AFP | Sep 04, 2014 | JORDAN TIMES Ragheda, the wife of Lebanese soldier Sgt. Ali Sayid who was beheaded by Islamic militants, mourns as she carries their 10- month-old daughter, Rahaf, during his funeral at his hometown in Fnaydek, Akkar north Lebanon, Wednesday. Sayid went missing around the […]
By Ludovica Iaccino The insurgence of the Islamic State, previously known as Isis, is causing hundreds of deaths in Iraq and Syria. The killings perpetrated by the militants, who recently posted online videos in which they beheaded two American journalists, have prompted many people worldwide – including several Muslim institutions – to publicly condemn […]
Summary by David Ignatius, The Daily Star, Lebanon Riyadh will be a crucial, if quixotic, ally as the United States seeks to mobilize Sunni Muslims against the terrorist ISIS. For a generation, Americans and Saudis have worried that the kingdom was a potential tinderbox, with Muslim and secular extremists vying […]
BY ROBERT FISK, THE INDEPENDENT Chopping off someone’s head or sawing it off or slicing it off is about gore. Blood. Pain. Grotesquerie. Death by the blade is about shame, […]
JEDDAH: SIRAJ WAHAB Published — Saturday 30 August 2014 Saudi Arabia had not and would not support or fund criminals who have unleashed a reign of terror in many areas of the region, said Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom. Responding to an article by […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent We keep banging on about British citizens turning into Jihadists – that tired old public relations man Dave Cameron does this all the time, with his worn-out political correctness – and it’s almost impolite to say “Muslim British citizens”. But isn’t it time we said […]
“Apocalyptic.” “End-of-days strategic vision.” “Beyond anything we have ever seen.” “An imminent threat to every interest we have.” “Beyond just a terrorist group.” “We must prepare for everything.” So are they Martians? Alien invaders from Planet X? Destroyer spacecraft from the movie Independence Day? The word movie is the clue. […]
The President came the nearest he has come yet to rivalling George W Bush’s gormless reaction to 9/11 by Robert Fisk, The Indepedent The “caliphate” has some pretty tough theatrical producers. They write a bleak and savage script. Our job is now to respond to each line, and they understand […]
Caliphate of Fear: The Curse of the Islamic State By SPIEGEL Staff 2014/08/19 REUTERS Images of Yazidis fleeing parts of Iraq and Syria have shocked the world and the battle against the jihadists with the Islamic State has united Americans, Europeans, Kurds and Iranians. Can the Islamists be stopped? In […]
By: Mohammed Abboud Published Tuesday, August 19, 2014 Female doctors in the Iraqi city of Mosul are witnessing the practices of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) firsthand, since they have to maintain a closer contact with them compared to school teachers and government employees who opted to […]
Alarabiya: by Hisham Melham — Most people are averse to introspection, and rarely engage in self-criticism. Arabs are no different. However, the political culture that developed in the Arab World in the last 60 years, particularly in countries ruled by autocratic regimes, shifted blame from their catastrophic failures in governance […]
Summary The international community appears to be stepping up to the developing crisis in northern Iraq, one which the U.N. warned Wednesday had the potential to descend into “genocide”. The U.S. is launching airstrikes against ISIS militants, as well as, with other countries, dropping much-needed humanitarian aid for the starving […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent In the Middle East, the first shots of every war define the narrative we all dutifully follow. So too, this greatest crisis since the last greatest crisis in Iraq. Christians fleeing for their lives? Save them. Yazidis starving on the mountain tops? Give them food. […]
After all the warnings and all the clichés about a war that would “spill” over Syria’s border, the savage fighters of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Sunni Muslim “caliphate” have at last […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent For three years, the Arab revolutions cast “Palestine” and Palestinians to the fringe of memory in the Middle East. And now the new bloodbath in […]
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Sunday, 27 July 2014 The mayor of the southern Iraqi province of Thi Qar has cancelled celebrations for the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr […]
The vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq has warned the end for Christians in the country appears “very near” as he appealed for help after a deadline set […]
The vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq has warned the end for Christians in the country appears “very near” as he appealed for help after a deadline set […]
Former Chief of General Staff is damning of the British Government’s policy in Iraq and Syria, saying that it helped to sustain civil wars by unleashing forces it did not understand nor were easy to control and warns of similar risks in Afghanistan after Nato troops leave. Lord David Richards […]
Summary The exodus of Christians from the jihadist-controlled city of Mosul has stirred controversy in Christian and Muslim communities alike in Lebanon, with social media having big role in the backlash. Through mosques’ loudspeakers, the radical Sunni group gave Christians in Mosul the choice to either convert to Islam, pay […]