In fairness, the Shi'i mujtahids are no intellectual slouches, the programs in Qom and Najaf take decades to complete and are incredibly demanding. No doubt it was all a bit too much for Moqtada.
ISIS in Iraq and Syria
- Thread starter Suli
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In fairness, the Shi'i mujtahids are no intellectual slouches, the programs in Qom and Najaf take decades to complete and are incredibly demanding. No doubt it was all a bit too much for Moqtada.
So its true he has no accreditation from Qom and Najaf?
Not officially, no. Though unfortunately a large number of Iraqis are stupid enough to follow him simply because he's the son of the late reverred Muhammad Bakir Al-Sadr.
Thanks for reply. In regards to comments from others, I don't think you're being sectarian in this thread
Thanks for reply. In regards to comments from others, I don't think you're being sectarian in this thread
I appreciate that, reassuring to hear. Thought I was going mad with the accusations.
Thanks for reply. In regards to comments from others, I don't think you're being sectarian in this thread
Judging from his posts, @Kaos is a pretty typical/classical Arab/Kurdish secularist of a type that has completely gone out of fashion in the Middle East since the late 60s. I would guess his heroes are the likes of Nasser and George Habash (a Sunni and Christian respectively).
That's an impressively accurate assessment
Not completely sure about it going out of fashion. Politically yes, but I'd put that down largely to the collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the secular Pan-Arab movement it used to prop up, as well as the wars which have created power vacuums for Islamists to fill.
That's an impressively accurate assessment
Not completely sure about it going out of fashion. Politically yes, but I'd put that down largely to the collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the secular Pan-Arab movement it used to prop up, as well as the wars which have created power vacuums for Islamists to fill.
Yeah I meant politically. Guys like that have no pull anymore. You can blame the West for undermining the Arab nationalists and socialists everywhere, and you'd have a point. But the pan-Arab movement was dead in all but name after 67. It is also the case that secular/socialist regimes in the Middle East completely failed to fulfill their promises, some land reform and women's rights aside. Most of those regimes (Nasser's Egypt and to a greater extent the Ba'th in Syria and Iraq, etc.) were ruthless police states intruding into every facet of peoples' lives, sewing distrust between neighbours, arguing among themselves, losing territory to Israel, and generally making violence the ultimate arbiter in society. Given that liberalism had previously been completely discredited by its association with the colonial-backed regimes, it's hardly surprising that people turned to religion is it?
Hard to disagree with much there, the downfall of the pan Arab-states were definitely the ill-fated wars with Israel, backstabbing amongst Ba'athi usurpers, and a pretty ghastly police-state setup in many countries. Nevertheless I'd argue that the increasing autocracy behind many of these secular regimes were a result of the West increasingly undermining them, covertly supporting internal coups and power struggles which must have cultivated a real sense of paranoia and hence the tightening of freedoms.
Nevetheless religion was and is definitely not the solution. If anything its turned the region back decades with theocratic leaders imposing medieval customs on their civilians. Just compare the photos of Baghdad, Kabul and Cairo in the 50s-70s compared to what they are today to get a real sense of how much they've deteriorated. A reliable benchmark is a how a nation treats its women, tragically their situation has become horrific since the theocrats have taken the realm. Its reasons like these why I back the Syrian regime over the alternatives, not some form of sectarian inclination.
I suspect that once people of the middle east and NA see religious statehood for what it is, we'll see a resurgence of secular principles.
Russian Air Force destroys 20 ISIS tanks near Palmyra – Defense Ministry (VIDEOS)
Interesting how the Russians seem to have created a higher sense of panic amongst IS militants in 3 days than the West has in about 2 years.
Interesting how the Russians seem to have created a higher sense of panic amongst IS militants in 3 days than the West has in about 2 years.
Islamic State blows up iconic Arch of Triumph in Palmyra
Oct 5, 2015
Militants continue their assault on one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world
Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
A partial view of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra
Islamic State militants have reportedly destroyed the iconic Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, the latest in a series of attacks on the ancient Syrian city.
