Middle East

By Juan Cole | — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in south Yemen, claimed on Wednesday to have been behind the attacks in Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week. Said and Sharif Kouashi are known to have visited Yemen in 2011 for weapons training, assisted by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born terrorist later […]

Apartheid

Gaza – reduced to Rubble by Israel – suffers cold, hungry winter: ‘conditions catastrophic’

contributors

RT | — “Many thousands of Gazans face a freezing winter living in tents pitched amid the rubble of their ruined homes – as the UN is urging half a billion dollars in emergency aid for shelter to the war-battered region.” RT: “Cold, dark & hungry: Gaza suffers through winter, ‘conditions catastrophic’”

Apartheid

Settlers, Olives, and Occupation: Voices from the West Bank

contributors

Vice News | — “In response to last year’s Gaza conflict, the Israeli government announced the construction of further settlements in the West Bank — a move condemned by the international community for escalating tensions that were already highly fraught. The expansion of the settlements has consumed privately owned Palestinian land, causing the destruction of […]

France

Hezbollah’s Surprising Denunciation of Paris Attacks: is it Courting the West?

contributors

By Rola El-Husseini | (Special to Informed Comment) In a speech in Beirut on January 9, 2014, on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared that killings and beheadings by “takfiris” (excommunicators) are more harmful to Islam than are cartoons or books mocking the Prophet. This was […]

Barack Obama

New Republican Majority Wants to intervene in Obama’s Iran Talks

contributors

By Luke Johnson | (RFE/RL) WASHINGTON — Should U.S. President Barack Obama and Western powers reach a nuclear deal with Iran, they could face a new hurdle: a Republican Congress. Republicans are eyeing various Iran-related measures, including legislation to impose fresh sanctions should talks fail and to require congressional review of any deal. The Obama […]

Dissent

Saudis torture jailed Liberal Blogger w/ 1000 lashes for… Blogging

contributors

Human Rights Watch | (Beirut) — More Lashes Pending for Creating Liberal Website, Insulting Religious Authorities King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia should overturn the lashing and prison term for a blogger imprisoned for his views and immediately grant him a pardon. Saudi authorities lashed Raif Badawi 50 times on January 9, 2015, in front of […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

From Yemen to Paris: The al-Qaeda Franchise from the 15th to the 60th Parallel N.

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Analysts have been understandably cautious about the nature of the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo staff and a Jewish deli in Paris. On the one hand, they appear to be the work of a small cell. On the other, members of the cell have long and clear links […]

Apartheid

Winter Floods strike a Gaza reduced to Rubble by Israeli Shelling

Juan Cole

GAZA CITY (Ma’an News Agency) — Hundreds of Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday were forced to evacuate their homes due to rising water levels, as winter Storm Huda began to take a toll on the besieged coastal enclave on the third day of its landing. Hatem al-Khur, an official in the Khuzaa […]

Arab World

How is the Press in the Muslim World covering the Paris Attacks?

contributors

By Joanna Paraszczuk | (RFE/RL) — Media in the Muslim world have published a wide variety of reactions to the deadly attack on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. In Iran, the morning papers offered very diverse coverage of the event. Although overall coverage was low-key compared to Western media, some […]