political Islam

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The revelation by the Washington Post’s Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima that the car-bomb assassination of Hizbullah commando Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 was a joint CIA/ Israeli Mossad operation comes at an awkward time for Washington. The administration of George W. Bush did not target Mughniyah […]

Iraq

With US Tanks, are Iraq’s Shiite Militias getting stronger than the Army?

contributors

by Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) – Iraq’s unofficial Shiite militias are an essential part of the fight against the extremist Islamic State group. But they act independently of the army, and are sometimes brutally murderous. Army officers now note that the militias have better weapons and better working conditions and that’s why their […]

Featured

Why the Israeli-Hizbullah Tit for Tat Probably won’t turn to War

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Last week an Israeli helicopter gunship targeted Hizbullah outposts in Syria southwest of Damascus, near the front with the rebel Support Front (Syria al-Qaeda), which controls the Golan Heights on the Syrian side. These outposts were not in fact bordering Israel or likely aimed at Israel, but rather […]

Africa

Boko Haram Menaces Cameroon Schoolchildren after Massacre in Nigeria

contributors

By Ngala Killian Chimtom MAROUA, Far North Region, Jan 14 2015 (IPS) – “I’d quit my job before going to work in a place like that.” That is how a primary school teacher responded when IPS asked him why he had not accepted a job in Cameroon’s Far North region. James Ngoran is not the […]

Education

Fundamentalism for Dummies: The Paris Terrorists’ Ignorance and Poverty

contributors

By Akil N. Awan | (The National Interest) The masked gunmen who assaulted the Charlie Hebdo offices in a hail of automatic gunfire, leaving twelve people dead in their wake, were heard proclaiming, “we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad.” Amateur footage also revealed the killers invoking God with the Arabic phrase, “Allahu Akbar”—an otherwise-innocuous, everyday […]

Islam

What Black & White thinking misses about ISIS/Daesh & why it Matters to us All

contributors

By Neslihan Çevik | (Daily Sabah) — To combat radicalism, EU countries should avoid considering an increased interest in the origins and nature of Islam as a sign of potential radicalization, while Muslim states should encourage the youth to analytically inquire about their religion and systematically reject radical Islamism based on that inquiry Debates on […]

Iraq

Saudi General, Border Guards Killed by Daesh/ISIL for not being Fanatical Enough

contributors

France24 | — “At 4,30 am 4 men coming from Iraqi territory attacked a border post on the northern frontier of Saudi Arabia. Two of the attackers were killed during the attack, one by gun shot and the second activated his explosive belt killing general Awda al-Balwi, commander of the northern frontier zone, with one […]

Iraq

Iraq has Worst Year since Bush Invaded, is a Ghost of Former Self

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) — The past year in Iraq is not easy to review. The assorted crises, both in security and politics, are well known around the world and for many Iraqis it’s been one long nightmare. NIQASH went to gather ordinary Iraqis’ opinions on the year gone by and ended […]

Featured

The Year Iraq Ceased to Exist: Will it ever Again?

Juan Cole

In 2014, Iraq was said to lose 42% of its territory to Daesh (the Arabic acronym for what our press calls ISIS or ISIL). This statistic refers to the loss of the mostly Sunni Arab provinces of al-Anbar and Ninewah, as well as parts of Salahuddin and Diyala. It is a little bit misleading, since […]