Religious Extremism

Thai Islamic Ruling in Child Marriages Shows Shortcomings

January 03, 2019

Regarding a recent ruling by the Central Islamic Council of Thailand requiring the entity’s approval of marriages for minors under 17 years of age, they emphasize the decision is not legally binding and point to the need for more expansive, legalized protections against religious practices that contradict universal human rights norms and laws.
Pakistani Lawyer’s Plight Shows Need for Robust Judiciary

January 03, 2019

The plight of Pakistani attorney Saif ul Malook, who has defended the most well-known victims of accusations of blasphemy against Islam in the Southwest Asian country, underscores the globalization of Islamist threats to religious and speech freedoms in the absence of robust and independent judicial structures committed to universal human rights.
Turkish Government Eyes Another Round of Military Purges

January 03, 2019

Metin Gurcan reports that the continuing sectarian struggle between Turkey's Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and its former base supporter, the Islamist grassroots Gulenist organization now deemed a terrorist organization by the AKP, is likely to lead to another round of purges of suspected Gulenists from Turkey’s military.
Saudi Regime Continues to Stifle Media Critics

January 03, 2019

Despite the ongoing international blowback against Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Wahhabi monarchy continues to stifle media critics, engineering the ban of a television anchor from a Saudi-owned talk show broadcast from Dubai after he criticized the regime’s repressive social policies.
Islamist Players Will Be Decisive Factor in Bangladesh Elections

January 03, 2019

Islamist parties and umbrella coalitions are emerging as the political swing factor in Bangladesh’s upcoming national elections slated for the end of this month.
Khashoggi Murder Reveals Competing, Anti-Rule of Law Islamisms

January 03, 2019

The murder of Saudi journalist and US permanent resident Jamal Khashoggi reveals multiple, competing forms of Islamism in the Mideast, including Saudi Arabia’s fundamentalist Wahhabism, Iran’s theocratic Shiism, and the revolutionary agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood of Turkey and Qatar, and their incompatibility with the rule of law.
Rally Shows Growing Strength of Hardline Islamists in Indonesia

January 03, 2019

A march of over 100,000 people in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, on the second anniversary of the ouster of the city’s Christian mayor on charges of blasphemy against Islam and as a show of support for the pro-Islamist candidate in next year’s presidential elections signals the growing influence of militant Islamist groups in the country.
Gulf States, Turkey Use Soft-Power Tools to Spread Islamism in Africa

January 03, 2019

The Islamist regimes of the Arabian Gulf regimes and Turkey are using systematic investment in education and social services in impoverished African nations as a soft-power tool for expanding radical Islamist ideology and militant operations from the Middle East across the African Continent.
Pakistan Continues to Undermine US on Radical Networks

December 19, 2018

Bilateral relations between the United States and Pakistan continue to deteriorate due to empirical evidence that Pakistan’s state security and intelligence architectures are abetting Islamist radical networks working with the Afghan Taliban and other jihadi groups to destabilize the government of Afghanistan.
Indonesia's New "Heresy App" Signals Hardening Islamization

December 18, 2018

Indonesia's government has launched a new "heresy app" available on Google, which will allow users to report accusations of heresy in Islam and to file complaints against unregistered religious communities or groups considered non-conforming to state-determined religious orthodoxies.