Islamic State
Please, Theresa, let Anjem Choudary go and get himself killed
The news is always grim, isn’t it? Doom and gloom everywhere. And even the news which appears to be good…
How Islamic State commanders squeeze their hostages for every penny
Islamic State commanders know exactly how to extract the greatest possible profit from their hostages. Some care about little else
The myth of the White Widow
Samantha Lewthwaite almost certainly isn’t as monstrous as the papers say. And she definitely isn’t as important
Portrait of the week
Home A hundred firemen could not prevent wooden cooling towers at Didcot B gas-fuelled power station in Oxfordshire from burning…
Wear a veil if you like – but don’t treat women like that
What sort of clothing do you wear when you go to the opera? I assume some of you do go…
If Turkey turns on the West, what hope is there for Syria and Iraq?
Turkey has long been a bridge between the West and the Middle East. Its record on free speech may be…
Portrait of the week
Home Checks began at British airports for passengers who might have come from west Africa with Ebola fever (even though…
Hannibal (and Alexander the Great) vs the Islamic State
Whatever the Islamic State hopes ultimately to achieve by its current onslaught on all and sundry in the Middle East,…
Does Jonathan Powell really want to negotiate with the Islamic State?
Jonathan Powell’s stance on negotiating with violent extremists is consistently inconsistent and slippery
Here’s how to remain cheerful in the face of such a multitude of scares
I don’t think I can remember a time when there have been so many scares about. They come at us…
Portrait of the week
Home Alan Henning, 47, a British volunteer aid worker taken captive in Syria by Islamic State, was murdered, and footage…
What will it take for us to stop doing business with Qatar?
Qatari money has flooded into London – but also into much less savoury places
The good fight
It is a mark of the uncertainty of our policy in the Middle East that just over a year ago…
Michael Fallon: parliament needs the 'courage' to vote for war
The Defence Secretary Michael Fallon is an eager interventionist
What Romans would have made of Obama's Syria strategy
President Obama was assailed for saying that the USA had no strategy on combating Isis. Vegetius (late 4th century AD), the…
The brutal truth? Britain lacks the reach to bring any ISIS killer to justice
Politicians’ promises to bring those who murder British hostages to justice almost never come true
What is to be done about a world where everything is for sale?
Next time you read about an auctioneer’s gavel coming down on a $150 million painting bought by some flunkey representing…
Portrait of the week
Home Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said that Britons who went to Syria or Iraq to fight could be stripped…
You can't make friends with Uncle Sam and survive for long
Can somebody tell me when America last got it right? Uncle Sam’s track record in selecting leaders in faraway places…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, writing of the Islamic State in northern Iraq, said: ‘If we do not act…
The Islamic State is destroying the greatest melting pot in history
The fighters of the Islamic State are bringing a deadly new intolerance to a territory rich in ancient sects
The West isn't the solution in Iraq. It's the problem
Hawks are mistaking military action for strategy
‘It’s jihad, innit, bruv’: meet the British Muslims going to fight in Syria
Meeting the British Muslims who have joined the ‘Islamic State’
I like the look of this exciting new Islamic State. But why don’t they want Belgium?
There is something attractive about almost the whole of southern Europe being part of an immense and somewhat rigorous caliphate,…
