Attacks in Azerbaijan: Manipulation of a “Shiite Threat” and Iran

 by Eldar Mamedov Highly unusual events have been rocking the small, but strategically important Caspian nation of Azerbaijan during the last week. An attempt on the life of Elmar Veliyev, the mayor of the nation´s second city, Ganja, took place… Continue Reading

Militant Clergy—the Future of Shia Islam?

by Saeid Golkar Mohammad Aqamiri might be the first-ever Shia cleric from Iran who martyred himself in Syria after the Syrian uprising. While studying and teaching at Qom Seminary in 2013, Aqamiri enlisted in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and died defending the holy shrine… Continue Reading

US Catholic Bishops: Consider Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Fatwa

by Derek Davison In March of this year, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sent a delegation of religious and academic figures to the Iranian religious city of Qom to begin a dialogue with Shia scholars and ayatollahs. According… Continue Reading

Questions About (Inclusion of) Islamism

Egypt is on everyone’s minds today in Washington, not least among them neoconservatives and pro-Israel hawks. House Foreign Affairs chief Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) was wondering about the “nefarious ends” of some “elements” there, and Jeffrey Goldberg, who, with shifting views, expressed apprehension about… Continue Reading

Hidden Nuclear Sites and Never Ending Sanctions

Here’s David Ignatius, in The Washington Post, writing about the revised Israeli intelligence estimates about an Iranian bomb (2015, if you must know), with my emphasis: The delays in the Iranian program are important because they add strategic warning time… Continue Reading