Terrorism

By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq | – Officials and eyewitnesses say Islamic State (IS) militants have burned at least three people alive in Iraq’s western Anbar Province. The victims, residents of an area near the town of Hit, some 200 kilometers west of Baghdad, were suspected of informing Iraqi security forces about the militants’ movements. […]

Bush

Is ISIL’s ‘Shock and Awe’ more Awe-ful because One Victim?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) burning of a captured Jordanian pilot alive produced justified revulsion globally, resulting in the terrorist organization being termed “barbarous” and similar epithets. Why did it behave this way? Because it wants to terrify its opponents into submission and underline that it is too […]

Bashar al-Assad

Paying the Piper: How America’s Iraq War haunts its Failed Syria Policy

contributors

By Michael MacDonald, author of Overreach: Delusions of Regime Change in Iraq | (Special to Informed Comment | – If recent reports in the New York Times are to be believed, the Obama administration just got serious about the political realities gripping Syria and Iraq. Up to this point, the US has sought, for reasons […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Why is Fox News Propagandist-in-Chief for ISIL/Daesh Atrocities?

contributors

John Iadarola, Jimmy Dore, and Desi Doyen | The Young Turks | – “Fox News has chosen to embed on its website the video of Islamic State burning a hostage to death, a move which makes them the only US media organisation to broadcast the video in full. The extremely graphic 22-minute video shows Muadh […]

Featured

Angry Jordanian Crowds Rally over ISIL Murder of Pilot, but some blame US, King

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Jordanian protesters came out in the thousands on Tuesday to protest the gruesome murder by Daesh (ISIL, ISIL) of a captured Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasasbeh. He was from the central Jordanian town of Karak (pop. 70,000), 87 miles south of the capital of Amman, and crowds came out […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

What Really Caused the Paris Killings? (Gilbert Achcar Interview)

contributors

Gilbert Achcar/ Ahmed Shawki | (Socialist Worker) Interview: Gilbert Achcar, SOAS In the aftermath of the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris and the wave of repression and Islamophobia that followed, Achcar talked to Ahmed Shawki in late January about the questions the left in France and internationally need to answer to organize […]

Iraq

The Other Sinjar Massacre: As Iraq’s ISIL driven Back, Reprisals against Sunni Collaborators

contributors

Khales Joumah | Mosul | (Niqash.org) – As extremists from the Islamic State group are slowly driven out of northern Iraq, members of one of the groups that suffered at their hands – the Yazidis – began to take revenge on locals they say collaborated with them. This week several villages were looted and burned […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

After Charlie Hebdo: How Will Europe Deal with Islam and Muslims?

contributors

By Neslihan Çevik | (Daily Sabah) – After the tragic Charlie Hebdo massacre, it seems that Europe has several options regarding its policies on Islam and Muslims. Among them, the easiest option is to maximize security precautions in order to exercise absolute control over Muslims If 9/11 was the start of a moral panic in […]

Cartoon

Fast Times at ISIS High: What Terrorists Want to Teach your Children (Taiwan Spoof)

contributors

Taiwanese Animators | (ISISville Series) – “Welcome to ISISville! The animated series that examines life under the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant! You’ve read the headlines. So you know ISIS is growing in power as the terrorist organization murders thousands of innocent Muslims as it tightens its stranglehold on parts of Iraq and […]