By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a bid completely to return the Middle East to the old system of strict government media censorship, four countries have demanded that Qatar close down the Aljazeera television channel. Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates made the demands formally via Kuwait, which […]
Archives for June 2017
Can the Sadr Movement in Iraq overcome Sectarianism with new Shiite-Sunni-Kurdish Party?
By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | ( Niqash.org) | – – One of Iraq’s most powerful political groupings, the Sadrist movement, is trying to form a new alliance that may unite secular, Sunni and Kurdish parties. It would be a first for Iraq. But it could also be a trap. The Sadrist movement has had […]
Was ISIL’s destruction of Mosul’s Nuri Mosque Grand Strategy?
By Benjamin Isakhan and Jose Antonio Gonzalez Zarandona | (The Conversation) | – – On June 29 2014 – nearly three years ago to the day – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the pulpit at the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul in northern Iraq. He announced the creation of a new Islamic State that stretched […]
What will Happen when Trump’s Dupes Find Out?
By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Forgive me for complaining, but recent decades have not been easy ones for my peeps. I am from birth a member of the WHAM tribe, that once proud, but now embattled conglomeration of white, heterosexual American males. We have long been — there’s no denying […]
In Apocalyptic Vandalism, ISIL blows up 800-year-old Nuri Mosque in Mosul
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – al-Hayat (Life) reports that on Wednesday evening around 9:30 pm local time, Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) blew up the Nuri Mosque in Mosul. The destruction of the 800-year-old edifice was undertaken at a time when Iraqi government troops were closing in on this area in Mosul’s Old […]
All Signs from Trump Point to a Coming Conflict with Iran
By John Feffer | Foreign Policy in Focus | – – Behind all of Trump’s boneheaded policies in the Middle East is an unmistakable urge for confrontation with Iran. The Saudi war in Yemen is really directed at…Iran. Donald Trump’s first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel was specifically targeted at…Iran. The Saudi-led isolation […]
What to do when anti-Muslim Hate Speech now passes the Dinner Table Test?
By Chris Allen | (The Conversation) | – – On hearing the news that Darren Osborne was arrested for terror offences including attempted murder following an attack on a group of Muslims near the Finsbury Park Mosque, it would have been easy to jump to the conclusion that the act was motivated by far-right ideologies. […]
Will New Crown Prince in Riyadh Usher in Open Saudi-Israeli Alliance?
TeleSur | – – The young Saudi king-in-waiting has been hailed as a “modernizer” for his open support of normalizing ties with the Israeli occupation, first and foremost. The Gulf Arab “game of thrones” took a dramatic turn Tuesday in Riyadh with the sudden ousting of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and the issuance […]
The Millennial’s Palace Coup in Saudi Arabia: How Dangerous?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The epic battle in the Trump White House between Jared Kushner, the Orthodox Jewish son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, the alt-NeoNazi White House strategist, is hard to top. But Saudi Arabia just topped it? Saudi Arabia just topped it. King Salman just fired the crown prince and […]
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