Category: Opinion

By: Simon Tisdall Despite Russia blocking attempts to investigate Assad’s war crimes, there are glimmers of hope  The final unravelling of the Islamic State’s evil caliphate exerts a horrible fascination. The jihadis committed many appalling crimes in Syria and Iraq – exploiting the chaos caused by the Syrian civil war – and were responsible, directly or indirectly, […]

While Iran’s leaders demonize America, their children study here in US Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, has described the United States as a “threat to the entire world.” But his daughter Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani is safe in Ohio, where she recently completed the first year of her residency in internal medicine. In relative obscurity, […]

The torture victim stood in front of her tormentor wondering what treatment would be meted out this time in the notorious Branch 215, also known as Raid Brigade run by military intelligence in Damascus. Would it be a merciless beating or would it be another sex assault on her already broken body? OPINIONThe start of […]

White supremacy and Hindu nationalism have common roots going back to the 19th-century idea of the ‘Aryan race’. Over the last few years, especially after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election, we have been witnessing the normalisation, and rise, of a white-supremacist, ultranationalist brand of right-wing politics across Europe and the United States. While the shift towards extreme […]

Muslims across the world persecuted, abused and murdered by Muslim and non-Muslim regimes. by Hamid Dabashi What is happening to Muslims around the globe? In China they are put into concentration camps, in Myanmar they are slaughtered en masse, in Indiathey have been the targets of systematic pogroms, in Israel along with Christian Palestinians they are mowed down on a daily basis, […]

Sun 08 September 2019: Iran’s pro-Palestinian mask has been slipping over the past 15 years. On the last Friday of every Ramadan since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution, Iran has had huge rallies to oppose Zionism and the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and surrounding holy lands of historical Palestine. These demonstrations have been given official […]

*SOME ANALYSTS THINK THAT HISTORICAL LEGACY CAN STILL BE EXPLOITED. A 2007 REPORT BY THE RAND CORP., A U.S. THINK TANK, ADVISED WESTERN GOVERNMENTS TO “HARNESS” SUFISM, SAYING ITS ADHERENTS WERE “NATURAL ALLIES OF THE WEST.* In recent years, the dominant image of islam in the minds of many Westerners has been one loaded with […]

by Leonid Issaev The US shouldn’t count on Russia to force Iran out of Syria any time soon. Speculation about tensions in Russian-Iranian relations after the collapse of the nuclear deal earlier this year has been circulating for a few months now. Tehran appears to be fearing a “betrayal”, as Moscow is trying to negotiate with […]

by Ruqaya Izzidien Growing up in Britain, I knew nothing of the many crimes the British Empire had committed against my Iraqi ancestors. If you grew up in Britain, like me, you probably would not be able to recall being taught anything substantial about British colonial history in school. The British curriculum dedicates plenty of […]

by Sisonke Msimang Donald Trump’s endorsement has hurt white nationalists and their attempt to garner support in South Africa. Donald Trump’s comments referring to “large scale killings” of white farmers in South Africa last week may have mobilised the lunatic fringe in America and served the US president’s narrow racist interests, but in South Africa, they backfired […]