Shiites

By Farhang Morady, University of Westminster The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that his country’s campaign in Iran “could certainly” lead to regime change. In an interview with Fox News on June 15, he called the government in Tehran “very weak” and added that, given the opportunity, “80% of the [Iranian] people would […]

Featured

Iraqi Shiites Demand Expulsion of US Troops after Israel Attacks Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli-Iranian War of 2025 has put Iraq in an extremely difficult situation. The country’s Shiite majority sympathizes with Iran and with the Palestinians, and resents Israel’s use of Iraqi airspace to attack their Shiite neighbor. On Sunday the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Soudani met with Thomas Seiler, the […]

Alawites

Syria: End Coastal Killing Spree, Protect Civilians

Human Rights Watch

Summary Executions, Indiscriminate Shootings, Outrages on Personal Dignity. ( Human Rights Watch – (New York) – Summary executions and other atrocities have taken place in Syria’s coastal region following insurgent attacks on Syrian security forces and during subsequent government security operations, with the Alawite community bearing the brunt of the violence, Human Rights Watch said today. […]

Alawites

Shiite Latakia Falls to new Syrian Government, as Sheikhs call for Reconciliation and Recruits are Pardoned

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday, the Levant Liberation Council (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham/ HTS) guerrilla forces extended their rule to Latakia, Syria’s major port, in the northwest of the country. One Syrian source maintained that there was an uprising of anti-Assad Alawites in Latakia, and that HTS rebels had not entered the city. Other […]

Featured

How Biden inherited the War with an Iraqi Shiite Militia from Bush, Trump and Netanyahu

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The “Party of God Brigades” (Kata’ib Hizbullah) of Iraq struck the Tower 22 US military base in the far north of Jordan on the border with Syria on Sunday, killing three US military personnel and wounding dozens more. The Shiite militia said that it was part of its continued attempt […]

Iran

Muslims and Jews: Remembering Jewish School Days in Pre-Revolutionary Tehran

Nassrine Azimi

( The Chukogu Shimbun ) – HIROSHIMA —The elegant art deco building of Ettefagh, Iran’s famous Jewish school, still stands on a leafy avenue adjacent to Tehran University. Originally established by prominent Iraqis who had settled in Iran following Jewish pogroms and expulsions of the 1940s and early 50s in Iraq, Ettefagh started as a […]

Christianity

A Merry Muslim Christmas from India’s Hyderabad, c. 1630: Jesus, the Dutch, and Diamonds

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The nativity of the Christ child is not solely an occasion of Christian spirituality, but has been celebrated through the ages by Muslim writers and painters, as well. As I have pointed out, the story of the Annunciation and the birth of Jesus is told in the Qur’an: Verses 19:17-35: […]

Iraq

How Popular Music Videos encouraged Iraqi Shiites to Resist ISIL Terrorism

The Conversation

By Benjamin Isakhan, Deakin University; and Ali Akbar, The University of Melbourne | – Almost a decade ago, the Sunni jihadist network known as the “Islamic State” (IS) declared the formation of an Islamic Caliphate after they captured the Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014. In response, tens of thousands of Shia men joined […]

Bahrain

Saudi Arabia Executes Two Shia Bahrainis on Terrorism Charges in “Grossly Unfair” Trial

Human Rights Watch

By Leila Saad | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – Two Bahraini Shi’a men have been executed in Saudi Arabia following what Amnesty International described as a “grossly unfair trial” on terrorism-related charges. Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer were arrested in May 2015 and held incommunicado for more than three months, according to Amnesty International. […]