By Bryan van Hulst Miranda | ( TeleSur) | – – A year after Roof was charged over the mass-killing of nine Black people in an African Methodist church, it is worth remembering him for what he was. The domestic act of terror at a historic African-American Church in South Carolina on June 17, 2015, […]
Archives for June 2016
Pyrrhic Victory? As Iraq rolls back Daesh, can it stay together as a Country?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – From all accounts, most people in Fallujah are very happy about being out from under the murderous and puritanical rule of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). But Daesh took the city in January of 2014 for a reason. Locals did not put up much of a fight to […]
FBI Director Schools Trump On American Muslims
Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich, Kenny Hamilton, & Meredith Planko | (Young Turks Video) | – – “FBI director, James Comey, says that Donald Trump has it wrong about Muslims. The Republican presidential candidate blames the religion of Islam for the attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, and Comey says it is much more complicated […]
How ISIL is losing al-Anbar Province: Corruption, Reckless Driving, Carelessness w/ Secrets
Niqash.org | Baghdad | – – “Newsletters sent to Islamic State fighters in Anbar indicate the group’s problems with bad drivers and corruption. It also shows a decentralized command structure that ensures the group’s ongoing survival.” A cache of internal correspondence and newsletters, sent by senior members of the extremist group known as the Islamic […]
The rise and fall of Turkey’s progressive opposition
By Nick Ashdown | ( OpenDemocracy) | – – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party, the HDP roared into parliament on the back of a rainbow coalition of alienated progressives and minorities. Now, armed conflict is pulling it back into the messy tangle of Kurdish politics. “It started like a forest fire,” said HDP deputy and honorary president Ertuğrul […]
The end of the Beginning: The Fall of ISIL in Fallujah
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – After Montgomery and his troops defeated the Germans and Italians at El Alamain in northern Egypt in 1942, Winston Churchill was relieved finally to have some good news after a string of defeats. He said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the […]
Kochs’ Victory: House of Reps. Votes to Protect Anonymous ‘Dark Money’ Donors
TeleSur | – – The House of Representatives approved a bill that campaign finance refomers say will open the door to illegal influence on political campaigns. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to protect the identities of wealthy individuals and others who make anonymous, or “dark money,” donations to politically active nonprofit […]
Who Was the mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, and Whose Rumi Is He?
By Bismellah Alizada | (GlobalVoices.org) | – – As all the countries that call the work of Jalaluddin Rumi their own rise up against the idea of Leonardo Di Caprio playing the poet and scholar in a Hollywood epic, social media users in Afghanistan are pushing back against Iran and Turkey's reported joint claim to […]
PM: Israeli cut-off of West Bank water supplies in Ramadan ‘inhumane and outrageous’
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Prime Minister’s office on Thursday slammed Israel’s decision to cut off water supplies for tens of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank this week as “inhumane and outrageous.” Rami Hamdallah issued a statement in response to the move by Israel’s national water […]