Religious Extremism

Pakistan PM: Islam a Religion of Peace

February 19, 2021

Pakistan Today reports that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan called on the country’s Islamic clerics and legal scholars to become active in combatting islamophobia in Western countries that don’t recognize that “Islam as a religion of peace”.
Death Sentence for Murder of Bloggers by Islamists in Bangledesh

February 15, 2021

AP news reports that Bangladesh's Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal meted out the death sentence to eight Islamist extremists convicted for a murder spree that saw publishers and bloggers hacked to death because of ideas deemed anti-Islamic by the local IS militants.
Saudi Arabia Attempts Rebrand of Wahhabi Extremism

February 15, 2021

The blog Mideastsoccer writes that Saudi Arabia’s political leadership has launched a series of actions designed to appeal to Western state leaders and investors critical of the country’s poor human rights record, including the removal of anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-Shiite hate speech, while maintaining the restriction of non-Muslim houses of worship and arbitrary arrests.
Pakistan Released US Journalist's Killers

February 15, 2021

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled in favor of acquitting and releasing all four Islamist militants accused of the 2002 killing and beheading of US Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, in a move underscoring Pakistan's permissive environment for Islamist terrorism.
IS Gains in Mozambique Highlight Goal of Capturing Natural Resource Wealth

February 10, 2021

The incremental territorial gains by Mozambique's local IS-affiliated militants reflects the strategic goal of full capture and control over the country's natural resources for financing jihadist operations as well as the growing collaboration between local, regional, and transnational Islamist extremist groups in expanding the geography of jihadism.
Survey Data on Iran Show Trend of Societal Demands for Reform

February 08, 2021

A detailed online survey on Iranians' attitudes towards religion conducted by a Dutch non-profit organization indicates widespread support for rolling back state interference in society, including an end to Islamic religious limits on individual freedoms around gender, speech, and family life, and education.
Iran Ups Spying Convictions Against U.S. & EU Dual Citizens

January 29, 2021

Iran's courts meted out a 10-year prison sentence to a dual US-Iranian citizen on espionage charges, the latest in a recent trend of non-transparent, arbitrary judicial decisions in which the Islamic theocratic regime has targeted American and European citizens with dual Iranian citizenship for spying and "corruption on earth."
Iran & Taliban Condemn U.S. for Violence in Afghanistan

January 29, 2021

Following a meeting in Tehran, officials from the security apparatus of the Taliban and Iran's Islamic revolutionary theocracy have closed ranks in public statements blaming the United States for the protracted, decades-long violence in Afghanistan.
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Egyptian Terrorists Harbored by Turkey

January 29, 2021

The U.S. Treasury Department designation of two Turkey-based leaders of the Egypt Movement, Harakat Sawa'd Misr, a Foreign Terrorist Organization, highlights NATO-member Turkey as an active safe haven Islamist terrorist groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, al-Qaeda, IS, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Jihadists Use China's Repression of Uyghur’s as Mobilization Tool

January 26, 2021

According to Small Wars Journal, Al-Qaeda (AQ) is taking the lead with other jihadist groups to internationalize the Chinese government's repression of their Uyghur Muslim population, with AQ collaborating with the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in China to radicalize and mobilize global jihadist support for the territorial secession and political independence of Uyghurs in what the TIP calls East Turkistan.