religion

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – After an outcry and Pentagon criticism, the Shiite militias in Iraq have changed their name for their current campaign to take Ramadi from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) from “I am here, O Husayn’ to “I am here, O Iraq.” A spokesman for the militias said that the two […]

Featured

Shiite Militias announce “Here I am, O Husayn” Campaign for Sunni Ramadi

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Shiite militias in Iraq, joined by some Sunni tribal levies, on Tuesday reached a university campus just to the southwest of Ramadi in what is called a “shaping operation” intended to set the stage for an all-out assault. There were some scattered firefights with Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) […]

censorship

Egypt: Executing Muslim Brotherhood leader Morsi for “Terrorism” will Fuel… Terrorism

contributors

By Ebrahim Deen | (Informed Comment) | — ‘In contemporary Egypt, due process is often not granted, evidence is often not considered, and impartiality and independence are often not maintained.’ The sentencing of former Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi and a hundred and five others to death for a 2011 prison break and subsequent death […]

Iraq

Iraq Can’t Get Ramadi back without an Inclusive Policy toward Sunnis

contributors

By David Alpher | (The Conversation) – Last Friday, the city of Ramadi – provincial capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, and symbolic seat of its Sunni population – fell to an ISIS assault. The loss is devastating, and not only because of the city’s size or symbolic value, or because it’s another reminder that ISIS […]

Christianity

Conservative, Catholic Ireland 1st Country to vote in Gay Marriage

contributors

Channel 4 News | (Video) – “Support for gay marriage in Ireland reaches 65 per cent with just the final votes to be counted – a resounding yes which forces the hugely influential Catholic church into turmoil after it opposed the change.” Channel 4 News: “Ireland votes to legalise gay marriage”

Featured

Daesh/ ISIL blows up Shiite Mosque in Saudi Arabia, seeking Sectarian Civil War

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – A suicide bomber with a concealed weapon detonated his payload during Friday prayers at the Ali b. Abi Talib Mosque in Qadif, a suburb of the major Shiite city of Qatif in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It killed 21 and wounded 102, according to the […]

GCC

Richest Countries Bomb among World’s Poorest: Yemen already a Forgotten War

contributors

VICE News | (Video) | – “For more than six weeks, nine countries led by Saudi Arabia have been carrying out airstrikes on Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation. Whole neighborhoods have been destroyed and communities reduced to rubble. According to the United Nations, the strikes, targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebel positions in the Yemeni capital […]

Bashar al-Assad

As Palmyra Falls, Who Supports Bashar al-Assad in Syria? (Charles Glass)

contributors

VICE News | (Video) “VICE News and the New York Review of Books have partnered to create Talking Heads, a series about the big issues of the day as seen by the Review’s distinguished contributors. In this episode, Charles Glass discusses his essay “In the Syria We Don’t Know.” He drove through Syria in October […]

al-Qaeda

Washington asks, “Who lost Ramadi?” But Washington never had Ramadi

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — The inside-the-Beltway debate set off by the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Sunday is, as usual, Dadaistic in its disconnection from reality. Republican talking points blame Barack Obama for withdrawing US troops from Iraq in 2011, as though Daesh suddenly […]