Tag Archives: ISIS

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday warned that 2-3 million more Syrian refugees could enter the country if the Syrian city of Aleppo is overrun by either regime or extremist forces. Turkey already hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees and has repeatedly stated that it can barely support the overwhelming number of refugees. Cavusoglu also said that supporting the rebel …

Rami Khouri, on the turbulent road to democracy in the Middle East – Canadian Arab Institute There is no such thing as ‘the Arabs’ or ‘the Arab World’ says Rami Khouri, the director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs of the American University of Beirut (AUB). Instead, there are 360 million Arab people, and 22 …

An internet show created by a few students from Ottawa has picked up steam by cleverly poking fun at extremist group Islamic State (IS) and their message. They have also parodied, among other things, a well known Arabic Tide commercial, by having men play the role of traditional washerwomen. They also used their satire to target social degradation and sexual …

On Thursday, the United Nations denounced the public execution of Iraqi Human Rights lawyer Samira Saleh Al-Naimi in Mosul. She was reportedly killed by the IS in a kangaroo court after being found guilty of apostasy. “By torturing and executing a female human rights’ lawyer and activist, defending in particular the civil and human rights of her fellow citizens in …

Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman for extremist group Islamic State (IS) threatened Canada, among other Western powers, in a global call for Muslims to kill citizens of countries joining the fight against his group. In a long-winded, 42-minute audio message, he makes mentions of Canada, and said that the US-led coalition won’t defeat the IS. “If you kill a disbelieving American …

Teaming up with Assad against Islamic State is a very bad idea, writes Nehad Ismail. The beheading of the captured American journalist James Foley has focused attention on the danger posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, not just to those countries, but to the United States. The US is now considering action against ISIS’ main bases in …

The Islamic State’s stunning advances in Syria over the past month defy basic military instincts. Consider, for example, the group’s remarkable turn of fortunes in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor in recent months, where ISIS—as the group was formerly known—all but vanished in February after local rebels joined forces to batter the remaining ISIS strongholds in the province. Rebel …

The Evidence: In a response to Al Qaeda Emir Ayman al Zawahiri’s latest attempt at reconciliation with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad Al Adnani made a startling admission: Al Qaeda has ordered its fighters and branches to refrain from attacking the Iranian state in order to preserve the terror group’s network in the country. …

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 …

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 …