Syrian chief of antiquities Maamoun Abdulkarim confirmed that militants had blown up the monument, which is believed to be about 2,000 years old. "It's a crime in every sense of the word," he told The Guardian. "All we can do is share the sadness."
Palmyra is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is considered to be one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. It was seized by the terrorist group earlier this year and militants have systematically destroyed ancient structures and artefacts they believe are "un-Islamic".
Unesco has described the attacks as war crimes and warns that the terrorists are engaged in the most brutal destruction of ancient sites since the Second World War.
Abdulkarim reports that their attacks are no longer ideologically driven, as militants are blowing up buildings with no religious meaning. "It is now wanton destruction," he said. "The city is doomed."
This is depressing.
A big difference between 'throwing rockets at them' to 'giving guns to them'.
Proof that their ISIS tanks, not FSA tanks and that Russia have actually hit a single ISIS target?
Or do we believe verbatim what RT/the Kremlin's mouthpiece says?
When have Russia ever had a track record of fabrication and false propaganda???????????
Vile scumbags..bloody vermin should be eradicated like the pests they are.
You have as much proof as the west gives. Rest depends on what you choose to believe. But the fact that religious extremists were forced to abandon religious prayers might be an indication that they're at the receiving end.
.
True, and another factor of course is/was the structural weakness of the post-Ottoman states themselves. Although the conspiratorial politics we're talking about has its origins going back to the late Ottoman period - the opposition to the despotic Sultan Abdulhamid II and rise of the Young Turks.
I think we can be fairly certain where Russia has bombed and knowing the situation on the ground we know thats not areas that have been presumed to be IS strongholds.
Now maybe with the Syrian's eyes on the ground they have a better idea of where IS is than we do, or maybe their indiscriminately targeting Assad's opponents and have no interest whatsoever in 'destroying IS' anymore than they do any of the more moderate groups opposed to Assad.
But either way, blindly believing an RT report designed with the specific intention of getting public support in the West for their raids is ridiculous.
100%, but attacking them and ignoring the atrocities committed by Assad will only aid their cause.
@Kaos has 666 posts in this thread. I think that says everything.
Up the Irons!
Unfortunately I think the Islamist wave is going to have to be rode out rather than defeated, hopefully there'll be something left behind after that happens.
Btw, did you ever see this video of Nasser mocking the Muslim Brotherhood back in the day?
Incredible to think that this guy was probably the most popular Arab leader in modern history, and would have won any free election in a landslide if he'd allowed them. Yet now he'd be lynched in the street for coming out with this stuff.
This is coming from the same lot that said they didn't have troops in eastern Ukraine.
Nothing would happen, they even violate US air space in Alaska and a few countries in Europe.
WikiLeaks cables shed light on US foreign policy failures
Consider Syria, which is dominating the international news because of increased Russian military intervention as well as a surge of some 500,000 refugees from the region arriving in Europe.
Why has it taken so long for Washington to even begin — yes, it is unfortunately just beginning — to reconsider the policy of requiring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to agree to resign before any meaningful negotiations can take place?
After all, any diplomat could have told the White House that demanding the political suicide of one party to a civil war as a condition for negotiations is not how civil wars end. Practically speaking, this policy has been a commitment to indefinite warfare.
The answer can be found in diplomatic communications released by WikiLeaks, which show that regime change has been the policy of the U.S. government as far back as 2006.
Even more horrifying — after hundreds of thousands of deaths, untold lives ruined and 4 million people displaced — is the evidence that Washington has had a policy of promoting sectarian warfare in Syria for the purpose of destabilizing the Assad government.
A cable from the top U.S. embassy official in Damascus in December 2006 offers suggestions for how Washington could exacerbate and take advantage of certain “vulnerabilities” of the government of Syria. Vulnerabilities to be exploited include “the presence of transiting Islamist extremists” and “Sunni fears of Iranian influence.”
