Notions

                The recent avalanche of studies, analysis, opinions, historic exploration, clarification missions and social media frenzy about the ever-so-popular and polemical topic of the Middle East all come against the backdrop of a brutal and senseless act of vengeance in the Gaza strip that is draped with a military façade of Israeli self-defence. The Arab world enunciated a Facebook war on the Israeli aggression and countless videos have been posted, shared and commented on by sympathizers. Newspapers, columnists, professors, journalists, scholars, bloggers and activists all had their share in the action. They all buttressed the same cause, that of saving innocent lives, but employed different angles to approach the issue. Some craftily penned their analysis of the situation only to reconfirm the status quo and the reasons behind this stalemate; others had better intentions at heart and tried to come up with explications t...

            The leader of the notorious Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has finally achieved the minimum requirements to establish his state: occupied areas in Iraq and Syria, controlled check points at regional borders, thousands of followers from salafists worldwide, access to oil and resources, decent weaponry confiscated from Americans and promised state/personal funding (controversial is the source). That is why the group’s leader’s announcement of his appointment as the khalifa of all Muslims, after having established/revived the Khilafa in the Levant, crowned the triumphant trajectory of the ISIS throughout the past year or so (as a fully independent group).        The establishment of an Islamic State, led by the new Khalifa Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, and the call for immigration to the new State should be very worrying as the idea does appeal to many. The foundations of a state are present: land, check; resources, check;...