Protests abound in Syria, Iran and in Bahrain

"A play of protest against the murderous Syrian regime was given in a Damascus city center mall. It featured 4 Circassians--Sasha Ayoub, Salina Abaza, Leen Shaker, and Mohamed Abdallah. They were arrested on site. There is news the girls have been released from jail but no information has come about the status of Mohamed Abdallah."

"With reports emerging this morning that Iran’s final online crackdown would take place in August, completely shutting down access to the Internet, denials have begun to circulate, according to AFP."

There are no conclusive answers but this blog has some suspicions that Iranians can hang up their surfboards because soon there will be no surfing the web.

Can you have a Grand Prix in country where over 80 people have been killed by their own government as they protested religious racism? "Shiites in Bahrain feel that they are discriminated against in employment, education and basic rights by the Sunni monarchy"

Juan Ricardo Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. In this blog he addresses some of the disharmony in Bahrain.