As scenes of jubilation in Sunni cities coupled with fear and calls for jihad in Shia cities show how deep and explosive sectarian divisions are in Iraq, should Kurds be forced to stay on?
The influential nationalist-modernist ideology once attracted religious-sectarian support. Today that process is over, as the latter forces reclaim their older identities.
The squeeze between Iraqi, Syrian and international forces and the conflict between armed groups in the region is the gamble that the Islamic State has made. In return for this gamble, global jihadist recruitment from an ever growing list of nationalities and pledges of allegiance are the prizes.
Israel's conflict with Hamas highlights its close partnership with the United States over missile defence. But it also deepens Washington's regional worries over Syria, Iraq, Hizbollah, and Iran.
The growth of ISIS is hardly violence in a vacuum. Despite the rapid onset of historical amnesia, America must face up to its post-occupation legacy in Iraq.
Those internally displaced by the ISIS takeover in Iraq may seek refuge in KRG territory, but there future is uncertain as decisions are made about whom will be included in an independent Kurdistan.
Ayatollah Sistani’s fatwa, urging collective responsibility for Iraq’s religious sites, has been variously construed as a Shi’i mobilization campaign or a nationalist call to arms. But beneath the fatwa’s surface lie deeper roots: the very ruptures and fissures that plague Iraq’s Shi’is.
ISIL's planners are looking beyond the military stalemate in Iraq. In this context, Israel's attacks on Gaza are a gift to the movement.
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week: Syrian refugees in Turkey: “They are everywhere”.
Decades of corrupt and authoritarian governments in the region which brutally suppressed both secular opposition and moderate Islamists have created the breeding ground for a more nihilist ideology.
Power within Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, is a spectrum of forces from ISIS, Ba’athist elements and Sunni tribes, among others. How is this tenuous assortment of power connecting and coordinating in the running of the city?
An unlikely alliance of four states is coalescing to oppose the ISIS advance in Iraq. But the group may not wait to be challenged.
