Khaled Sulaiman, environmental Journalist

Khaled Sulaiman Despite the numerous incubators of radicalism, such as the internet, social media networks, mosques and other religious or social centers, it may be said that a major factor at the root of rad-icalism is the educational curricula in the Arab and Islamic world. Words like “jihad,” “killing atheists,” “punishment of God,” “fires of Hell,” “Crusades,” and “dhimmis” are still taught and used in school, especially in Islamic educational material.

Khaled Sulaiman In Iraq, there are several significant laws applied by the federal and local governments, despite not originating in Parliament, which is the highest political and legislative institution in the country. Some of those laws are pertinent to fundamental individual freedoms, while others are ideologically oriented;  a good example is the “Holiness of the Ka'aba” law, enacted in February 2017, which prevents non-veiled women from entering the city.

Khaled Sulaiman The most difficult challenge currently facing Iraqi Kurdistan is how to define and implement its political system. Even expert observers cannot seem to work out whether it is parliamentary or presidential. Prior to the end of his third term as president, Masoud Barzani had extensive executive powers. Yet the constitution defines the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) as a parliamentary system, similar to the Iraqi national system. Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has long pushed for a presidential system, while the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Movement for Change (Gorran) call for a parliamentary structure with amendments to the presidential election law and the president’s powers, to be set by parliament.

Khaled Sulaiman Through proper cooperation, Islamist leaders may be able to unify the Kurdistan Islamic Union, the Kurdish Islamic Group, and the Kurdish Islamic Movement - but they must take a clear stance on freedom of expression and intellectual, literary, and artistic creativity, not to mention women and religious minorities’ freedoms and rights.   During the last week of July, the top leaders from major Kurdish Islamist political parties, including the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (KIM) convened at the house of Salaheddine Bahaaeddin - the Secretary General of the KIU - in Sulaymaniyah. The meeting sought to establish the right conditions to create a shared Islamic front between the three parties, which together have 17 of 111 seats in the Kurdistan Parliament.

We learn with disbelief that the first World Humanitarian Summit will be hosted by President Erdogan in Istanbul.*) Of all locations where such an international event could be held, Turkey, at the present time, is the least suitable. The world is currently facing a humanitarian crisis on a massive scale. With that sentiment we wholeheartedly concur. Action needs to be taken at an international level to foster peace, reduce conflict and ameliorate the social divisions that are literally tearing countries apart. As the preamble to the coming UN summit states, “In our rapidly changing world, we must continually seek better ways to meet the needs of millions of people affected by conflicts and disasters.”

By: Judit Neurink   ,,At least ten times they took all my finger prints!'' Khaled Sulaiman, the former editor in chief of a Kurdish magazine spreads his hands in disgust. ,,As if I am a criminal! While the files that we published are real, and the authorities have confirmed that.'' My editor friend is harassed by the police and the court, for publishing an article about corruption. The magazine that he lead for a year, Haftana, showed evidence that a number of people in Sulaymaniya were given two bits of land, while they had the right as civil servants to have only one.

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.26 By Ilkin Izzet - Trend: The seizure of oil and gas fields, as well as water sources in Iraq and Syria by a terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS, formerly ISIL or ISIS,) indicates the presence of a serious strategy in this direction, the Turkish Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) Water Research Programme Hydropolitics researcher Tugba Evrim Maden told Trend Nov.25. She went on to add that the “Islamic State” seeks to control such important life objects as sources of energy, irrigation and drinking water.

Upon conquering the region of Sinjar in Wilāyat Nīnawā, the Islamic State faced a population of Yazidis, a pagan minority existent for ages in regions of Iraq and Shām. Their continual exis - tence to this day is a matter that Muslims should question as they will be asked about it on Judg - ment Day, considering that Allah had revealed Āyat as-Sayf (the verse of the sword) over 1400 years ago. He ta’ālā said, {And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the mushrikīn wherever you find them, and capture them, and besiege them, and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, es- tablish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merci- ful.} [At-Tawbah: 5].

The worst moment for Rislat Shirkani came on the long frightening trek away from the bone-dry ridges of the western Sinjar mountains, where she and thousands of Iraqi Kurds had fled last week from the relentless advance of an insurgent Islamic army bent on mass destruction. They had been walking for hours along bleak, winding mountain paths when Shirkani saw a mother carrying a dying baby, its face cracked and bloodied from the scorching sun.

Richard Sambrook Professor of Journalism and Director of Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University Are the traditional journalistic disciplines of objectivity and impartiality relevant or wanted in a digital news environment? Many practitioners and commentators argue that they are not – that editorial approaches suited to the middle of the last century, with a scarcity of bandwidth and in an age of media concentration, are now redundant in the digital age of plenty.

