Islam

By Juan Cole | (Informed Commen) | — Baghdad was shaken by the news that the Iraq army and police in Ramadi ran away from the advancing forces of Daesh (ISIL, ISIS). As a result, good American weaponry again fell into the hands of the extremists. Diya’ al-Wakil, former Iraqi military spokesperson, has the same […]

Iraq

After fall of Ramadi to ISIL, does Iraq have a future?

contributors

By Brian M Downing | (Informed Comment) | – Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, has fallen to forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIL has now reversed a string of defeats since it swept into northern and central Iraq last summer. This will improve the movement’s recruitment and reaffirm its […]

Arab Spring

Death Sentence for Morsi: Egypt’s Junta takes another step toward being N. Korea

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – That the only freely elected president Egypt has ever known has been sentenced to death is only to be expected from the current military junta, which made a coup in July, 2013, and declared the former ruling party, the Muslim Brotherhood, to be a terrorist organization indistinguishable […]

Featured

Cole: Iraq’s Ramadi falls to ISIL as Shiite Gov’t refuses to Arm Sunni Tribes

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The Times of Baghdad (al-Zaman) reports that fighters of the Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) terrorist group raised their black flags over the central government building in Ramadi on Friday. The city, just sixty miles due west of Baghdad, is the capital of al-Anbar Province. Daesh announced their victory with megaphones […]

Iraq

Iraq’s Shiite Militias turn on their Shiite Prime Minister

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) | – (Baghdad) – Iraq’s relatively new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, has been performing a tricky balancing act for the past few months, carefully keeping the various internal and external influencers satisfied while fighting against the extremist Islamic State group and shoring up his own power base. Up until now […]

Islam

Over 40 Ismaili Shiites shot down by Sunni Extremists in Pakistan

contributors

BBC | – “Dozens of people are thought to have died after an attack by gunmen on a bus in Karachi. They surrounded the bus, which was carrying Ismaili Shia Muslims, and opened fire. It is believed that there were up to 60 people on board the bus, including women and children.” Dozens killed in […]

Afghanistan

Farkhunda is Our Sister: A “Martyr” to women and the Making of a New Afghanistan?

contributors

By Ann Jones | (Tomdispatch.com) | — I went to Kabul, Afghanistan, in March to see old friends. By chance, I arrived the day after a woman had been beaten to death and burned by a mob of young men. The world would soon come to know her name: Farkhunda. The name means “auspicious” or […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Endless War: Between the US, Taliban and ISIL

contributors

By Brian M. Downing | (Informed Comment) | – War is largely a seasonal activity in Afghanistan. Winters are harsh and fighters need to work fields and tend herds. With spring, another fighting season is underway. This year will be different from its many predecessors. US ground troops are no longer engaged in large numbers; […]

Islam

Young Muslim-Americans Draw Their Own Muhammad

contributors

AJ+ | – “Muslims condemned the attack at a Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas. But some of them started drawing cartoons of their own.” AJ+: “Muslim Americans Draw Their Own Muhammad”