Religious Extremism

AP: Pakistan’s Islamic Blasphemy Laws Sustain Climate of Impunity in Latest Mob Murder

February 18, 2022

Pakistan’s draconian Islamic blasphemy laws continue to sustain a climate of impunity enabling vigilante actions, evident in the mob stoning and lynching of a mentally unstable man accused of burning a Quran, with this latest episode of violence coming after a recent mob lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager accused of blasphemy.
Al-Monitor: Military & Intel Evidence Point to Turkey’s Support for IS

February 16, 2022

Military and intelligence information related to recent US and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) activities against IS leadership and militants in northern Syria, along with testimony from captured Turkey-based IS leadership, reveal the extent of the active and passive support within NATO-member Turkey’s state apparatus and society.
Northwest Syria Rocked by Islamist Internecine Warfare

February 14, 2022

Northwest Syria’s Idlib Province remains a frontline in the continuing war by various jihadist groups aiming to overthrow the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-Assad, but internecine arrests and military campaigns among al-Qaeda, IS, and Uighur Turkmenistan Islamist extremist organizations are producing governance chaos and human, underscoring the human security consequences of militant Islamist resilience.
Kansas Women Fought in Syria & Planned Attacks in America

February 07, 2022

US federal prosecutors have charged Kansas woman Karn Fluke-Ekren, now in Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) custody with providing material support to the IS terrorist group, based on evidence that she trained women and children for support operations for the caliphate and that she led an IS women's battalion in the Syrian city of Raqqa, with the approaching court case also including evidence of the defendant's plans to recruit on US college campuses as part of plans to stage high-casualty attacks on the American homeland.
Latest Shakeup in Lebanese Politics Is Another Win for Hezbollah

February 02, 2022

Lebanon’s fractured political system took another hit, with gains for Hezbollah’s Islamist agenda, as the recent announcement by longtime Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri that he is retiring from politics in the run-up to May’s scheduled elections creates disarray in the Sunni opposition block to Hezbollah’s already dominant position in Lebanon.
High-Profile Rights Cases Underscore Iran’s Islamist Regime’s Assault on Civil Society

February 01, 2022

Global rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Iran’s Islamist regime for its continuing repression of civil society in the form of wholesale arrests and imprisonment of labor activists, artists, and journalists, following two high-prowled cases.
Pakistan’s Islamic Blasphemy Laws Expansed to Apply to WhatsApp

January 26, 2022

Pakistan’s notorious Islamic blasphemy laws have now been expanded to apply to social media platforms, as a local court meted out a death sentence to a women accused of blasphemy through text messages sent on WhatsApp, in the latest indication that Islamist hardliners hold increasing sway and intimidation in society and the judiciary in the South Asian country.
Boko Haram’s Origins in Nigeria Underscores Local Drivers of Jihadism

January 26, 2022

The origins of Boko Haram in Nigeria as an indigenous jihadist movement that emerged from the application of Islamist extremist teaching to local conditions of state failure is an important policy lesson in addressing local drivers of Islamist radicalism that, otherwise overlooked, frequently lead to the transnationalization of jihadism, as has occurred with Boko Haram’s reestablishment as the Islamic State West Africa Province.
Turkey’s Islamists Target Speech Freedoms

January 25, 2022

Turkey’s Islamist regime continues its assault on speech freedoms with the country’s president calling for one of Turkey’s most popular singers to have her tongue cut out because of musical lyrics deemed religiously insulting, followed by the arrest of a leading journalist on charges of insulting the president because of her recitation of a proverb.
Policy Prevention of Islamist Terrorism Requires Understanding Religious Roots

January 23, 2022

According to Memri.org, Islamist terrorists draw on fundamentalist interpretations of core religious values that key leaders deploy to build an ideology justifying violence against Muslims and non-Muslims alike, so effective counter-terrorism policy depends on analysis of the distorted interpretations of those key religious values.