timothy L. O’Brien (Bloomberg View)
• From Donald Trump to Julian Assange — why do Western loudmouths love Vladimir Putin? by James Bloodworth (International Business Times)
• Inside The Strange, Paranoid World Of Julian Assange by James Ball (Buzzfeed News)

The Middle East 

• On the Bombing of Aleppo by George Soros (New York Review of Books)
• How Syria’s Forgotten Revolutionaries Rose Up to “Kill This Fear” by Murtaza Hussain (The Intercept)
• How thousands of Palestinian and Israeli women are waging peace by Riman Barakat (972 Mag)
• One almighty military order and 49 dead Palestinians by Sam Bahour (972 Mag)
• What a caliphate really is — and how the Islamic State is not one by Shadi Hamid (The Washington Post)
• How to Save Obama’s Legacy in Palestine by Muhammad Shtayyeh (The New York Times)

Thought-provoking 

• Struggling to Serve at the Nation’s Richest University by Rosa Ines Rivera (The New York Times)
• Twitter Has an Old Media Problem. Here’s a Solution. by Randall Stross (The New York Times)
• Pakistan’s Honor-Killing Law Isn’t Enough by Bina Shah (The New York Times)
• Counter Terror Smarter by Michael German (U.S. News)
• Islam 101: 7 Books about the World’s Most Misunderstood Religion by Kareem Shaheen (Bookriot)
• Playing With Fear: Russia’s War Card by Michael Khodarkovsky (The New York Times)
• 3 TVs and No Food: Growing Up Poor In America by Nicholas Kristof (The New York Times)
• The Plot Against America or the Plot by America? by Mustafa Akyol (The New York Times)
• Why refugees must be given education and the tools to thrive by Filippo Grandi (Medium)

The first reading delves into what’s colloquially known as ‘secret law,’ which are essentially laws and procedures that allow the government to bypass traditional checks and balances to expand its jurisdiction in order to protect national security interests. These procedures, signed off by the Executive branch of government, are not open to scrutiny because they are shrouded in secrecy, which sets a dangerous precedent signaling to future administrations that accountability plays no role in creating and enacting laws. This piece argues for more accountability through mechanisms such as inter-agency decisions as to what should be made secret, the creation of more specific standards for secrecy, limitations on length of secrecy, and Congressional public oversight. The two readings right after it talk about these ‘secret laws’ in practice; the first one is about the CIA’s torture program, and the second is about secretive military campaigns in Somalia.

There couldn’t have been a more timelier moment for their publication, considering that President Obama will be leaving office soon, and it will be up to his successor to inherit the responsibility of addressing (or redressing) the precedents that the Obama administration has standardized.

• The Government’s Addiction to ‘Secret Law’ by Elizabeth Goitein (The New York Times)
  Torture and Its Psychological Aftermath by the New York Times Editorial Board (The New York Times)
• In Somalia, the U.S. Escalates a Shadow War by Mark Mazzetti, Jeffrey Gettlemen, and Eric Schmitt (The New York Times)

The next two readings focus on two Muslim-majority countries that have found themselves — tragically — at the center of foreign policy discussions. The first is about the campaign to retake the ISIS-occupied Iraqi city of Mosul, which was taken by ISIS in the summer of 2014 and has remained under its control since then. The piece discusses the local implications of the battle, which parties are involved, and the benefits and harms of different approaches to the battle. It’s a starter for anyone seeking to closely follow what will be one of the most decisive — and difficult — battles against ISIS.

The reading right after it is about Aleppo and the perpetual atrocities that it continues to endure. The criminal silence and indifference that humanity has collectively displayed in the face of our century’s worst humanitarian disaster is damning; so damning that the consequences of our inaction (or, arguably, or counter-intuitive action)  will be felt for the next half-century. It is a moralistic piece that interrogates our very sense of shared humanity, asking us to be true to it, and demanding of us to do better. To that effect, it asks a discomforting rhetorical question explaining perhaps why the world has done nothing: Is it because the people of Aleppo are Muslim?

