Robin Yassin-Kassab
@qunfuz.bsky.social
Author "The Road from Damascus". Co-author "Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War". Writer and deputy editor at the Critical Muslim. English editor at www.isisprisons.museum. Journalism etc collected at www.qunfuz.com
Pinned
Bilal Abdul Karim seems to have disappeared after being detained. I don't like his politics at all, and I understand why the government is concerned about him. But nobody should 'disappear' in a free country. We should be informed where he is and what he's been charged with.
February 8, 2026 at 10:44 AM
Bilal Abdul Karim seems to have disappeared after being detained. I don't like his politics at all, and I understand why the government is concerned about him. But nobody should 'disappear' in a free country. We should be informed where he is and what he's been charged with.
Reposted by Robin Yassin-Kassab
A lot of books have been written about the Syrian war, but Robin’s earlier book, Burning Country, is still one of the best books I’ve read on the topic. The subject of this next one is, in a way, surreal. Excited to read it.
February 6, 2026 at 9:30 PM
A lot of books have been written about the Syrian war, but Robin’s earlier book, Burning Country, is still one of the best books I’ve read on the topic. The subject of this next one is, in a way, surreal. Excited to read it.
I have a book out in June.
February 6, 2026 at 6:42 PM
I have a book out in June.
Reposted by Robin Yassin-Kassab
So much gratitude to Minnesota.
The people of Minnesota have executed one of the most impressive civil resistance campaigns I can remember:
- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE
- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE
January 26, 2026 at 9:25 PM
So much gratitude to Minnesota.
Free Gozarto (a bit of cognitive dissonance for the Western 'free Rojava' crowd, who tend to be unified by their ignorance of the region and its history).
January 26, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Free Gozarto (a bit of cognitive dissonance for the Western 'free Rojava' crowd, who tend to be unified by their ignorance of the region and its history).
Reposted by Robin Yassin-Kassab
In short: a lot of the libertarian Left think and talk about Rojava in EXACTLY the same way that Leninists think and talk about Cuba. Desperate for "the revolution" to be happening somewhere, wilfully blind to the authoritarian reality, contemptuous of its ungrateful subjects
O and they think the organisation which spent billions on luxury underground living space for its officers but spent nothing on basic infrastructure is 'socialist'. Dear me.
January 26, 2026 at 5:29 PM
In short: a lot of the libertarian Left think and talk about Rojava in EXACTLY the same way that Leninists think and talk about Cuba. Desperate for "the revolution" to be happening somewhere, wilfully blind to the authoritarian reality, contemptuous of its ungrateful subjects
Every day (on Twitter) I have to block a dozen people calling me a Jolani-loving jihadist and Arab chauvinist thirsty for the blood of Alawites, Druze and Kurds. Reminds me how ugly, racist and ignorant very many western leftist orientalists are.
January 26, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Every day (on Twitter) I have to block a dozen people calling me a Jolani-loving jihadist and Arab chauvinist thirsty for the blood of Alawites, Druze and Kurds. Reminds me how ugly, racist and ignorant very many western leftist orientalists are.
Trump used his Davos speech to make an ignorant racist attack on Ilhan Omar, Somali Americans and Somalia, and the worthless goons in the audience gave him a standing ovation. The world elite in 2026 consists of vastly overprivileged idiots.
January 21, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Trump used his Davos speech to make an ignorant racist attack on Ilhan Omar, Somali Americans and Somalia, and the worthless goons in the audience gave him a standing ovation. The world elite in 2026 consists of vastly overprivileged idiots.
Syria's Jazira region is Arab, Kurdish, Syriac, Turkmen, Armenian and Yazidi. It is multicultural, like the rest of Syria, and the rest of the region. Ethnostate ideology has drowned the region in blood for over a century. Time to move beyond it.
January 20, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Syria's Jazira region is Arab, Kurdish, Syriac, Turkmen, Armenian and Yazidi. It is multicultural, like the rest of Syria, and the rest of the region. Ethnostate ideology has drowned the region in blood for over a century. Time to move beyond it.