Kenneth Collack With the loss of large parts of Mosul, the second-largest Iraqi city, to Sunni extremist fighters on Tuesday, it is time to recognize that Iraq is once again in a state of civil war. A low-level civil war at present, perhaps, but the situation is only going to worsen unless something dramatic and unexpected pulls Iraq out of its descent. This is a tragedy for Iraq and a serious threat for the United States. Americans seem to think that the vast increase in domestic oil production from shale deposits has immunized the U.S. economy from Middle East instability. Not by a long shot. The International Energy Agency has warned as clearly as it can that projected low prices of oil in the future depend more on increased Iraqi oil production than on North American shale. And every postwar American recession has been preceded by an increase in oil prices, often the result of Middle East instability.

Khaled Sulaiman BAGHDAD, Iraq – Corruption, autocratic control of money, market monopoly, buying of political loyalties, control over the judiciary, and politicization of security services, the military, and the police are problematic issues plaguing Iraqi Kurdistan. In this respect, this province is no different from Arab, Asian, and African countries, which do not hesitate to brandish the threat of force any time despotic rule over society and the state is under pressure.

شارستانیەت پێویستی بەخوێندنەوەی "دیۆرانت" نیە، بەم شیوەیە دروست بوو

Hanna Arendt, la philosophe qui reste toujours dans la mémoire de l'humanité

*Kevin Matthees *Günter Seufert The ceasefire between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is more than just a new attempt by Recep Tayyip Erdo ğ an’s administra- tion to bring an end to the asymmetric war that has been waged for nearly 30 years in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish south-east. For the first time, the Turkish government has demonstrated its willingness to recognise PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, as the chief negotiator for the Kurdish side. Although the negotiations are being held as unofficial talks under the aegis of the Turkish intel- ligence services (M İ T), the prime minister himself and members of his cabinet have directly commented on their progress. Of no less significance are the changes on the part of the Kurdish movement. Under Öcalan’s influence, representatives of the pro- Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) have backed away from seeking to establish a Kurdish national sta...

Joshua Pringle* January 9, 2013 Photo: Oleg Kalina, Dreamstime.com. "One of the most fundamental requirements for constitutional democracy is freedom of the press," writes Peter Smith. "Only unfettered media can provide citizens with alternative sources of information. This permits people to circumvent official propaganda and Orwellian double-speak, to form independent judgments, and to hold incumbents accountable for actions and policies." It is in this spirit that the media came to be known as the "fourth estate" in the United States—acting as a check on the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government, charged with exposing abuses of political and economic power. Since the advent of the Internet, the role of the so-called fourth estate has undergone dramatic changes, forcing news organizations all over the world to rethink their business models and modi operandi. With news so easy to access for free on the Internet,...

30/09/2012 12:27 By Bedran Ahmed Habeeb*  AKnews will stop broadcasting and at the time of writing these words it has already been shut down. I'm deeply sorry that due to heavy financial burden, we had to close down AKnews. During my carrier I have worked in many cultural foundations and established many by myself. Among all the foundations I established, I was happy with AKnews. I believed it would, most than all foundations, serve a message which I carried since a very young age: rescuing my country from the oppression and establishing a prosperous and free community. At the beginning I thought expending money for this high goal should not be measured. However, the cost for running this news agency was beyond the capacity of Aras Publishers which founded AKnews.     AKnews was a completely independent news agency. In the almost four years of operating, we never bent, even slightly, for a political party, unless there...

Training Features in Darbandikhan IMCK has broadened her horizon by starting a training in Darbandikhan, hopefully the first of many. Journalists from the Darbandikhan area kicked off today with a three day training in Features, storytelling and investigating journalism. The training is led by our lead trainer Khaled Sulaiman and hosted in cooperation with the youth activities developing center in Darbandikhan. 

Women started in journalism! The Iraqi first lady, Hero Khan Ibrahim, and the German Consul in Erbil, Rolf Ulrich, took part in the closing ceremony for the 'Women start in journalism'-course of IMCK. On September 6, 2012, thirteen young women from Sulaymaniya and surroundings were given their certificates after finishing the six weeks course in basic journalism. The ceremony took place at the Rewan Hall in Sulaymaniya. Hero Khan was presented with a copy of the newspaper the women made during the course, and a news program that they made was shown. Mr Ulrich stressed in his speech to the participants the need for women to work in journalism in Kurdistan and to report on common subjects, as they will notice different details than their male colleagues.

(Erbil) – The practice of female genital mutilation continues in the Kurdistan region of Iraq a  year  after a landmark law banning it went into effect because the Kurdistan Regional Government has not taken steps to implement the law. The Family Violence Law, which went into effect on August 11, 2011, includes several provisions to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM), recognized internationally as a form of violence against women.