"Darkness descends upon the Arab world. Waste, death, and destruction attend a fight for a better life. Outsiders compete for influence and settle accounts. The peaceful demonstrations with which this began, the lofty values that inspired them, become distant memories. Elections are festive occasions where political visions are an afterthought. The only consistent program is religious and is stirred by the past. A scramble for power is unleashed, without clear rules, values, or endpoint. It will not stop with regime change or survival. History does not move forward. It slips sideways."

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"After victimizing dozens of teenagers for donning “emo” hair styles, members affiliated with al-Qaeda and other militia groups in Iraq are turning into “emos,” a local news website reported on Saturday.

“Emo” is short for “emotional” and in the West generally identifies teens or young adults who listen to alternative music, dress in black, and have radical hairstyles and body piercings. While they are sometimes stereotyped as “gay,” to Iraqis, “emos” are widely synonymous as such and were targeted by extremist groups who smashed their heads with concrete blocks early this year. In March, Hana al-Bayaty of Brussels Tribunal, an NGO dealing with Iraqi issues, said the current figure of “emos” killed in Iraq ranged “between 90 and 100.” But for local hairdressers, who have witnessed a change in style among their extremist customers in the eastern province of Diyala, an “al-Qaeda emo” has started circulating as a joke, according to Al-Sumaria News."

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