Middle East

Via ISLAMICommentary Column » ‘By the Book’ with Joseph Preville by JOSEPH RICHARD PREVILLE and JULIE POUCHER HARBIN for ISLAMiCommentary on DECEMBER 4, 2015: Is there a more tragic country in the world today than Syria ? How did it descend into chaos, conflict, and crisis? John McHugo offers some answers in Syria: A History […]

censorship

Turkish Dr. faces Prison for Comparing Pres Erdogan to Gollum of Lord of the Rings

contributors

AJ+ | (Video news report) | – – “Turkish doctor Bilgin Ciftci posted a meme with side-by-side pictures comparing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to “Lord of the Rings” character Gollum. Ciftci faces a two-year sentence for “insulting the head of the state” – and trilogy director Peter Jackson lends his expert opinion. ” […]

Arab World

Top Seven Myths about Muslims

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – MADRID, Dec 3 2015 (IPS) – Of all over-written, under-reported issues and regions, the Middle East is perhaps one of the oldest, outstanding ones. To start with, it is a common belief – too often heralded by the mainstream media – that the Middle East […]

Israel/ Palestine

Right-wing Israeli groups “raid” 3rd Holiest Muslim Shrine

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Right-wing Israeli groups on Sunday raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under the protection of Israeli forces, witnesses told Ma’an. Witnesses said 43 Israeli settlers raided the compound after right-wing Jewish extremist groups called for supporters to flock to the site before the start of the Jewish […]

Featured

Shiite Iraqi politicians denounce Turkish ‘Invasion,’ call for Aerial bombardment

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Sawt al-`Iraq reports that sources in the Turkish military announced Saturday that about 150 Turkish troops had been placed into northern Iraq along with 20-25 tanks. The head of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, Hakim Ilzami, said that this incursion was just switching out […]

Iraq

In the Actual fight against Daesh/ ISIL, the Key is Cutting off Mosul

Juan Cole

By Special Correspondent | ( Niqash.org) | – – The Sinjar victory saw the route between Mosul and Raqqa cut. But local truckers have found another way in the desert that extremists are thought to be using too. If this road closes too, Mosul will be fully isolated. The new route out of Mosul heads […]

Syria

12 Million homeless, displaced Syrians facing Disaster as Winter Approaches

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — More than 12 million people in Syria — nearly half of whom are children — are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance before winter sets into the war-torn country, an international aid group said Friday. Robert Mardini, regional director for the Middle East at the International […]

Syria

Syria: Mission Impossible

contributors

By John Feffer | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – p>Imagine this new TV series coming to HBO in 2016. The planet faces an unprecedented peril. The international community brings together a team of experts, each one with a different specialty: the scientist, the general, the computer geek, the engineer, the spook. It’s their […]

al-Qaeda

How Turkish President Erdogan went Wrong: Dividing and Not Ruling

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Receb Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, was once seen as a political breath of fresh air and a beacon of change in the Middle East. Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and other countries in the region were locked into an unhealthy political gridlock. The […]