Islam

(By Juan Cole) The announcement on Saturday by the Egyptian government that there was a 38% turnout for the referendum on the new constitution was unexceptional. It was more than the 33% that turned out to vote on the Muslim Brotherhood constitution of 2012, but not that much more. But the declaration that the constitution […]

Egypt

The Great Urban-Rural Struggle over the Constitution in Egypt

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The tale of two constitutions, 2012 and 2014, in Egypt has to be seen in my view as significantly an urban-rural struggle. Neither referendum had a big turnout, but the one in 2012 only attracted 32.8% of the electorate, while apparently the turnout in the referendum just held was slightly higher at […]

political Islam

Turkey’s Fierce Battle on the Religious Right

contributors

(By Ayşe Soysal) … What is happening in Turkey now doesn’t feel like just a simple political disagreement, or even a war-game. It’s an all-out war, whose opening gambits have been politically damaging to both sides — the [Justice and Development Party or] AKP-led government and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and the secretive Islamic Gülen […]

Arab Spring

Tunisia’s Political Compromise & the Legacy of Mohammed Bouazizi

contributors

(By Silvia Colombo) The agreement on the new prime minister that will have the arduous task of lifting Tunisia out of the current impasse came almost exactly three years after the symbolic and at the same time concrete gesture of Mohammed Bouazizi, the street vendor who set himself on fire and by doing so ignited […]

Iraq

Fallujah Tribes broker extremist withdrawal deal to forestall Gov’t invasion

contributors

(By Mustafa Habib) A secret deal was done between the tribes of Anbar and Sunni Muslim extremists this week – the result has seen extremists withdraw from Fallujah. But questions remain: Will PM Nouri al-Maliki still react with military force? How did Al Qaeda manage to take over a city like Fallujah in just two […]

Iraq

Iraq’s Real Problem: A US Occupation legacy of Sectarian Politics

contributors

(By Mohammed Alomari) Violence in Iraq is again in the news. The biggest problem we face about what is going on in Iraq is the disinformation campaign to which we have been subjected since the 2003 invasion and occupation. Iraq, which had its infrastructure and institutions demolished in 2003, was rebuilt on political and sectarian […]

Dissent

How Egypt’s Revolution veered toward Authoritarian Crackdown

contributors

(By Mohammed Fadel) In response to a December 24 bombing in the town of Mansoura, the Egyptian government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. The decision, which came despite the fact that an al-Qaida affiliated group—Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis—took responsibility for the blast, was a depressing, even inevitable conclusion to the disastrous course of events […]

Christianity

Tripoli Residents Protest as 80,000 Rare Books in Lebanon Torched by Salafis

Juan Cole

(AFP) Angry Lebanese protest over attack on priest’s library (via AFP) Hundreds of Lebanese took to the streets of the northern city of Tripoli on Saturday to protest the torching of a decades-old library owned by a Greek Orthodox priest. The demonstrators held up banners that read “Tripoli, peaceful town” and “This is… —– […]

al-Qaeda

Iraq’s Sunni Civil War

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The attempt launched earlier this week by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) to take and hold city quarters in Falluja, Ramadi and Khalidiya in al-Anbar province has provoked an enormous political crisis in Iraq. The insurgents and supporters chased police and soldiers away from their stations, burned […]