Middle East

Special Correspondent | Mosul | via Niqash When Sunni Muslim extremists took over Mosul in early June, they closed local courts and set up their own quasi-religious system of justice. They also put thousands of Mosul’s lawyers out of work. For those who didn’t flee the city, there was worse to come: judges have already […]

Egypt

Incredible Expanding Cairo (Video)

contributors

NYU STERN URBANIZATION PROJECT “The expansion of built up urban land in Cairo, 1800 – 2000. Prepared for the NYU Stern Urbanization Project using data compiled by Shlomo Angel, Jason Parent, Daniel Civco, and Alejandro Blei for The Atlas of Urban Expansion, published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.” (You have to watch it […]

Bashar al-Assad

American Weapons, provided to Syrian rebels, fall into Hands of al-Qaeda

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra (the Succor Front) not only took the territory of the moderate Muslim Syria Revolutionaries Front this weekend, it also polished off the Movement of the Resolute . The Movement of the Resolute (Harakat al-Hazm) represented itself as secular, but had its roots in a fundamentalist group backed […]

Israel

Fierce Entanglements require Dialogue: Israeli-Palestinian conflict rooted in their different stories about the World

contributors

By Donald Ellis When I was in Israel for a year on a Fulbright conducting research I interviewed Israelis, Palestinians, and Israeli Arabs. I asked them to talk about their ideas with respect to peace. The Israelis invoked the language of security, the Israeli Arabs spoke of fairness, and the Palestinians of historical justice. Clearly, […]

Bashar al-Assad

US Dilemma in Syria: Moderate Stronghold Falls to al-Qaeda, Fighters desert to Extremists

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole In a big setback for the Obama administration’s Syria policy, the al-Qaeda affiliate Succor Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) took the town of Deir Sunbul and its environs this weekend away from the Syria Revolutionaries Front, a relatively secular-minded group viewed as “moderates” by the United States. Deir Sunbul lies in the Jabal al-Zawiya […]

Apartheid

Israel’s Exclusion of Palestinians from Area C Costs Pals. $2.2 bn a Year

contributors

World Bank “If businesses and farms were permitted to develop on Area C land, 61 percent of the West Bank, it would add as much as 35% to the Palestinian gross domestic product.” World Bank: “Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy

Featured

Iraq: US dismayed Shiite Gov’t hasn’t Armed Sunni Tribes fighting ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The pan-Arab London daily Hayat [Life] reports that members of the al-Anbar provincial council say they have met with American officials who are “disgusted” and the slowness of Baghdad to arm the Sunni Arab tribes fighting ISIL. Last week 220 members of the Al-Bu Nimr tribe were murdered by ISIL for taking […]

Apartheid

Israeli Forces open fire on Palestinian Qalandia Demonstrators, Wounding 8

contributors

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Eight Palestinians were injured on Friday after Israeli forces opened fire on demonstrators during clashes following Friday prayers near the Qalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Several Palestinians were also injured by rubber-coated steel bullets and dozens suffered from suffocation from inhaling tear gas as Israeli soldiers fired large number of tear-gas grenades […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Is ISIL’s Ideology really Grounded in Saudi Textbooks?

contributors

By Emile Nakhleh WASHINGTON (IPS) – According to an article published Oct. 21 on Al-Monitor, the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) has issued new regulations for the school systems under its control in Iraq and Syria. The announced purpose of the so-called guidelines, which carried the imprimatur of the group’s “Amir al-Mu’minin,” presumably leader Abu […]