Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

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 […]

Kurds expel ISIL/Daesh from Syria’s Kobane after months of fighting

contributors

Rita Daou | Your Middle East Kurds expel Islamic State group from Syria’s Kobane after months of fighting Banner Icon War in Syria Kurdish fighters have expelled Islamic State group militants from inside the Syrian border town of Kobane, a monitor said Monday, dealing a key symbolic blow to the jihadists’ ambitions. The Syrian Observatory […]

Displaced and Refugees

Angelina Jolie in Iraq: Int’l Community Failing Refugees from ISIL Brutality

contributors

Associated Press | — “Actress and director Angelina Jolie is calling on the international community to do more to aid refugees displaced by fighting in Iraq and Syria. The UN special envoy for refugees visited a camp in Iraq Sunday, saying that despite good intentions, “the international community has failed …” Angelina Jolie Visits Refugees […]

Iraq

Ragtag Kurdish Forces Face ISIL assaults at ‘The Kobani of Iraq’

contributors

By Shalaw Mohammed | Kirkuk | (Niqash.org) — NIQASH visits the northern Iraqi town of Kharabaroot, near Kirkuk, which has become the frontline for fighting between Iraqi Kurdish military and extremists from the Islamic State group. The Kurdish forces there come from Iran, Syria and Iraq and because of this, and because of the length […]

Iraq

Iraqi Shiites, Fuming over Slow US Fight against ISIL, threaten to Revoke Agreement

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) – Four months have passed since the US began to work with an international alliance to confront the threat of the extremist group, the Islamic State, in Iraq. Yet for many locals, there don’t seem to be any obvious results. The Islamic State, or IS, group still has […]

Iraq

US Mission Creep in Iraq, Part Deux

contributors

By Peter Van Buren | (Tomdispatch.com) — The current American war in Iraq is a struggle in search of a goal. It began in August as a humanitarian intervention, morphed into a campaign to protect Americans in-country, became a plan to defend the Kurds, followed by a full-on crusade to defeat the new Islamic State […]

France

Hezbollah’s Surprising Denunciation of Paris Attacks: is it Courting the West?

contributors

By Rola El-Husseini | (Special to Informed Comment) In a speech in Beirut on January 9, 2014, on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared that killings and beheadings by “takfiris” (excommunicators) are more harmful to Islam than are cartoons or books mocking the Prophet. This was […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Muslim Hero Lassana Bathily Saved Jewish Hostages in Paris

contributors

WotchitGeneralNews | — “At a kosher supermarket in Paris, a quick-thinking Muslim employee hides several Jewish shoppers in the basement before sneaking out to brief police on the hostage-taker upstairs. In the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, a poker-faced businessman fools a pair of gunmen into believing they’re alone in the building before being allowed to leave […]

Islam

What Black & White thinking misses about ISIS/Daesh & why it Matters to us All

contributors

By Neslihan Çevik | (Daily Sabah) — To combat radicalism, EU countries should avoid considering an increased interest in the origins and nature of Islam as a sign of potential radicalization, while Muslim states should encourage the youth to analytically inquire about their religion and systematically reject radical Islamism based on that inquiry Debates on […]