![Iraq Deployed Shiite Volunteers to defeat ISIL, but now has a Militia Problem](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/06/iraq-deployed-shiite-volunteers-187x137.jpg)
Category
- Africa (96)
- Asia (528)
- Authoritarianism (99)
- Cats (1)
- Culture (333)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (152)
- Dissent (259)
- Economy (431)
- Education (50)
- Elderly (2)
- Energy (729)
- Environment (850)
- Europe (467)
- Featured (1,369)
- fiction (5)
- Food (5)
- Guns (8)
- History (142)
- Human Rights (802)
- Immigration (13)
- International (467)
- Islamophobia (193)
- Juan Cole (264)
- Latin America (28)
- Latinos (3)
- leisure (21)
- media (278)
- Middle East (4,781)
- Arab World (3,517)
- Iran (416)
- Israel (575)
- Israel/ Palestine (1,096)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (173)
- Turkey (282)
- military (101)
- Modernism (1)
- nationalism (86)
- NATO (3)
- Natural Disasters (7)
- nuclear weapons (22)
- Peace (51)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Popular Culture (22)
- Poverty (3)
- privacy (19)
- racism (181)
- religion (584)
- Rights (107)
- Romance (1)
- science (75)
- Secular (West) (7)
- Secularism (18)
- South Pacific (1)
- Spirituality (18)
- Statelessness (14)
- Surveillance (239)
- Terrorism (940)
- Tolerance (2)
- Uncategorized (7,998)
- United Nations (54)
- Urbanization (2)
- US Foreign Policy (388)
- US politics (2,031)
- Anti-War Movement (4)
- Campaign Finance (21)
- Censors (18)
- Central Intelligence Agency (49)
- Civil Rights (74)
- Constitution (205)
- Democratic Party (406)
- Domestic Terrorism (14)
- Drone Warfare (17)
- Espionage (99)
- Ethnicities (183)
- Far Right (106)
- FBI (26)
- Foreign Policy (154)
- Gay Rights (11)
- Guns (39)
- Immigration (90)
- Israel Lobbies (58)
- Militarization (180)
- National Security State (306)
- Native Americans (12)
- Nuclear arsenal (5)
- penitentiaries (5)
- Pentagon (145)
- Police (17)
- prison reform (1)
- Reproductive Choice (7)
- Republican Party (1,085)
- Supreme Court (17)
- Voter suppression (14)
- Whistleblowers (3)
- Xenophobia (4)
- Veterans (15)
- Voting Rights (4)
- War (170)
- Western Religion (295)
- White Supremacists (20)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (171)
- workers (99)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (94)
Archives: political Islam
![Iraq Deployed Shiite Volunteers to defeat ISIL, but now has a Militia Problem](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/06/iraq-deployed-shiite-volunteers-187x137.jpg)
![The top 4 Challenges facing the Arab World](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/06/the-top-4-challenges-facing-the-187x137.jpg)
The top 4 Challenges facing the Arab World
By Tarek Osman | (Project Syndicate) | - - LONDON – Fifty years after the Six Days War, the Middle East remains a region in seemingly perpetual crisis. So it is no…![Saudi v. Qatar: Will Turkish intervention cause Escalation?](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/06/saudi-v-qatar-will-turkish-inter-187x137.jpg)
Saudi v. Qatar: Will Turkish intervention cause Escalation?
By James M. Dorsey | (Inter Press Service) | - - SINGAPORE (IPS) - Turkey’s parliament is this week fast tracking the dispatch of up to 3,000 troops to Qatar, home to…![Could ISIL attacks in Tehran plunge the Middle East into greater turmoil?](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/06/could-isil-attacks-in-tehran-plu-187x137.jpg)
Could ISIL attacks in Tehran plunge the Middle East into greater turmoil?
By Mohammadbagher Forough | (The Conversation) | - - Iran experienced its first major ISIL attack on June 7, as armed men and suicide bombers targeted two symbols of the Islamic Republic…![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/05/file-20170523-5782-1o7pzq7-187x137.jpg)
What is the Sunni-Shiite Divide into Which Trump just Stepped?
