President Obama Addresses the Nation on the ISIL Threat

President Obama Addresses the Nation on the ISIL Threat

    Thursday, September 11, 2014   No comments

 Transcript: President Obama's Speech on Combating ISIL and news and analysis follow.

Professor fired for Israel criticism urges University of Illinois to reinstate him

Professor fired for Israel criticism urges University of Illinois to reinstate him

    Wednesday, September 10, 2014   No comments

Steven Salaita, a university professor whose appointment at the University of Illinois was withdrawn last month after he was critical of Israel on Twitter, spoke publicly for the first time on Tuesday, saying he should be reinstated on the grounds of academic freedom.

“I am a passionate advocate for equality, a fair and open-minded instructor, and highly collegial. No legitimate evidence exists for any claims or insinuations to the contrary, which have severely damaged any reputation and my prospects for future employment,” he said.

Salaita, a former tenured professor of English at Virginia Tech, accepted a faculty appointment at the University of Illinois in October 2013 to teach in the American Indian Studies program starting January 2014. But his appointment was revoked in early August, after Salaita posted to Twitter several messages criticising Israel.

Qatar and political power is leveraged by media and Islamism

Qatar and political power is leveraged by media and Islamism

    Monday, September 08, 2014   No comments

Qatar and political power is leveraged by media and Islamism

CAIRO — Standing at the front of a conference hall in Doha, the visiting sheikh told his audience of wealthy Qataris that to help the battered residents of Syria, they should not bother with donations to humanitarian programs or the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.

“Give your money to the ones who will spend it on jihad, not aid,” implored the sheikh, Hajaj al-Ajmi, recently identified by the United States government as a fund-raiser for Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.

Qatar is a tiny, petroleum-rich Persian Gulf monarchy where the United States has its largest military base in the Middle East. But for years it has tacitly consented to open fund-raising by Sheikh Ajmi and others like him. After his pitch, which he recorded in 2012 and which still circulates on the Internet, a sportscaster from the government-owned network, Al Jazeera, lauded him. “Sheikh Ajmi knows best” about helping Syrians, the sportscaster, Mohamed Sadoun El-Kawary, declared from the same stage.

You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia

You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia

    Sunday, September 07, 2014   No comments

The dramatic arrival of Da'ish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed -- and horrified -- by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabia's ambivalence in the face of this manifestation both troubling and inexplicable, wondering, "Don't the Saudis understand that ISIS threatens them, too?"

It appears -- even now -- that Saudi Arabia's ruling elite is divided. Some applaud that ISIS is fighting Iranian Shiite "fire" with Sunni "fire"; that a new Sunni state is taking shape at the very heart of what they regard as a historical Sunni patrimony; and they are drawn by Da'ish's strict Salafist ideology.

Other Saudis are more fearful, and recall the history of the revolt against Abd-al Aziz by the Wahhabist Ikhwan (Disclaimer: this Ikhwan has nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan -- please note, all further references hereafter are to the Wahhabist Ikhwan, and not to the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan), but which nearly imploded Wahhabism and the al-Saud in the late 1920s.

Many Saudis are deeply disturbed by the radical doctrines of Da'ish (ISIS) -- and are beginning to question some aspects of Saudi Arabia's direction and discourse.

Eleven Planes Missing From Tripoli Airport After It Was Taken by Islamic Rebels

Eleven Planes Missing From Tripoli Airport After It Was Taken by Islamic Rebels

    Thursday, September 04, 2014   No comments

ISR; Libya: Here is what happened when NATO and Qatar used their resources to overthrow the Libyan dictator without a plan for the day after.

Not that Syria is much better, but this could be Syria too if Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the so-called "Friends of Syria" had their way and bombed the Syrian regime last September; the caliph of ISIL would have reclaimed the seat of the caliphate of the Umayyads and he would have an air force that extends his reach to first seat of the caliphate: Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

 Libyan Islamist rebels pose with planes seized from Tripoli airport as U.S. officials warn they could be used to carry out terrorist attack on 9/11 anniversary

Libya in Chaos: Vijay Prashad on Rise of Islamist Militias & Bloody Legacy of 2011 U.S. Intervention

Libya in Chaos: Vijay Prashad on Rise of Islamist Militias & Bloody Legacy of 2011 U.S. Intervention

    Wednesday, September 03, 2014   No comments

Islamist militants in Libya say they have solidified control of the capital Tripoli after taking over the main airport and ousting rival militias. Libya is facing its worst violence since the U.S.-backed ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. To talk more about Libya, we are joined by Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College. He is the author of several books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Islamist militants in Libya say they’ve solidified control of the capital Tripoli after taking over the main airport and ousting rival militias. Libya is facing its worst violence since the U.S.-backed ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

To talk more about Libya, we’re joined by Vijay Prashad in part two of our interview. Professor of international studies at Trinity College, he’s the author of a number of books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter and his most recent, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Vijay. Talk about what’s happening in Libya today.

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To impose their wahhabi interpretation of Islam, Saudi rulers, following the footsteps of ISIL, could destroy the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad and remove his body to an anonymous grave

To impose their wahhabi interpretation of Islam, Saudi rulers, following the footsteps of ISIL, could destroy the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad and remove his body to an anonymous grave

    Tuesday, September 02, 2014   No comments

Abd al-Wahhab

One of Islam’s most revered holy sites – the tomb of the Prophet Mohamed – could be destroyed and his body removed to an anonymous grave under plans which threaten to spark discord across the Muslim world.

The controversial proposals are part of a consultation document by a leading Saudi academic which has been circulated among the supervisors of al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque in Medina, where the remains of the Prophet are housed under the Green Dome, visited by millions of pilgrims and venerated as Islam’s second-holiest site. The formal custodian of the mosque is Saudi Arabia’s ageing monarch King Abdullah.