Religious Extremism

Khashoggi Killing Reveals Face of Wahhabi Extremism

December 10, 2018

The continued international focus on the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi has revealed the degree to which the Wahhabi Islamist culture driving the Mideast's largest Islamic theocracy extends to foreign policy behaviors that fly in the face of international law and human rights.
Algeria Implements Niqab Ban for Public Sector Workers

December 10, 2018

Algerian authorities have implemented a ban on wearing the niqab by public-sector workers, citing concerns regarding identification as the reason behind the policy.
Khashoggi Debacle Escalates Islamist Competition in Mideast

December 07, 2018

The continuing fallout from the likely role that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) played in the gruesome murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi is already showing signs of escalating the competition among the Middle East’s three giant Islamist theocratic regimes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey.
Iran Television Features Children in Jihad Propaganda Show

December 07, 2018

An Iranian children’s television show recently featured children singing jihadist songs about martyrdom and nationalism and being introduced to military equipment by an adult commentator, in a segment of the show that ran a day after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on an Iranian paramilitary group and its financiers.
US Imposes New Sanctions on Iran Networks of Child Soldiers

December 07, 2018

The US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on a network of Iranian financial institutions and corporations that has been involved in recruitment, radicalization, and training of children to fight as jihadist soldiers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) activities in Syria.
Khashoggi Murder Reveals Reality of Saudi Autocracy

December 07, 2018

The circumstances surrounding the death of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi have laid bare the reality of the country's political regime, whose leadership continues to crush public critique and dissent from the party-line collaboration between the country's monarchical autocracy and the Wahhabi religious establishment.
Turkish President Opens Germany’s Largest Mosque

December 07, 2018

During Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent visit to Cologne, Germany, to open the country’s largest mosque, he was met with local supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Turkish nationalist-paramilitary Grey Wolves.
Islamism, Patriarchy Continue to Impede Afghan Security Reforms

December 05, 2018

Billions of dollars in US-NATO security sector reforms in Afghanistan, aiming at the integration of women into Afghan military structures and into the provision of human security at the local level, have made little progress against the powerful social pressure of Islamist ideology and traditional patriarchy in the Southwest Asian country.
Corruption, Ultra-Extremism Weaken Saudi Islamist Theocracy

December 05, 2018

Writer Daniel Lazare explains how endemic corruption in the state leadership apparatus in Saudi Arabia, combined with pressure from al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) ultra-extremists who view the Saudi regime as lacking in Islamist rigor, are combining to weaken the Mideast’s largest Islamist theocracy.
Tensions Mount in Mauritania over Influence of Muslim Brotherhood

December 05, 2018

The recent closure of two Islamic schools of higher education by Mauritania’s government because of their alleged links to political Islamist opposition groups has evoked student demonstrations in the West African country.