Religious Extremism

Saudi Arabia Seeks Control over Jerusalem's Holy Sites

July 16, 2018

Representatives from Saudi Arabia's Islamic theocratic regime are exerting steady pressure to force Jordan to renounce its guardianship over Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, as regional experts suggest the reactions of Islamist groups and governments in the region to replacing the moderate Jordanian custody with Saudi custodianship are unpredictable.
Iran Conducts Mass Execution of IS Militants

July 11, 2018

Iran’s Ministry of Justice has announced the mass execution of eight Islamic State (IS) militants convicted of the 2017 terrorist attacks against the country’s Parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini, the cleric who launched the 1979 revolution that led to the establishment of Iran’s Islamist theocracy.
Saudi Wahhabi Establishment Resists Sociopolitical Reform

July 09, 2018

Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi religious regime, the fundamentalist Sunni establishment that has long legitimized the House of Saud’s political control in the Islamist theocratic kingdom, is pushing back against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sociopolitical reform agenda.
Islamist Regimes Seek Control of Jerusalem’s Muslim Holy Sites

July 09, 2018

Competition among the Mideast’s Islamist regimes of Saudi Arabia and Turkey for the mantle of legitimate protector of Palestinian Muslims and Islam’s holy sites in Jerusalem threatens to overturn the control by moderate Islamic monarchy Jordan of the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located.
Turkey's Elections Embolden Islamist Totalitarianism

June 28, 2018

The re-election victory of Turkey's Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan as President, with an alliance led by his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) winning a majority in parliament, has moved Turkey decidedly in the direction of an Islamist totalitarian regime.
Protests in Iran Show Pushback Against Hard-line Islamism

June 28, 2018

Iran's capital city of Tehran has been rocked by week-long protests against the country's hard-line Islamist clerical regime over intensifying economic woes in the wake of the US suspension of the Iran nuclear deal in May, as anti-regime protests are expected to expand from Iran to Paris with the participation of a constellation of groups opposed to the country's Islamic theocracy.
UN Rights Observers Criticize Mauritanian Blasphemy Law

June 27, 2018

A group of UN human rights mandate holders has issued a statement calling on Mauritanian lawmakers to reconsider their adoption of a law mandating the death penalty for any Muslims found guilty of blasphemy or apostasy, warning that the law will lead to incitement to violence and violates the internationally recognized human right to freedom of expression.
Repressive Guardianship System Remains in Saudi Arabia

June 25, 2018

Experts warn that, despite the recognition of women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia, the Islamist clerical establishment is preventing broader moves toward social pluralism through the control mechanism of the guardianship system that uses law and custom to deprive women of a range of rights unless given permission by a male relative-guardian.
Iraqi Election Could Produce Islamist Sectarian Cooperation

June 25, 2018

Efforts to form a new government in the aftermath of Iraq’s national elections are tending toward a grand coalition of Shiite groups, including Islamists associated with Iran and non-Islamic State Sunnis from the country’s Arab and Kurdish populations, raising questions for US officials seeking to promote Iraqi unity but concerned about the consolidation of Iranian Islamist influence in Iraq.
Turkey Fuels Political Islamism in Balkans

June 22, 2018

The intensification and consolidation of anti-Christian political Islamism in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia reveals the impact of a deliberate strategy of neo-Ottoman expansionism into the Balkans by Turkey’s Islamist government.