nationalism

By MariaGloria Polimeno | (The Conversation) | – – Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s most senior prosecutor, has been killed by a car bomb that hit his motorcade in Cairo. The attack came just a month after Islamic State (IS) urged its followers to attack Egypt’s judges and its “deep state” in revenge for their jailing scores […]

Colonialism

Michael Oren, Neo-Orientalism and the Ghost of Edward Said

contributors

By Daniel Brumberg | (Informed Comment) | – – Poor Edward Said cannot rest in peace. Twelve years after he passed away from cancer, his ghost apparently haunts the State Department, Pentagon and even the White House. This, at any rate, is the argument that informs the grim diagnoses of Obama “Muslim World” policies offered […]

Featured

The Great Wall of Turkey? Ankara imagines DMZ w/ Kurds, ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – So I am going to tell you a story about Turkey, Syria and the United States. It may or may not be true. Its details may or may not have happened, though there is reason to think they did. It is a story. The point is […]

censorship

Journalists Pay the Price in Egypt’s Crackdown on Dissent

contributors

By Kitty Stapp | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – The Egyptian government is holding a record number of journalists in jail, a press freedom group said Thursday, despite promises to improve media freedoms in the country. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets then Egyptian Minister of Defence General Abdul Fatah Khalil al-Sisi in […]

Iraq

End of Sykes-Picot: Is Independence for Iraqi Kurdistan a Decade Away?

contributors

Niqash.org | Sulaymaniyah | – – As Iraqis and Syrians fight, Kurds are holding elections and drafting laws. After Kurds also won in Turkish elections, nationalists hope the 100th birthday of the Sykes-Picot may be its last and borders will be redrawn. As Turkish voters went to the polling booths, Iraq’s Kurds were watching eagerly. […]

Arab Spring

Egypt: Year of Abuses Under al-Sisi — President Gets Western Support While Erasing Human Rights Gains

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt has presided over the flagrant abuse of human rights since taking office a year ago pledging to restore stability. Violence by armed groups and the government has escalated. The United States and European governments should stop overlooking Egyptian government abuses, including […]

Apartheid

Israeli forces suppress protest over fraudulent purchase of West Bank church

contributors

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Saturday suppressed a march protesting the recent purchase by Israeli setters of a church compound in the southern West Bank. The 38 dunam compound, known as Beit al-Baraka, is located to the north of al-Arrub refugee camp between Bethlehem and Hebron. It has been in the spotlight since an […]

Featured

Iraq needs another National Party: Tariq Aziz’s Baath Party Ruined the Country

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister and former foreign minister of Iraq, is dead at 79. He died in prison in the custody of the Shiie-dominated government he tried to forestall. Aziz was born Mikhael Yuhanna (Michael John) into a Chaldean Catholic family. He gravitated to […]

Democracy

Will Turkey’s Election end hopes for Turkish-Kurdish Rapprochement?

contributors

By Mustafa Gurbuz | (Informed Comment) | – – Whatever the election outcome on Sunday, prospects for Kurdish Peace Process are grim. Yet, regardless whether largely Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) passes the 10 percent threshold that will allow it to be seated in parliament, it has already acquired a charismatic authority with the pro-Kurdish […]