Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Waiting for a good piece on the concert attack in Russia. A quick thought: If IS did carry out the attack, was it because it hated the ‘Russian way of life’ and ‘Russian values’? Russia is not run by a ‘Shi’a’ regime and ISIS-K has been killing ‘Sunnis’ in Afghanistan – bombing even mosques. Some liberal sometime provide clues : “ Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K ‘sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims’. He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.” Think Afghanistan. Think Chechnya. Think Syria …and Russian involvement in other countries. Think Wagner.

 “He was only Isis because he had to accept the reality,” said Ayad of the herder who had pointed him to an underground bonanza. “He wanted a cut too. The spoils of war are fair game.” The search of IS’s hidden loot

A homage to the inspirational women of Raqqa

“The insurgents are primarily Muslims from the coastal zone of Cabo Delgado, recruited by local fundamentalist preachers with a basically socialist message - that Sharia, or Islamic law, would bring equality and everyone would share in the coming resource wealth.“ A Peasant Uprising Related Jihadists and the curse of gas and rubies in Mozambique

"Notably, the international community and particularly western powers, which were originally sympathetic to Syria's  Arab Spring , accepted the Syrian regime as the lesser evil and gradually abandoned the opposition." Assad's strategic use of ISIL  

A historian with an Islamophobic approach and poor historiography, and a journalist with good arguments, but a partial take.  Lacking in Osborne's perpective is violence in historical "Islam". There is no "Islam, religion of peace" or violent "Islam". There is historical Islam with both peace and violence like historical Christianity, Hinduism, "capitalist democracy", etc. "No, Channel 4: Islam is not responsible for the Islamic State"

The secret life of young IS fighters

"IS might find itself being pushed back militarily, but its logics are not only still firmly intact, they are being bolstered by the very forces that allegedly seek to destroy them. And it's the logics, beyond videos on internet sites or radical preachers, that are visible for almost everyone in the world to see - to Muslims, they are even more striking. IS is a product of counter-revolution - an active symptom of savage destruction of hope. If the Arab revolutions represented progressive antagonism towards a regional order determined by the brutal denial of basic liberties, IS are fed by the brutal backlash against this." Inetresting to read, but the healine is not

" British interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan were disastrous and created resentment among many Arabs and Muslims - as does leaving Bashar al-Assad to drop barrel bombs and use chemical weapons against innocent civilians.   But Libya was different. It was a popular uprising. It was a civilian revolution and not a religious one. Britain was willing to support us because it was in line with their ‘foreign policy’ at the time. We also weren't linked to groups like al-Qaeda.  I say "at the time" because many of us who fought are upset that Britain continues to support General Haftar, who has been condemned by leading rights group, including Amnesty International, for committing a series of war crimes." And here is what the Telegraph reported in February :  " Gen Haftar, who  enjoys strong backing from Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's government in Egypt, is seen by some as a potential secular “strong man” ruler who could re-establish some degree of securit

Not heroes, but monsters

  A few interesting things in this narrative ,   but why does it avoid to mention the global capitalist system as the context?

Minor news items do not appear on the BBC fronpage Or When the objective is part of a supreme civilisational mission, collateral damage is worth it. Mistakes happen! Let's remember that we have to terrorize the terrorists there so that they don't kill us in the West.

After all, big business worked with Hitler. "War is terrible, but is also terribly profitable." The tip of the ice-berg: Lafarge as an example

Syria: the ground zero for a new world order

They make this "finding" look like a surprise. They conclude their finding with an already-bankrupt solution.  What do ordinary citizens in the Arab world really think about the Islamic State?

British imperialism's realism "Assad and rebels should join forces against IS: UK parliamentary committee"