Terrorism

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bill Barrow of the Associated Press took a look at the specifics of plans for US troop deployments in the Middle East put forward by some of the GOP presidential hopefuls. Several Republican politicians have pledged a return of US combat troops in large numbers to […]

Arab Americans

Young Muslim-American entrepreneurs Fight ISIL Online

contributors

Ayman Mohyeldin | (NBC News Video report) “Startups are launching to help young Muslims, who might fall to ISIS’ luring appeal, grapple with issues of identity and religion.” NBC News: “Young Entrepreneurs Step Up Anti-ISIS Message Online | NBC Nightly News”

Authoritarianism

Egypt’s “Terrorism” Law Violates “Fundamental Freedoms”

contributors

By Kitty Stapp | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – Egyptian authorities are already holding a record number of journalists behind bars, and a draconian new anti-terror law signed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday will further broaden the crackdown on dissent, press freedom groups warn. It imposes heavy penalties […]

al-Qaeda

Is Syria doomed to become Sunni version of Theocratic Iran?

contributors

By Hakim Khatib | ( Your Middle East ) – – War in Syria The Syrian upheaval has, increasingly, been fixed in a religious framework – Sunnis against the rest, writes Hakim Khatib. “Non-religious books were substituted by religious or religiously coloured ones” When the crowds of the Iranian revolution initially rose up against Muhammad […]

Counter-Terrorism

ISIL: What nonviolent steps could the US take to defeat it?

contributors

By Adil E. Shamoo | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – There may be a responsible way to fight the Islamic State, but the U.S. will have to leave its boots in the closet and the drones in the hangar. The atrocities of ISIS become more shocking every day. In June, the Iraqis exhumed […]

Afghanistan

Is al-Zawahiri’s oath to Taliban a sign al-Qaeda is finished? Will ISIL step In?

contributors

By Joanna Paraszczuk | ( RFE/ RL ) – – After almost a year of silence, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has released an audio message swearing bay'ah — an oath of allegiance — to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur, the new leader of the Taliban. Zawahri's message is in many ways another response to, and nullification of, […]

Iraq

Turkey Hit by Wave of Attacks as It Continues Mideast Military Strikes

contributors

By Anne Koopman | ( Global Voices Online) | – – At least nine people fell victim to a spate of attacks in the Turkey's largest city Istanbul and the south-eastern province Sirnak on August 10. As the country gets knee-deep in the Middle East crisis, the fear of more attacks is pervasive. Ever since […]

Apartheid

Israeli Lawmaker: Palestinians ‘preventing expansion’ of settlements

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli Knesset member this week convened a meeting to stop Palestinians from “preventing the expansion” of Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria — the biblical term used by the Israeli government for the […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Syria: Kurdish YPG Expels “bloodthirsty” ISIL “gangs” from Hasaka (VICE News)

contributors

VICE News | (Video Report) | – – “The northeastern city of Hasakah is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse in Syria. Its population of Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Christians was until recently politically divided between equal zones of Kurdish and Assad regime control. Immediately following the fall of the strategic border town […]