Disaster: the PKK leadership outside Syria has rejected the deal Abdi signed yesterday. Now the SDF is mobilising, and may fight for Hasakeh, where most people reject its occupation.
January 19, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Disaster: the PKK leadership outside Syria has rejected the deal Abdi signed yesterday. Now the SDF is mobilising, and may fight for Hasakeh, where most people reject its occupation.
“Kurds are an integral part of the Syrian social fabric. Syria is the container that embraces all its sons.” – Mashaal Temmo, Syrian-Kurdish politician assassinated by Assad in 2011
January 19, 2026 at 8:40 PM
“Kurds are an integral part of the Syrian social fabric. Syria is the container that embraces all its sons.” – Mashaal Temmo, Syrian-Kurdish politician assassinated by Assad in 2011
Thank God the liberation of eastern Syria happened so easily. People in Raqqa, Hasakeh, etc are celebrating. That's because there was nothing democratic about 'democratic confederalism'. It was another dictatorship, experienced as occupation by most under its boot.
January 19, 2026 at 9:51 AM
Thank God the liberation of eastern Syria happened so easily. People in Raqqa, Hasakeh, etc are celebrating. That's because there was nothing democratic about 'democratic confederalism'. It was another dictatorship, experienced as occupation by most under its boot.
People of Deir Hafer, Maskaneh, and elsewhere are wildly celebrating their liberation from SDF occupation. (Unfortunately they don't seem to have heard the western twitter experts telling them they should be weeping.)
January 17, 2026 at 12:31 PM
People of Deir Hafer, Maskaneh, and elsewhere are wildly celebrating their liberation from SDF occupation. (Unfortunately they don't seem to have heard the western twitter experts telling them they should be weeping.)
Reposted by Robin Yassin-Kassab
About 100 writers and four board members quit Adelaide Festival after it barred author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
Australia festival faces mass boycott after dropping Palestinian author
About 100 writers and four board members quit Adelaide Festival after it barred author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
www.aljazeera.com
January 12, 2026 at 9:30 AM
About 100 writers and four board members quit Adelaide Festival after it barred author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
Reposted by Robin Yassin-Kassab
Hopefully a way out of this criminal tragedy is found, but there are dynamics here that echo Syria in spring 2011
Steadfast courage & horror: Possible killing of 100s civilians in midst of internet blockade is shocking response by #Iran authorities to calls for change.
#EU should spare no effort to end violence, press for full accountability.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
#EU should spare no effort to end violence, press for full accountability.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
‘The streets are full of blood’: Iranian protests gather momentum as regime cracks down
Demonstrators recount experiences on the frontlines as protest movement rapidly moves beyond government’s control
www.theguardian.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:26 AM
Hopefully a way out of this criminal tragedy is found, but there are dynamics here that echo Syria in spring 2011
Reposted by Robin Yassin-Kassab
Please follow the link to the investigation into the Bureaucracy of Murder at Branch 215, where the Caesar photos were taken. qunfuz.com/2025/12/18/d...
Discussing the Missing in Damascus
It was a great honour to speak in the presence of the mothers and fathers of some of the hundreds of thousands of forcibly disappeared people in Syria. We were at the National Museum in Damascus, a…
qunfuz.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Please follow the link to the investigation into the Bureaucracy of Murder at Branch 215, where the Caesar photos were taken. qunfuz.com/2025/12/18/d...
SDF should take its soldiers and US weapons to Kobani and other Kurdish majority areas and negotiate from there on decentralisation and self-defence. They'll have cards to play, and many Syrians will sympathise. But not this occupation of east Syria, or parts of Syria's largest city.
January 11, 2026 at 8:48 PM
SDF should take its soldiers and US weapons to Kobani and other Kurdish majority areas and negotiate from there on decentralisation and self-defence. They'll have cards to play, and many Syrians will sympathise. But not this occupation of east Syria, or parts of Syria's largest city.
