CULF 3331: "Middle Eastern Revolutions"

This article discusses the uncertainty behind President Sisi's presidency. Although Sisi has been in office over a year, very little is know about this military man. this is an interesting article because it talks about Sisi's personality points.

This article talks about how poetry is similar to the revolution because of the way it has transformed the people; the revolution has changed common moments and common people into inspiring times the way poetry changes common words into something extraordinary. It talks about how both poetry and revolution have been able to seek justice and tear down symbols of powers. For these revolution, poetry has been able to keep the needs and wants of the people alive and real.

This article, written by Mohammed Kheir, discusses how poetry during the revolution was used to empower the people but became attributed to popular revolutionary poets because of fear of being accosted. So, while stanzas were popularized and while they may be remembered, the actual poets behind them may not be.

All the famous youth revolutionaries are facing systemic persecution, it seems.

Really he should move to Austin, right?

In Iraq, Kurdish militiamen fighting the group that calls itself the Islamic State are key American allies. In Syria, some Kurdish fighters battling the very same Islamic State are considered part of a terrorist group, according to the U.S. government. What gives?

Background on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Islamist group that gained control of the second-largest city in Iraq.

The Kurds are involved in several Middle East dramas at the moment. Yet they live in multiple countries across the region and are playing different roles in different places. In Iraq, Kurdish fighters are working closely with the U.S. to battle the Islamic State.

At a front-line outpost - a few sandbags, soldiers and grenades perched on the brow of a hill - the Iraqi Kurdish soldiers known as Peshmerga are looking out toward the town of Jalula, maybe three miles away. A few months ago, the so-called Islamic State seized Jalula in eastern Iraq.

Turkey has said it will allow Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to cross its borders and join Syrian Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian town of Kobane. The reported shift in Turkish policy came after a phone call between US President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kurdistan is more united than ever united against ISIS terrorists and are the only ones fighting them.

A group of PJAK [Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê, Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan] members in the Danish city of Arhus have started a three-day hunger strike to protest against the ongoing attacks of ISIS on Kobanê. The hunger strike which is being carried out in front of the Arhus Municipality building will end on Sunday.

Interesting article about challenges social media companies face in preventing and deactivating accounts with content or users linked to terrorist organizations such as ISIS.