By Juan Cole al-Quds al-`Arabi [Arab Jerusalem] reports on the appeal of ISIL to Salafi hard line Sunni Muslims. In a worrisome development, radicals throughout the region are rallying to the so-called “Islamic State,” which is actually just a bunch of armed thugs and brigands. Some of the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan have announced their […]
Listening to Nobelist Malala Yousafzai instead of just Honoring Her
By Juan Cole Malala Yousafzai has become the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in history, sharing it this year with India’s Kailash Satyarthi, a children’s rights activist. Ms. Yousafzai, from Pakistan’s picturesque Swat Valley, was shot in the head by a member of the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP or Pakistani Taliban Movement) two […]
Gaza, its Power Plant hit by Israel, Waits in the Dark … and Waits
By Sam Bahour (Ma’an News Agency) When I asked my colleague in Gaza about her biggest dream, her answer made an impression on me: “I dream of what life would be like with 24-hour electricity.” This was the answer of a single, mid-career, Western-educated, professional woman who lives in the more affluent part of Gaza […]
Divestment and Popular Politics: Big Oil and Israeli Occupation
By Jen Marlowe On September 21 (one day before world leaders converged on New York for the United Nations Climate Summit, and one day after up to 400,000 people took to the streets of NYC for the People’s Climate March), the president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund made an announcement: the Fund would be divesting […]
ISIL takes one third of strategic Kobane in Syria, loses Tuz Khurmato in Iraq
By Juan Cole al-Khalij [The Gulf] (Sharjah, UAE) reports that the Syrian Human Rights Observatory says ISIL fighters are now in one third of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane (`Ayn al-`Arab). The radical fundamentalists have advanced into the besieged city despite a new round of US and other bombings on its outskirts. In contrast […]
Does the Houthi Takeover of Yemen’s Sanaa Endanger World Trade?
By Juan Cole The fall of the Yemeni government to radical Zaidi tribesmen from Saadah in the north has gone relatively unremarked in the US mass media. Yemen is admittedly a relatively small country of 24 million, a little less populous than Texas. It is the second poorest in the Arab League after Somalia. It […]
The Last Days of Kobani Loom as ISIL Closes in on Syrian Kurds with Murder on its Mind
By Juan Cole ISIL fighters have advanced into the Kurdish Syrian city of Kobane (`Ayn al-`Arab), with fighting in the streets as Kurds resist, according to the pan-Arab daily, al-Hayat [Life]. Kobane, a city ordinarily of about 50,000, is the third biggest town in the Kurdish part of Syria (the far northeast). ISIL has taken […]
Ben Affleck on Bill Maher’s Muslim Problem
By Juan Cole Bravo to Ben Affleck and Nicholas Kristoff for telling Bill Maher off about his chronic case of Muslim-hating bigotry. (He would say he doesn’t hate Muslims, only their religion, but then those who hate gays say much the same sort of thing). Maher and Sam Harris like to demonize Islam and by […]
Pan-Mideast War: ISIL and al-Qaeda attack Hizbullah outposts Near Lebanese Border
By Juan Cole ISIL and al-Qaeda have, according to Hizbullah, launched attacks in Syria’s Qalamoun district (abutting the Lebanese border near Baalbek) on Hizbullah military outposts on the Syrian side. Hizbullah is acting in Syria as an adjunct to the Syrian Baath Army and helped reduce Qusayr and Homs last spring. The Syrian rebels were […]
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