The cables also show that U.S. support for efforts to overthrow the Syrian government
beginning in 2011 were not a response to the Assad government’s repression of protests but rather a continuation
of a years-long strategy by more directly violent means.
https://web.archive.org/web/2015100...ileaks.org/plusd/cables/06DAMASCUS5399_a.html
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinio...shed-light-on-us-foreign-policy-failures.html
Consider Syria, which is dominating the international news because of increased Russian military intervention as well as a surge of some 500,000 refugees from the region arriving in Europe.
Why has it taken so long for Washington to even begin — yes, it is unfortunately just beginning — to reconsider the policy of requiring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to agree to resign before any meaningful negotiations can take place?
After all, any diplomat could have told the White House that demanding the political suicide of one party to a civil war as a condition for negotiations is not how civil wars end. Practically speaking, this policy has been a commitment to indefinite warfare.
The answer can be found in diplomatic communications released by WikiLeaks, which show that regime change has been the policy of the U.S. government as far back as 2006.
Even more horrifying — after hundreds of thousands of deaths, untold lives ruined and 4 million people displaced — is the evidence that Washington has had a policy of promoting sectarian warfare in Syria for the purpose of destabilizing the Assad government.
A cable from the top U.S. embassy official in Damascus in December 2006 offers suggestions for how Washington could exacerbate and take advantage of certain “vulnerabilities” of the government of Syria. Vulnerabilities to be exploited include “the presence of transiting Islamist extremists” and “Sunni fears of Iranian influence.”
The cables also show that U.S. support for efforts to overthrow the Syrian government
beginning in 2011 were not a response to the Assad government’s repression of protests but rather a continuation
of a years-long strategy by more directly violent means.
https://web.archive.org/web/2015100...ileaks.org/plusd/cables/06DAMASCUS5399_a.html
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinio...shed-light-on-us-foreign-policy-failures.html
That would presuppose that Assad himself is completely blameless when infact he and his Dad have been running a murderous dictatorship for decades in a Sunni majority country. It was only a matter of time before the people rose up, and the neighboring Arab spring movements provided the perfect moment. This is entirely the creation of the Assad family and it won't stop until they are gone.
He needs to post again to get out of the devils number
Map of recent airstrikes up to the 3rd of Oct.
Nice map, Raoul. Now can you color Al-Nusra's and Ahrar Al-Sham's positions on it?
Yeah, its amazing how Islamists were mocked and seen as medieval caricatures back in those days. Speaking to the much older members of my family who lived in those decades, they're simply shocked and bewildered at how they've now come to prominence.
Nasser was a fascinating leader, he was a dictator who's resignation was unaccepted by the Egyptian people, essentially forcing him to retract his decision. Imagine that - a dictator being forced to reverse their decision on resigning.
Talk to the Beeb. Its theirs.
They won't, because it will defeat the point they're trying to make.
Map of recent airstrikes up to the 3rd of Oct.
What exactly is "rebel control"?
Anyone and everyone who is fighting Assad but is not ISIS, presumably.
What's the forecast for next week?
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world...ISIS-Russian-weather-girl-Putin-Syria-bombing
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world...ISIS-Russian-weather-girl-Putin-Syria-bombing
Well the northern section to the west of Aleppo there is controlled by the Jaysh al-Fatah coalition. The two biggest forces in that are Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham. Both are jihadi groups of the bin Laden-liking type, although Ahrar have successfully presented themselves as something more 'moderate'.
The bit to the south of Damascus I'm not too sure about. Recently an FSA brigade was leading the fight there around Dera'a, but the jihadist groups are very much active there as well.
I'm pretty sure that footage from just across our northern border showed Islamic nutters in what is painted light green on that map. Very few here should have issues with those nutters being blown up by the Russians.
Why don't you lot blow them up then?
They have no business with us so far. I think Israel is more occupied with the child murderers Hizballah is placing in command of its Golan front.
There are also rumors of some deal with the nutters that we don't get involved as long as the Druze in Southern Syria are safe, though I have no idea how credible this story is. That despite some of the Druze taking part in military activity against Israel recently.
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Russian warships in Caspian sea launch attack on ISIL in Syria.
They have fired a total of 26 missiles.
They have fired a total of 26 missiles.