Category: Iraq

A self-styled leader of the ‘Mosul uprising’ in Iraq by the name of Ghanem Al-Abed baffled viewers on Qatari state television Al-Jazeera on Tuesday when he claimed that ISIS was an invention by the Syrian government, but that the Islamic State (IS) led by Al Baghdadi are revolutionaries who are part of the Iraqi uprising.

The bizarre debate was held against his opponent, Yazan Mash’aan who asked the confident leader about his plans for Iraq’s future. Al-Abed responded by unleashing a sectarian diatribe. Abed’s comments were then shrugged off by his opponent as nonsensical and deranged.

One of the Imams of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Salah al-Din ibn Ibrahim Abu Arafa criticized ISIS clerics and their motives, stating that they are seeking power instead of the establishment of an Islamic state.

He further stressed that the people of Yarmouk refugee camp, which consists primarily of Palestinians are caught between and are besieged by various factions, including ISIS.

Abou Arfa went on to call upon members of ISIS, the Islamic Front and Al Nusra to stop deceiving Muslims and to assist the people in Yarmouk camp with bread.

Arfa is a Palestinian cleric and renowned Imam of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest place in Sunni Islam. He is a known critic of ISIS.

Exclusive excerpts from the speech at the Grand Mosque in Mosul by ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

ISIS emir and newly, self-appointed Caliph for all Muslims blesses mankind with his first public appearance in a video recorded at a mosque in Mosul. In his first appearance, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi enlightens misguided Muslims and informs them that he too is, in fact, imperfect.

Excerpts from his speech were translated exclusively for Monitor Mideast.

Al Baghdadi’s first lecture consists of interpretations he gave to Quranic verses, whilst some other quotes were plagiarized from the first speech held by the first Sunni Caliph, Abu Bakr.

Taken from The Telegraph:

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, emerged from the shadows to lead Friday prayers at Mosul’s Great Mosque, calling on the world’s Muslims to “obey” him as the head of the caliphate declared by the Sunni jihadist group.

The notoriously secretive jihadi, who has never before been seen in public, chose the first Friday prayer service of Ramadan to make an audacious display of power in the city that Salafist Islamists have now controlled for three weeks.

Speaking from the balcony in his new incarnation as self-anointed “Caliph Ibrahim”, al-Baghdadi announced himself as “the leader who presides over you”, urging Muslims to join him and “make jihad” for the sake of Allah.

Under his direction, the Islamic world would be returned to “dignity, might, rights and leadership”, he said.

“I am the wali (leader) who presides over you, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, assist me,” he said, dressed in a black turban and robe reminiscent of the last caliphs to rule from Baghdad.

Iraqi Sunni cleric Khaled al-Mulla on Al-Mayadeen TV expressed his concern over Salafists of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, stating that they had slaughtered over 300 Sunni clerics in Iraq.

After ISIS secured a victory by moving into Mosul, Iranians prepare for a possible ISIS invasion and flirt with the prospects of deploying boots on the ground. This mini documentary was translated exclusively for Monitor Mideast.

An Iraqi writer by the name of Abu Firas was a guest at Aljazeera’s “The Opposite Direction” on June 18, 2014 where he took every chance to attack Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s Emir and prominent religious clerics Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Ibn Baz in those countries. Abu Firas returned to Iraq, where he received a hero’s welcome.

Iraq has been the subject of an invasion by insurgency groups over the past week whereby 1.700 soldiers of the Iraqi army were killed after key officers left their post. Iraq has formally pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatari as sponsors of the insurgency group ISIS.

What would you do if you were a reporter for the New York Times and you’ve just been invited to a news conference where the president of one of the Middle East’s most influential countries just told you that the United States supports terrorism in Iraq and Syria? What if that same president also told you that the United States is involved in a propaganda war (likely involving your own news publication) in supporting and legitimizing that terror in Syria and Iraq? In the case of Thomas Erdbrink, correspondent for the New York Times, those questions were fairly simple to answer. You just invent news. Watch this video to see Rouhani lash out at the United States and how a correspondent for one of the most influential news publications in the world relays his answers to the world.

The youthful Donald Rumsfeld had his first brush with fame as an amateur wrestler, grappling his way to the captaincy of the Princeton university team. At the age of 81 – accused of disastrous mismanagement of the war in Iraq and dumped by the Bush administration after the 2006 midterms – the old bamboozler remains a slippery customer. He has his feet on the mat but he’s not going down.

Errol Morris’s new documentary, nominated for the top prize at the Venice film festival, takes its title from an infamous speech in the run-up to invasion. Making the case for illusory weapons of mass destruction, the US defense secretary said that there are “things we do not know we don’t know”, a devastating bit of obfuscation that effectively justified going to war on a false prospectus. Time and again, Morris tries to pin him down on this point. Time and again, he gives a clenched smile and wriggles loose. The film winds up as a tense, frustrating stalemate.