Ken Chitwood | (The Conversation) | - - In his address in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, May 21, while calling on Muslim leaders to lead the fight against terrorism, President Donald Trump…![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/05/61GepBYfFnL._SY344_BO1204203200_-1-187x137.jpeg)
Was/Is there an Islamic Enlightenment? (de Bellaigue)
William Eichler interviews Christopher de Bellaigue | Informed Comment | - - Eichler: 1. In the conclusion to The Islamic Enlightenment you describe modern jihadists as “miracle-grow Muslims” who have been “incubated…![Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/04/syrias-forgotten-pluralism-and-w-187x137.jpg)
Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today
By Andrea Williams | (The Conversation) | - - The Syrian Civil War has been raging for six years. It has killed nearly half a million people and left over 12 million,…![Why We Need Political Islam](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/04/why-we-need-political-islam-187x137.jpg)
Why We Need Political Islam
By Shlomo Ben-Ami | (Project Syndicate) | - - MADRID – US President Donald Trump has put on the back burner an executive order that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a…![Why Designating Muslim Brotherhood ‘Terrorists’ will harm Democracy at home and Abroad](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2017/02/why-designating-muslim-brotherho-187x137.jpg)
Why Designating Muslim Brotherhood ‘Terrorists’ will harm Democracy at home and Abroad
Human Rights Watch | - - (Washington, DC) – A US government designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, which the Trump administration is reportedly considering, would threaten the…![Why Trump & his Cabinet’s Jihad against “Political Islam” will Fail](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/12/why-trump-his-cabinets-jihad-aga-187x137.jpg)
Why Trump & his Cabinet’s Jihad against “Political Islam” will Fail
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Several members of Donald Trump's new team, including National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and proposed Secretary of Defense Mike Mattis have expressed themselves…![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/11/shadowars-1-187x137.jpg)
Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East
By Christopher M. Davidson | (Informed Comment) | - - Swept along on a tidal wave of euphoria, by spring 2011 many had cautiously begun to believe that the wave of Arab…![The myth and history of Sunni-Shia divide](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/09/the-myth-and-history-of-sunni-sh-187x137.jpg)
The myth and history of Sunni-Shia divide
By Amir Ahmadi Arian | ( OpenDemocracy ) | - - Sunnis and Shias have lived together in peace for centuries, and up to the new millennium have barely had a history…![The Millenarian Dimensions of the Attempted Coup in Turkey and implications for Muslim Modernism & Traditionalism](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/09/the-millenarian-dimensions-of-th-187x137.jpg)
The Millenarian Dimensions of the Attempted Coup in Turkey and implications for Muslim Modernism & Traditionalism
By Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | - - The failed July 15 coup in Turkey has generated a whole range of debates on who was really behind the coup, Turkey’s future…![Nearly 500 more US Troops sent to Iraq for Mosul Attack](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/09/nearly-500-more-us-troops-sent-t-187x137.jpg)
Nearly 500 more US Troops sent to Iraq for Mosul Attack in advance of Election Day
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Stars and Stripes is reporting that the number of US troops in Iraq has risen from 4,000 to 4,460 in preparation for the…![How Twitter robots spam critics of Saudi Arabia & Shiite Muslims](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/07/how-twitter-robots-spam-critics-187x137.jpg)
How Twitter robots spam critics of Saudi Arabia & Shiite Muslims
By Brian Whitaker | ( Al-Bab.com ) | - - For several weeks now there has been growing evidence that Twitter is being used for a covert and highly organised propaganda operation…![Will Iraq’s next Government be . . . Iran-backed Shiite Militias?](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/07/will-iraqs-next-government-be-ir-187x137.jpg)
Will Iraq’s next Government be . . . Iran-backed Shiite Militias?
By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | - - The [so-called] Islamic State [IS] group has caused a realignment of Iraq’s political map. Next year’s provincial elections will signal who will…![Defeating ISIL in Iraq will Take Sunni-Shiite Reconciliation, not Just Tanks](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/07/defeating-isil-in-iraq-will-take-187x137.jpg)
Defeating ISIL in Iraq will Take Sunni-Shiite Reconciliation, not Just Tanks
By Neil Thompson | (Informed Comment) | - - As Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian forces squeeze its territory in the Arab world and Turkey hunts down the group’s support networks and sympathisers…![Is Religion really Driving Middle East Violence?](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/07/is-religion-really-driving-middl-187x137.jpg)
Is Religion really Driving Middle East Violence?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Pew Research has released a report saying that "As a whole, the region continued to have the highest levels of religious hostilities in…![Abuses of Fallujah Sunnis Raise Question: Does Iraq Gov’t Control of Shiite Militias](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/06/abuses-of-fallujah-sunnis-raise-187x137.jpg)
Abuses of Fallujah Sunnis Raise Question: Does Iraq Gov’t Control of Shiite Militias
Human Rights Watch | - - (Beirut) – The announced investigation into allegations of abuse of civilians around Fallujah by Iraqi government forces is a test for the government’s ability to hold…![Baghdad gov’t paralysis allows ISIL to blow up nearly 100 Children, Women & Men](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701045648im_/https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/05/baghdad-govt-paralysis-allows-is-187x137.jpg)