Noor's Political Opinions

Ever since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in March 2011, news reports on the Syrian civil war have gradually taken over all aspects of the media: from news channels, to newspapers, to radio stations, and online reports. One question that comes to mind is how well is Western media explaining the Syrian conflict to us? Are we being mislead and ill-informed on the matter or are we being told the blatant truth? In my opinion, the answer to this question is an unfortunate ‘we are being mislead and ill-informed’…read more

  On May 22, 2013, a british soldier named Fusilier Lee Rigby was killed by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, while off duty in South East London. [2] The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament published a report on the the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby this morning. The report claimed that the murder of Lee Rigby could not have been prevented by intelligence services, however it could have been prevented if the unnamed internet company-which is now identified as Facebook, passed on information of Adebowale’s Facebook exchanges in December…read more

     The documentary “Shadow company” examines the sphere of private security companies around the world and sheds light on the much needed distinction between soldier and mercenary. Prior to watching the “Shadow company,” I had little to no knowledge about the world of private security companies. In addition, I falsely viewed the term mercenary as a synonym of soldier. Sooner than later, the documentary corrected my view of the term.The “Shadow company” indicates that a soldier is one who engages in military service for a specific country within the…read more

As a Syrian myself, I can tell you that the issues surrounding the Syrian conflict are much more complex than what is reported by Western media. The West continues to view the conflict as a clash between Bashar Al Assad who terrorizes his people and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which supposedly represents freedom and democracy for the Syrian people. I will argue that the West’s portrayal of the FSA as a force of freedom is far from the truth and here’s why: In Aleppo, the FSA have reportedly looted…read more

Since the 2011 Syrian uprising, Russia and Iran have been Syria’s most vital political allies. The United States hopes to unseat president Bashar Al Assad from his regime. However, Russia is making it difficult for the United States by blocking the UN Security Council from passing anything that might injure Assad’s regime. As a result, the US is having “to go around the UN” to do anything regarding Syria. [4] Russia also supports Syria by providing it with a great deal of  military equipment from drones, to armed vehicles, to…read more

  The ISIS has managed to cover a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time. They control an area the size of Great Britain and have seized cities, oil fields, and major transit routes in both Iraq and Syria in the last six months. ISIS (the islamic state in Iraq and Levant-al Sham in Arabic) is a Sunni jihadist militant group led by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the name adopted by Awwad Ibrahim Al-Badri Al-Sawarri. [1] The group originated from the Al-Qaida group in the Islamic State of…read more