The various Sunni jihadist groups, in particular the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who are battling the Shia regimes in Iraq and Syria, are attempting to carve out a Sunni state in parts of both countries (and possibly also in Jordan). But this should come as little surprise. These countries are all artificial […]
This past week we saw something unprecedented in Turkey: In a landmark decision meant to curb the power of the country’s massive military establishment, a court sentenced two top former generals, army chief Kenan Evren and air force head Tahsin Sahinkaya, to life imprisonment for leading a 1980 coup that resulted in widespread torture, arrests […]
Iraq is imploding. The Sunni jihadis of the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have moved to within sight of Baghdad, while the Shi’ite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki becomes more dependent than ever on Iran. More and more, even Americans — who suffered tens of thousands of soldiers killed […]
Across a wide swath of Maghreb North Africa and the Sahel countries, the United States has assumed an old European role: combating Islamist jihadists. The situation has become worse since the overthrow of Libya’s brutal dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Many of his former mercenaries, along with their large stockpile of weapons, are now active […]
Last weekend in Paris, Jean-Marie Le Pen insulted some celebrities who had criticized the National Front’s success in the recent elections to the European parliament. When he came to the French Jewish actor and pop singer Patrick Bruel, Le Pen said “We will organize an oven for him next time.” Le Pen used the […]
We have just commemorated the 70th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the liberation of France began. But four years earlier, a defeated France had effectively become a fascist state — and it’s amazing how quick was the transformation. Within a few weeks of the country’s invasion by Nazi Germany on May 10, 1940, the […]
Burma, or Myanmar — the country is known by both names — has for decades been one of the most oppressive states in Asia, under military rule between 1962 and 2010. Part of the reason stems from its many ethnic divisions, which has made it difficult to establish democracy in this southeast Asian nation. Burma […]
In 1991, when the Soviet Union fell apart, the five central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, sometimes called the “five stans,” became sovereign states. They were all part of a largely Turkic Muslim civilization that had flourished in the region for hundreds of years, until conquered by tsarist Russia in the […]
While much of the world’s eyes were on Ukraine, and pundits were wondering about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions there, populist parties often tinged with racist and antisemitic beliefs made gains in yesterday’s elections to the European Parliament, the legislative body for the 28-member European Union. Parties strongly opposed to the European Union performed well […]
Pope Francis I was in the Middle East — Jordan, the Palestinian autonomous areas of the West Bank and Israel — on a pilgrimage this week. It was be his second trip outside Rome since becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church. To say that the church historically has had a contentious relationship with the Jewish […]