The United States on Thursday said that it is opposed to a Syrian role in resolving the turmoil in Iraq after the Syrian government had carried out air strikes against the militants. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is facing insurgents from Syria who are sweeping across his nation, told the BBC that the Syrian air force had, earlier in …

The University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research recently conducted a survey in seven Muslim-majority nations, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, found out that people prefer that women cover their hair, but not necessarily their face. Additionally, more than 25% of the people in Lebanon and Turkey feel that it is appropriate for women to …

By Judit Neurink SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The world is blaming the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for fighting in Iraq to set up an Islamic state, but that is not the real story, say refugees from Tikrit and Samarra, who found safety in the northern Kurdistan Region. What the world does not realize, they say, is that …

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday praised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for condemning the alleged abduction of three Israeli teenagers, but slammed the unity pact between Fatah and the Hamas. The three teens had disappeared from a popular hitchhiking spot in West Bank on June 12th, and Israel has rounded up several hundreds of Palestinians as a part of …

The United Nations on Tuesday said that over a thousand people have been killed so far this month in the militant sweep through western and northern Iraq, and that more than 75% of them civilians. At least 1,075 people have been killed, with 658 others injured by the violence in Iraq from June 5th to June 22nd, Rupert Colville, spokesman …

A suicide bomber targeted and bombed an army checkpoint at the Tayyouneh roundabout in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and at least one person was killed and twenty more were injured in the blast. Lebanon’s Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, however, said that the security situation in the country is “under control”. An army communiqué sent on Tuesday said that the …

Russia on Monday commended the “successful” completion of the international mission to ship out chemical agents in Syria, under a Russia-US brokered deal that helped avert any potential Western air strikes on the middle-eastern country. In a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, “Russia greets the successful end of a large-scale and unprecedented international operation to ship all components of chemical …

On Sunday, the Sri Lankan media, in a rare show of unity, condemned the nation’s police forces for failing to control anti-Muslim Buddhist extremists. Religious tensions continue to grow in the island-nation in the wake of riots in the south. Four people were killed, 80 were wounded and over hundreds of shops and homes were destroyed in the anti-Muslim riots …

By Robert Naiman At this writing, President Obama has neither the legal nor the political mandate to conduct airstrikes in Iraq or Syria. On Thursday night, 182 Members of the House voted yes on Representative Barbara Lee’s amendment defunding the use of the 2002 Iraq Authorization for the Use Military Force. Among those 182 Members were 151 Democrats – 81 …

The regime has abetted Sunni extremists to influence Western public opinion In the week since Al-Qaeda spinoff the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) brought Iraq back into international headlines by seizing around a third of the country in a matter of hours, there has understandably been a great deal of soul-searching and hair-pulling as to how a group …