Lucy Schouten is an editorial intern at The American Spectator. She is a senior studying journalism, Arabic, and Middle East issues at Brigham Young University in Utah. She can be reached via Twitter @lucyjcomms.
Libya’s post-intervention history has been so bleak that it is being compared to Iraq and cited as proof that American interventions make things worse. But that is probably a hasty judgment. The current situation in Libya is tough to explain in one paragraph, but here it goes: the parliament is making a valiant effort at […]
The Iraqi Sunnis who live under ISIS control may be preparing for a second “Sunni Awakening” after ISIS destroyed a treasured site of Mosul’s religious heritage. ISIS concluded a recent campaign of destruction by bombing a shrine at the tomb of the prophet Jonah. Jonah was revered by Christians, Shias, and Sunnis alike, and the tomb’s […]
The World Cup ended weeks ago, but the next competition that has captured the spirit of voyeurism is midway through another round—the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! It’s convenient, in a way, this affair with Gaza coming so close on the heels of the World Cup. Soccer and football fans alike had a few days to rest their […]
John Kerry’s most recent trip to the Middle East earned him such discouraging reviews in the local papers, not to mention receptions from Israeli politicians, that American officials have made their diplomatic displeasure known—diplomatically, of course. Kerry spent last weekend in Cairo negotiating the latest ceasefire in missile exchanges between Hamas and Israel, but the […]
ISIS have expelled all the Christians from their territory in Mosul and commenced destroying evidence of any faith other than their own twisted brand of Sunni orthodoxy. As predicted, the treasures of Iraq’s past, which are the heritage of the three Abrahamic faiths, are being obliterated. ISIS removed the worshippers from the mosque at the tomb […]
A search for the good guys and bad guys of Iraq commenced during a hearing in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs with representatives from the Departments of State and Defense on Wednesday. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was the first “bad guy,” in the view of Congress. A few representatives are still making thinly veiled […]
John Kerry has made a surprise visit to Jerusalem to negotiate a cease-fire between Gaza and Israel, but since the conflict thus far has served only to unify Gazans and Israelis alike in mutual dislike, a more creative solution will be needed. There is a certain appeal to this image of Kerry flying in unannounced […]
The cause of religious liberty galvanizes Americans of faith, yet America’s foreign policy has ignored religion to the point of harming her interests and moderate allies in the Middle East. “America is really, by virtue of its foreign policy, distanced from our natural allies,” Andrew Doran, one of the founders of the group In Defense of […]
The most prominent Christian landmark in Iraq was emptied of its Christians on Sunday. Mar Behnam is a Syriac Catholic church that was built by a fourth-century Assyrian king. The church was his penance for killing his son, a Christian convert. It is now under the control of Islamic extremists from ISIS, and the monks […]
“Tales of 1001 Nights” (which, ironically enough, is not respected as fine literature in the Middle East itself) is the story of an ancient Persian king. In a fit of disillusioned anger, the king declares he will marry a new maiden every evening and execute her the next morning. He is thwarted when one bride […]
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