The Civic Trend – التيار المدني

Faris Kamal Nadhmi – ‘Muqtada al-Sadr between the safety of reform and fear of change: Will he choose revolution or counter-revolution?’ – article translation

Feb 13, 2020benrobinzAnalysis - تحليل, Muqtada al-Sadr - السيد مقتدر الصدر, The Civic Trend - التيار المدنيFaris Kamal Nadhmi, Muqtada al-Sadr, protests, Sadrist movement, Sadrists

Faris Kamal Nadhmi, ‘Muqtada al-Sadr between the safety of reform and fear of change: Will he choose revolution or counter-revolution?’ al-Mada, 4 February, 2020. For a significant section of Iraqi public opinion, it has become commonplace to describe the political behaviour of Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr as volatile, contradictory, puzzling and strange. And this raises a

Ahmad ‘Abd al-Hussein – ‘A Letter to the Sadrist Nation’ – article translation

Feb 9, 2020benrobinzMuqtada al-Sadr - السيد مقتدر الصدر, The Civic Trend - التيار المدنيAhmad Abd al-Hussein, Muqtada al-Sadr, protest movements, protests, Sadrist movement, Sadrists, translation

Ahmad ‘Abd al-Hussein, ‘A Letter to the Sadrist Nation’ NAS News, February 6, 2020 Is it too late to warn of civil strife [fitna] because it is already upon us? Eight martyred in a single night in Najaf, live fire, shells, Molotovs and dozens injured. This is far from being civil strife, this is a

‘Ali Wajih – ‘Sadr and Us: The Lost Partnership’ – article translation

Feb 9, 2020benrobinzMuqtada al-Sadr - السيد مقتدر الصدر, The Civic Trend - التيار المدنيcivil trend, Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr, protest movements, protests, Sadrists, translation

Sadr and Us: The Lost Partnership ‘Ali Wajih, originally published by Nas News 03 Feb 2020 In this moment, with the continuing tensions between the Blue Hats (a formation belonging to the Sadrist trend) and the other protesters, the leader of the trend – Muqtada al-Sadr – has closed down all spaces for cooperation between

“THE LEFTIST–SADRIST ALLIANCE” – My article in the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

May 11, 2019benrobinzAnalysis - تحليل, Muqtada al-Sadr - السيد مقتدر الصدر, The Civic Trend - التيار المدنيacademic, ICP, left, Sadrists, social movements

Link to my full-length article on the leftist-Sadrist alliance which has been published in the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES).

Link to my Washington Post (Monkey Cage) article: “Why many failed to predict the leftist-Islamist alliance that won Iraq’s 2018 elections”

Jun 8, 2018benrobinzICP, Muqtada al-Sadr - السيد مقتدر الصدر, The Civic Trend - التيار المدنيcivic trend, civil trend, ICP, Iraq, Iraqi Communist Party, Muqtada al-Sadr, protest movements, reform protests

Link to my article for the Monkey Cage which draws some theoretical insights from the Sadrist-ICP electoral coalition. It looks at the question of societal weakness in Iraq within the broader framework of the Arab Spring.

Blog for LSE Middle East Centre: The Sadrist–Communist Alliance: Implications for Iraq’s Secular Politics

Jun 8, 2018benrobinzAnalysis - تحليل, ICP, Muqtada al-Sadr - السيد مقتدر الصدر, The Civic Trend - التيار المدنيcivic trend, civil trend, Iraq, Iraqi Communist Party, Muqtada al-Sadr, protest movements

Link to blog post I wrote for LSE’s Middle East Centre that looks at the wider implications of the Sadrist-Communist alliance for Iraq secular civil society.

Translation: A dialogue with MP Shirouk al-Abayachi on the Civil Democratic Alliance (CDA) – Methaq al-Fayyadh (2014)

Jul 10, 2017benrobinzThe Civic Trend - التيار المدنيCDA, civil democratic alliance, civil trend, featured, Iraq, Shirouk al-Abayachi

Below is another translation of an interview by Iraqi journalist Methaq al-Fayyadh, this time with female Iraqi MP Shirouk al-Abayachi. The interview deals with her role in the Civil Democratic Alliance (CDA), an attempt to bring civil trend actors together behind a unified political platform to contest parliamentary elections. A dialogue with MP Shirouk

Translation 1/3: Iraqi Communist Party History. “Part One: The Iraqi communists, their political alliances, and lessons learnt (1934-2014)” by Jassim al-Halwai

Jun 22, 2017benrobinzThe Civic Trend - التيار المدني, Uncategorizedfeatured, ICP, Iraq, Iraqi Communist Party, Jassim al-Halwai

Below is the first instalment of a three-part translation of a series of articles written for the ICP by communist intellectual Jassim al-Halwai. The article begins with some preliminary clarifications and wider context setting before getting stuck into more granular historical analysis of the ICP’s relations with other Iraqi political factions throughout the organisation’s history.

Translation: “The Iraqi communists. Who are they, and what do they do?” An interview with the ICP’s Jassim al-Helfi by Methaq al-Fayyadh (2014)

Jun 14, 2017benrobinzAnalysis - تحليل, The Civic Trend - التيار المدنيIraqi Communist Party, Jassim al-Helfi

Methaq al-Fayyadh, “The Communists in Iraq… Who are they…and what do they do?,” al-hiwar al-mutamadin, March 18, 2014. The Iraqi public has many questions regarding the communists in Iraq: Who are they? Do they agitate against religion? How do they co-exist with the Other? Does the Communist Party have an armed military wing in

Muqtada al-Sadr bayan 9th October 2016: suspending negotiations with INA, call for protests, and other details.

Oct 11, 2016benrobinzAnalysis - تحليل, Muqtada al-Sadr - السيد مقتدر الصدر, The Civic Trend - التيار المدني09 October 2016, bayan, featured, Muqtada al-Sadr, reform protests

This is a quick translation of Muqtada al-Sadr’s 9th October bayan in which he responded to the decision by Iraq’s Federal Court to rule against the legality of al-Abadi’s attempt to remove the offices Iraq’s vice-presidencies. Al-Sadr also announced that he is postponing recently initiated negotiations with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) because of the positions

Iraq After Occupation

Academic and security analysis by Benedict Robin, PhD student @ IMES University of Edinburgh