It's hilarious when racist Iranians blame "the Arabs" for the very specifically Persian-Shia 'wilayat al-faqih' dreamed up by Khomeini and then used as a colonial weapon against the Arabs. Your bloodthirsty weirdness has nothing to do with the Arabs.
January 11, 2026 at 12:40 PM
It's hilarious when racist Iranians blame "the Arabs" for the very specifically Persian-Shia 'wilayat al-faqih' dreamed up by Khomeini and then used as a colonial weapon against the Arabs. Your bloodthirsty weirdness has nothing to do with the Arabs.
Please follow the link to the investigation into the Bureaucracy of Murder at Branch 215, where the Caesar photos were taken. qunfuz.com/2025/12/18/d...
Discussing the Missing in Damascus
It was a great honour to speak in the presence of the mothers and fathers of some of the hundreds of thousands of forcibly disappeared people in Syria. We were at the National Museum in Damascus, a…
qunfuz.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Please follow the link to the investigation into the Bureaucracy of Murder at Branch 215, where the Caesar photos were taken. qunfuz.com/2025/12/18/d...
The entire history of Crusader-backed Zionism is based on the idea that the feelings of Jews and Westerners are more important than the lives, rights and property of Arabs and Muslims. Zionist Jews feel that Palestine belongs to them, so the Palestinian ownership and presence must be cancelled.
December 18, 2025 at 10:25 AM
The entire history of Crusader-backed Zionism is based on the idea that the feelings of Jews and Westerners are more important than the lives, rights and property of Arabs and Muslims. Zionist Jews feel that Palestine belongs to them, so the Palestinian ownership and presence must be cancelled.
The genocide is still raging in Gaza, and the steady pace of theft and murder in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria is rising, and now there is a concerted campaign from Netanyahu, the British government, and others to rob us even of the words to oppose it. Globalise the intifada.
December 17, 2025 at 5:10 PM
The genocide is still raging in Gaza, and the steady pace of theft and murder in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria is rising, and now there is a concerted campaign from Netanyahu, the British government, and others to rob us even of the words to oppose it. Globalise the intifada.
It's a great essay in a great issue. A print thing, not an online thing...
In more exciting writing news, my piece “Friendly Far Right?” is featured in the latest Critical Muslim issue.
criticalmuslim.com/explore/issu...
criticalmuslim.com/explore/issu...
Fascism
Hassan Mahamdallie is worried about fascist rhetoric, ideology, and organisations re-entering the mainstream, Donny Gluckstein ask what is fascism, Louis Ordish examines the roots of the far right in ...
criticalmuslim.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:01 PM
It's a great essay in a great issue. A print thing, not an online thing...
I was on The Lede podcast discussing Ahmad al-Sharaa's visits to both Moscow and Washington DC - as well as Scottish independence! qunfuz.com/2025/12/03/t...
The Power Shifts Changing the Middle East
I was pleased to be invited again to speak with Faisal al-Yafai on The Lede podcast, connected to the excellent New Lines Magazine. We spoke about Ahmad al-Sharaa’s visits to both Moscow and …
qunfuz.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I was on The Lede podcast discussing Ahmad al-Sharaa's visits to both Moscow and Washington DC - as well as Scottish independence! qunfuz.com/2025/12/03/t...
I wrote this article for Time magazine. The conspiracy theorists are making a big deal about a 'jihadi' in the White House - but it's only a big deal if you haven't been paying attention. qunfuz.com/2025/11/12/a...
Ahmad al-Sharaa in the White House
This article was first published at Time magazine. On November 10, President Donald Trump met Syria’s transitional president Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House. The meeting was remarkable in many w…
qunfuz.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I wrote this article for Time magazine. The conspiracy theorists are making a big deal about a 'jihadi' in the White House - but it's only a big deal if you haven't been paying attention. qunfuz.com/2025/11/12/a...