Islam

By Peter Gottschalk | (The Conversation) | – – On Feb. 16, 2017, a bomb ripped through a crowd assembled at the tomb of a Sufi saint, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, in southeastern Pakistan. Soon thereafter, the so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. In recent times, such attacks have targeted a variety of cherished […]

Iraq

After Mosul: Can Iraq survive without a unified National Army?

contributors

By Balsam Mustafa | (The Conversation) | – – The operation to retake Iraq’s second city of Mosul from the so-called Islamic State [group] (IS) has entered its crucial phase. The Iraqi army, federal police, elite counter-terrorism units, and rapid response troops are operating on the ground, bolstered by discreetly embedded US special forces. The […]

Islam

Dear Trump officials: Stop confusing Muslim Conservatism with Terrorism!

contributors

By Z. Fareen Parvez | (The Conversation) | – – The Trump administration has been using the phrase “radical Islam” when discussing the “war on terror.” From his inauguration address to remarks to military leaders, President Trump has been warning against “Islamic terrorists.” Many different kinds of individuals and movements get collapsed into this category […]

Islam-hatred

Why Designating Muslim Brotherhood ‘Terrorists’ will harm Democracy at home and Abroad

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Washington, DC) – A US government designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, which the Trump administration is reportedly considering, would threaten the rights to association of Muslim groups in the United States. Such a designation would also undermine the ability of the Muslim Brotherhood’s members […]

art and photography

Image of the Day: “Jonah and the Whale” (Persian Miniature)

contributors

Metropolitan Museum of Art | (Persian Miniature Painting) | – – “Jonah and the Whale”, Folio from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles [A medieval World History]) Inscription: In Persian, on the arms of Jonah: “The sun’s disk went into darkness, Jonah went into the mouth of the fish.” The story of Jonah and the […]

China

Trump’s Coming “Islamo-China” War . . . or, Whatever

contributors

By Ira Chernus | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – What kind of national security policy will the Trump administration pursue globally? On this issue, as on so many others, the incoming president has offered enough contradictory clues, tweets, and comments that the only definitive answer right now is: Who knows? During his presidential campaign […]

Islam

Demonizing Muslims: White Quebec Terrorists kill 6 in attack on Mosque

contributors

TeleSur | – – Incidents of Islamophobia have increased in Quebec in recent years amid a political debate over banning the niqab. At least two people have been arrested in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of a Quebec City mosque that has left five people dead in the eastern Canadian province, according to reports. […]

Donald Trump

Iraqi Leaders Denounce Trump over Oil, Jerusalem; US Troops in Political Crossfire

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Since his inauguration, Donald J. Trump has not been making a good impression in Iraq, where the US has 6,000 troops, according to al-Zaman (The Times) of Baghdad. The prime minister has forcefully rejected Trump’s talk of “taking Iraqi oil.” And the Shiite clerical leader, Muqtada […]

Iraq

The Future of Iraq? As Police Lose Control Of Streets, Militias Take Over

contributors

Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | – – The volunteer militias formed to fight the Islamic State group are now policing Baghdad’s neighbourhoods. But as they do, they compete with the real police, ignore the real laws and often act more like a mafia. Recently Baghdad local Jafar al-Aboudi’s son got into a fight […]