Islam: the Good, the Bad, and the Everyday: Raqqa

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Sunday, July 9, 2017

Mideast Week in Review

by Michael Isenberg

ISIS on the Ropes.
Syria Ceasefire.
Hobby Lobby settles artifact smuggling case.
Tomb of the Patriarchs declared World Heritage Site.

Saudi cleric gives fashion advice.

ISIS on the Ropes: The Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, traveled to Mosul today to congratulate Iraqi troops on liberating the city from ISIS. The battle for the former ISIS stronghold began last October and culminated in street-by-street fighting in the city’s old section. The return to Mosul represents a significant turnaround for the Iraqi Army, which fled the advancing ISIS fighters so ignominiously in 2014.

The human cost of the effort lingers on, however, as Mosul hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded civilians, arriving dozens at a time.

In Raqqa meanwhile, ISIS’s Syrian stronghold and capital, troops belonging to the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces breached the city wall.

Meanwhile a suicide bombing in Damascus gave a glimpse into the post-caliphate future. Three car bombers attempted to drive into the capital. Police managed to chase down two of the cars, but the third made it to Tahrir Square where it detonated, killing at least nineteen people. BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher commented, “Such attacks may become more common as IS loses its territory and resorts to its tactic of striking soft targets in cities to sow instability.”

Syria conflict: Damascus bomber strikes after car chase (BBC)

Raqqa: IS 'capital' wall breached by US-backed Syrian forces (BBC)

Humanity under attack in Mosul, Red Cross says (BBC)

Syria Ceasefire: In the wake of President Trump’s first meeting with Russian president Putin on Friday, the two nations announced, with great fanfare, that they had reached a ceasefire agreement for a portion of southern Syria. In my humble opinion, the Negotiator-in-Chief got snookered. The deal will help Russia and its puppet Assad far more than the US and its allies among the Syrian rebels.

Read more—

President Art-of-the-Deal gets suckered

Hobby Lobby settles artifact smuggling case: Hobby Lobby, the Christian-owned retailer famed for heroically defying the Obamacare mandate to pay for its employees’ contraceptives, is under fire once again. This week it reached a $3 million settlement with the Department of Justice for smuggling thousands of ancient clay tablets for use in the Bible museum it is building in Washington DC. "The Company was new to the world of acquiring these items, and did not fully appreciate the complexities of the acquisitions process," Hobby Lobby said in a statement. "This resulted in some regrettable mistakes."

In view of the destruction of ancient artifacts going on in the Middle East, it seems to me that smuggling a few out is a good thing.

The Attack on Hobby Lobby Is Incoherent and Unjust (Jeffrey A. Tucker)

Tomb of the Patriarchs declared World Heritage Site: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) this week added the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron to its list of sites “in danger.” The resolution caused outrage in Israel because of its mention of the city’s “Islamic history,” but not its Jewish heritage. According to tradition, the Tomb of the Patriarchs is where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried. Since I don’t think anything the UN does is of any significance whatsoever, I’m not going to say any more about it.

Saudi cleric gives fashion advice: Last Sunday, self-described "Muslim Scholar" Muhammad al-Arifi advised the women among his 18 million Twitter followers to avoid wearing clothing with decoration, embroidery, or slits. Mr. al-Arifi, whose name literally means “knowledgeable one,” previously made headlines for his defense of wife-beating. The BBC reported that women throughout the Gulf countries chose not to follow his fashion advice, but instead took to Twitter to ridicule Mr. Arifi. Many posted pictures of richly-decorated Abaya robes; some asked sarcastically whether they were okay.

Saudi Cleric Muhammad al-‘Arifi explains wife beating in Islam to young Muslims in a Ramadhan show (MEMRI TV)

Michael Isenberg writes about the Muslim world, medieval and modern. His forthcoming novel, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092 and depicts the battle for the Muslim soul between those who embrace science and tolerance, and those who would throw in their lot with mysticism and persecution instead.

Photo credits: BBC

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Mideast Week in Review

by Michael Isenberg

US Rattles Sabers in Syria.
Turkish Police Forcibly Shut Down Gay Pride Parade.

ISIS on the Ropes.

US Rattles Sabers in Syria: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday accused the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad of making preparations for a chemical attack.

The warning comes on the heels of the horrific April 4 tragedy in Khan Sheikhoun, in the northeast of the country. Approximately eighty people died, convulsing and suffocating, from what the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) subsequently determined was Sarin gas. Although government aircraft from the Shayrat airbase did conduct a strike in Khan Sheikhoun at the time, the Assad regime denied they deployed chemical weapons. The Russian Defense Ministry suggested that perhaps the airstrike had detonated Sarin weapons that the Islamists who controlled Khan Sheikhoun had stored on the ground.

Unconvinced, The US lobbed 59 cruise missiles at Shayrat, at a cost of somewhere around $60 million dollars. Despite the high price tag, they apparently had little effect, since now Mr. Spicer warns of this new attack in the wake of what he called “activities” at the airbase. Glad to see Mr. Trump is being a careful custodian of the taxpayers' dollars. Mr. Spicer threatened that if “Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”

When a few days later, no attack had occurred, the US declared victory. “It appears that they took the warning seriously,” Secretary of Defense Mattis said. I suppose that’s possible. Of course, it’s also possible that there never was a planned attack.

Statement from the Press Secretary (White House)

Syria took US chemical attack warning seriously – Mattis (BBC)

Khan Shaykhun chemical attack (Wikipedia)

Here’s how much it costs to replace the 59 Tomahawk missiles Trump fired on Syria (Market Watch)

Turkish Police Forcibly Shut Down Gay Pride Parade: This week marks the 48th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, generally considered the start of the gay rights movement. To commemorate the occasion, gay activists marched in pride parades in cities throughout the world.

But not in Istanbul.

For the third year in a row, city authorities banned the march. Some forty activists showed up anyway. Police arrested at least four of them and disbursed the rest by shooting them with rubber bullets.

Some observers see the ban as part of the Islamicization of Turkey under President Erdogan. That is certainly a concern, in light of Mr. Erdogan's Islamist roots. But as I've noted previously, so far Mr. Erdogan has been governing as an authoritarian, attacking freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary, but not particularly an Islamist.

This week also marked the trials of the eleven activists arrested at last year’s abortive march. Ironically, they were all acquitted.

ISIS on the Ropes: The Islamic State seems to be gasping its last breath, or at least its last breath in the form of a state. Coalition forces are closing in on Mosul and Raqqa, its last major strongholds in Iraq and Syria respectively. In Mosul, Iraqi forces entered the site of the al-Nuri Mosque, an 800-year-old landmark named after Saladin's one-time employer. Sadly, it is now in ruins: ISIS blew it up as it retreated. In Raqqa meanwhile, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish forces, backed by the United States, have the city surrounded.

ISIS will no doubt survive the loss of its territory, but in a different form, mutating into something more in the mold of al-Qaeda.

Syria war: US-backed forces 'surround IS in Raqqa' (BBC)

Photo credits: NBC News