Arab World

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The West continues its strong political and military support to one of its longstanding allies in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia –- despite withering criticism of the kingdom’s battlefield excesses in the ongoing war in neighbouring Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition […]

Featured

Daesh/ ISIL carries off 400 Women & Children from Deir al-Zor to a fate worse than Death

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Sunday attacked an isolated outpost of the Syrian Arab Army in a few neighborhoods in the north of the city of Deir al-Zor, which are surrounded by Daesh from every side. The SAA also still controls a military airfield just north of […]

Iraq

Iraq: Ethnic Fighting endangers Civilians; now it’s Kurds and Shiites

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Kurdish and Shia Turkmen armed groups have repeatedly harmed and endangered civilians in clashes in Iraq’s Tuz Khurmatu district, in Salah al-Din province, since October 2015. The armed groups have killed, wounded, and abducted civilians and destroyed scores, if not hundreds, of homes and shops. “Some of […]

Arab Spring

Five years on, Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution continues from the ground up

contributors

By Adnan Saif | (The Conversation) | – – Tunisians are marking five years since the culmination of their “Jasmine Revolution”. Since its longtime authoritarian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced out of office in January 2011, Tunisia has been embarking on a long transition to constitutional democracy – a transation that, although […]

Assyrians

For Iraqi Minorities, ‘Immigration No Longer A Choice, It’s Inevitable’

contributors

By Saad Salloum | Baghdad| (Niqash.org) | – – In an interview, Raad Jabar al-Khamis, a representative of the Christian Sabean-Mandaean minority, talks about why all minorities in Iraq will leave the country over the next decade. Raad Jabar al-Khamis has held many senior political positions on behalf of Iraq’s Sabean-Mandaean minority. The Sabean-Mandaeans are […]

Arab World

How a Medieval Muslim thinker invented Sociology

contributors

Stephen Dale/ Joseph Preville/ Julie Harbin | (ISLAMICommentary) | – – Column » ‘By the Book’ with Joseph Preville by JOSEPH RICHARD PREVILLE and JULIE POUCHER HARBIN for ISLAMiCommentary on JANUARY 7, 2016: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was a colossus among Muslim scholars. Stephen Frederic Dale gives us a portrait of this extraordinary man in his […]

Arab Spring

The Fifth Anniversary of Arab Uprisings: A Turning point in Modern History?

contributors

By Farhang Jahanpour | (Informed Comment) | – – The tumultuous developments that have rocked the Arab world and have come to be known as the Arab Spring resulted in the toppling of the first Arab ruler on 14 January 2011, exactly five years ago today. The Arab revolutions have not turned out as expected, […]

Displaced and Refugees

Once Auctioned, What to Do with Syrian Refugees?

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – MADRID, Jan 12 2016 (IPS) – Few months ago, an unprecedented “humanitarian auction” was opened in Brussels at the European Commission, shortly after watching the image of the three-year old Syrian child that the sea threw up on the Turkish shores. The “auction” was about […]

Saudi Arabia

Prince of Araby: The reckless power behind the Saudi throne

contributors

By Susan de Muth | ( OpenDemocracy) | – – King Salman’s son Mohammad seems to be piloting Saudi Arabia into a series of ever more risky adventures. In the past year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has abandoned the cautious fence-sitting that long characterised its diplomatic style in favour of an unprecedented, hawkish antagonism. […]