Violence and Security

Committee Demands Extensive EU Action on "Hate Speech"

March 21, 2018

The European Economic and Social Committee has adopted an opinion calling on the European Commission to be more aggressive in proposing "regulatory" and "self-regulatory" measures prohibiting illegal online content, as well as the expansion of the definition of illegal content to include all "material that violates human dignity."
Tunisia Struggles to Form Policies on Foreign Fighters

March 21, 2018

The Tunisian government is currently struggling to develop policies in conjunction with the governments and militias in Baghdad and Damascus to deal with foreign fighters that left North Africa to fight with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Egypt Looks to Business Investment to Counter Islamist Terror

March 21, 2018

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is pushing private-sector actors to invest in the development of the Sinai Peninsula as part of his national-security strategy, arguing that economic development is a smart, sustainable mechanism for eliminating poverty and economic marginalization as recruiting and radicalization fodder by a range of Islamist terrorist groups.
Report Highlights Afghanistan as Safe Haven for Violent Islamists

March 20, 2018

A new report released by a Washington think tank presents data showing that, despite the 17-year presence of US troops in Afghanistan to combat violent Islamism, the number and scope of such groups, with declared aims of attacking the United States, continues to multiply.
Pakistan's Ecosystem of Islamist Groups Complicates Threat

March 20, 2018

A new report by a Pakistani think tank shows that the ecosystem of militant Islamist groups active in Pakistan is characterized by religious-ideological diversity, distinctions in use of and operational capacity for violence, and intergenerational scope, creating significant challenges for threat assessment and deradicalization strategies.
Florida Teen Says Insults to Islam Motivated Knife Attack

March 20, 2018

A Florida teenager cited insults to Islam as the motivation for his knife attack against his friends, wounding two and killing one, after he confessed to authorities that he felt his friends "made fun of his Muslim faith and that he prayed and kissed the ground."
Experts Face Longterm Challenge in Countering Jihadism

March 20, 2018

Jihadism as a form of Islamist political violence presents policymakers with an open-ended, multi-stakeholder challenge that requires tackling root causes involving socio-economic, educational, and political regime type, rather than a simplistic focus on counter-narratives that fails to remedy the structural causes that provide fodder for jihadist arguments and actions.
US Military Confirms Killing of Boko Haram Militants

March 20, 2018

A Pentagon spokesperson has confirmed that a combined US and Nigerian force serving in Africom peacekeeping operations in the Lake Chad region killed 11 Islamist militants from Boko Haram, two months after the jihadist group inflicted casualties on the Africom forces.
US Feds Charge Three Men with Minnesota Mosque Bombing

March 20, 2018

The US Attorney's Office in Illinois has charged three local men, also suspected in an attempted bombing of a local abortion clinic, with a bombing attack on a Minnesota mosque last year that aimed to "scare Muslims out of the United States."
IS Resilience Continues Despite Caliphate's Fall

March 20, 2018

Western security experts are focused on the strengths and vulnerabilities of the Islamist State's (IS) jihadist mission after the military defeat and formal collapse of the IS caliphate in Iraq and Syria failed to terminate the group as a globalized actor with organizational adaptability, narrative messaging elasticity, and battlefield resilience.