The piece right after it is just as important, as it highlights the parties primarily responsible for an overwhelming majority of not only the atrocities in Aleppo, but of the Syrian Civil War as a whole. It then proposes policy initiatives that the United States and the international community can — or rather, must — take to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The last piece is written by someone who survived the siege on Sarajevo, and it is written against the backdrop of the siege happening today in Aleppo. This piece goes in-depth as to what factors in Sarajevo (like local and foreign journalists highlighting what was taking place) mobilized the international community to act.

• The Coming Battle for Mosul by the New York Times Editorial Board (The New York Times)
• ‘Are You Silent Because There Are Muslims in Our Country?’ by Roy Gutman (Foreign Policy)
• Bring Syria’s Assad and His Backers to Account Now by John Allen and Charles Lister (The Washington Post)
• The Siege Starts Without Warning by Miljenko Jergovic (The New York Times)

The next two readings are about Israel and Palestine. The first one is a short read on the recent UNESCO resolution relating to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, a holy site revered by all three Abrahamic faiths (the holiest in Judaism and third holiest in Islam). The original resolution referred to the site exclusively by its Muslim name, leading many to read it as a rejection of any Jewish connection it has, despite the fact that it made a general affirmation of the site’s importance to all three Abrahamic faiths. The article speaks about the resolution itself, which was intended as a political resolution and not a religious one, and discusses how despite the politics, the historical context and religious sensitivities of the site demand precise language. It argues that there is too much at stake for there to be anything but precise, inclusive naming of the site, because for whatever little pragmatic stability exists there, anything other than a precise naming can be read as a “final allocation” of the site and result in further conflict.

The second piece is a bit more uplifting: It talks about Israeli and Palestinian women from all spectra coming together and marching for peace and justice, all the way up to the Prime Minister’s house. At the culmination of the march was a rally with speeches from women on both sides, who spoke of a shared future based on mutual association, understanding, solidarity, empathy, and hope.

• A row at the UN bodes ill for the sharing of Jerusalem’s holiness by Erasmus (The Economist)
• ‘We cannot count on men to create peace. We have to do it ourselves.’ by Eatta Prince-Gibson (Haaretz)

This piece is about a group of Muslim women in India who’ve taken on the role of Islamic judges as a means of empowering themselves. Female judges thrived in Islamic antiquity but modern-day patriarchal norms have resulted in a monopolization of knowledge and its production as a realm exclusive to men.

• The Female Sharia Judges of India by Emily Feldman (The Daily Beast)

These two pieces discuss masculinity in the backdrop of a Trump campaign and the fragility of the male ego.

• How to Be a Man in the Age of Trump by Peggy Orenstein (The New York Times)
• ‘Nasty Woman’: Why Men Insult Powerful Women by Clair Cain Miller (The New York Times)

A sociological explanation as to how Trump and the GOP as a whole are losing whatever hold they had of white college graduates.

• ‘I love the poorly educated’: why white college graduates are deserting Trump by Lauren Gambino (The Guardian)

A well-written article by Bret Stephens which reminds American conservative Jews about the history of right-wing antisemitism and how it has begun to resurface thanks to Donald Trump

• The Plot Against America by Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal)

An important reading on the psychology of victim-blaming and the culture surrounding it.

• The Psychology of Victim-Blaming by Kayleigh Roberts (The Atlantic)

An opinion piece written by a disabled man making the case for why he and others with disabilities are more than just their disabilities and that they should not be boxed into this one category.

• I Don’t Want to Be ‘Inspiring’ by John Altmann (The New York Times)

An uplifting piece about a synagogue that asks its congregation to remember that they too were once refugees during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

• The Sukkah as Metaphor: A Brooklyn Shul Addresses the Refugee Crisis by Marjorie Ingall (Tablet Magazine)

An explanation as to how liberals and progressives from the South and the Midwest have all slowly moved into eastern coastal states and clustered into environments with like-minded people, thereby imperiling the swing-state status of their former residential states and leaving large swaths of the country as conservative strongholds.

• Go Midwest, Young Hipster by Alec MacGillis (The New York Times)