Talk about peace: Truth behind state-Islamist reconciliation talks remains blurry, as does the potential of an inclusive politics →

The political future of Islamist groups in Egypt is still up in the air, as rumors of closed-door meetings ahead of the parliamentary elections prompt both Islamists and government officials to vigorously deny that their relationship is on the mend.

And:

It's not just Brotherhood members holding out an olive branch; state officials have been trying to negotiate with Islamist forces throughout the past year, claims Khaled al-Sherif, spokesperson for the Egyptian Revolutionary Council umbrella group headed by Brotherhood members abroad.

Speaking via telephone from Turkey, Sherif says, “There have been no direct negotiations with the Brotherhood and the regime, but rather the regime had many mediators, including leaders in the Jama’a al-Islamiya, [Political Science] Professor Hassan Nafaa and [Islamist thinker] Ahmed Kamal Abul Magd.”

Sisi is the one who holds the key to any reconciliation, he insists.

Homeward Bound? Don't Hype the Threat of Returning Jihadists →

But the threat presented by foreign fighters has been exaggerated, just as it was during several other conflicts in recent years. Over the last decade, the Iraq war in particular prompted similar warnings about a possible backlash that ultimately failed to materialize. In fact, the vast majority of Western Muslims who set out to fight in the Middle East today will not come back as terrorists. Many of them will never go home at all, instead dying in combat or joining new military campaigns elsewhere, or they will return disillusioned and not interested in bringing the violence with them. Even among the rare individuals who do harbor such intentions, most will be less dangerous than they are feared to be because they will attract the attention of authorities before they can strike. It is telling that in the last two years alone, European security officials have disrupted at least five terrorist plots with possible links to Syrian foreign fighters, in locales ranging from Kosovo to the United Kingdom.

American overreaction about ISIS isn't just wrong — it's dangerous →

Again, where is the cost/benefit analysis? We're spending millions of dollars a day on munitions alone. Direct threats appear to be non-existent, or minor (for the foreseeable future). If there is an argument to be made about stability of the Middle East, let's have that, instead of this insane fear-mongering.

Occupy Central and the Rising Risk of New Mass Atrocities in China →

Your daily does of political science:

Instead, violent state crackdowns usually push countries onto one of three other pathways before they produce more than 1,000 fatalities: 1) they succeed at breaking the uprising and essentially restore the status quo ante (e.g., China in 1989, Uzbekistan in 2005, Burma in 2007, and Thailand in 2010); 2) they suppress the nonviolent challenge but, in so doing, help to spawn a violent rebellion that may or may not be met with a mass killing of its own (e.g., Syria since 2011); or 3) they catalyze splits in state security forces or civilian rulers that lead to negotiations, reforms, or regime collapse (e.g., Egypt and Tunisia in 2011). In short, nonviolent uprisings usually lose, transform, or win before the attempts to suppress them amount to what we would call a state-led mass killing.

ISIS Isn’t Hamas, or Iran →

Simply warmongering to say otherwise.

For its part, in Gaza, Hamas does not kill Christians; indeed they worship freely, are represented in the government, and share in the bitter and blockaded status of Gaza’s Muslims. Hamas doesn’t aspire to a Muslim caliphate but rather national liberation, and, if you follow the contemporary words of its spokesman, (rather than its generation old, anti-Semitic charter) liberation of a small part of historic Palestine. Hamas doesn’t execute Western journalists but welcomes them. It does execute suspected collaborators (that’s where the gruesome execution photos which Israel-friendly organizations have been using in advertisements come from) but so has every guerrilla movement, including, as Derfner notes, Zionist ones.

Grand jury considering the Ferguson shooting is being investigated for misconduct →

From the outside, I couldn't see a just and fair hearing. Now this:

An account of possible jury misconduct surfaced Wednesday morning on Twitter, when several users sent messages about one juror who may have discussed evidence in the case with a friend.

In one of those messages, a person tweeted that they are friends with a member of the jury who doesn’t believe there is enough evidence to warrant an arrest of the officer, Darren Wilson.

The same person who tweeted about being friends with a member of the jury has also tweeted messages of support for Wilson.

Michael Dunn found guilty of 1st-degree murder in loud-music trial →

Jurors found Michael Dunn guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.
...
Dunn, 47, was charged with murder after shooting into an SUV full of teenagers at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station following a squabble over the music emanating from the teens' vehicle.

To those outside the US, this case may seem to have an odd amount of coverage. It's about the racism in the American justice system:

The victim's father said the verdict made Jacksonville "a shining example that you could have a jury made of mostly white people, white men," that delivers justice in a racially charged case.