Violence and Security

EU Praises Hastened Removal of Online "Hate Speech"

July 13, 2017

Celebrating an evaluation of social media platforms' progress in fulfilling the EU Code of Conduct on removing online "hate speech," European Commissioner for Justice Vĕra Jourová praised internet companies' response to the initiative in "removing twice as many cases of illegal hate speech and at a faster rate when compared to six months ago."
IS Leader's Reported Death Does Not End Violent Islamism

July 12, 2017

Analysts are cautioning that observers should not equate reports by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirming the death of Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with the end of violent Islamism, pointing to evidence suggesting that supporters of IS's ideology have already begun to shift their operational focus to the Western context.
EU Mulls Action Against German "Hate Speech" Fines

July 12, 2017

Politico reports that the tension between the generally hands-off European Commission policy toward internet companies and Germany's strict new laws providing for fines of social media giants that fail to remove "extremist" content could boil over into legal action against Germany following the country's elections later this year.
IS Resilience Poses Continued Global Threat

July 11, 2017

Western analysts are warning that, despite the decisive military defeats and territorial contraction suffered by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, the group's resilience through adaptation to an insurgency model makes the Islamist extremist group a continuing threat in scope and scale to global stability.
UNESCO Praises Moroccan Plan Against "Violent Extremism"

July 11, 2017

As part of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) campaigns for "global citizenship" education and education to prevent "violent extremism," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova visited Moroccan educational institutions with the King of the country to survey the promotion of Islamic teaching "as a source of dialogue and peace."
Al-Shabaab Strikes in Kenya in Sustained Jihad

July 10, 2017

Al-Shabaab ratcheted up its attacks against civilian targets in Kenya this weekend as part of the Somali jihadi group's sustained campaign to impose sharia across East Africa.
Jihadism in Maldives Offers Lessons for Countering Islamism

July 10, 2017

Analysts point to corrupt governance, political authoritarianism, and Saudi Arabian funding for the promotion of Islamist extremism to explain the Maldives' designation as the state with the "highest per capita number of jihadis in Syria and Iraq" and to consider general lessons for preventing the spread of violent islamism.
IRGC Chief Predicts Expanding Iranian Traction in Mideast

July 10, 2017

The leader of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently declared that the apparent defeat of the Islamic State in its Iraqi and Syrian Sunni heartlands, as well as Saudi Arabia's failure to achieve victory in the ongoing Saudi-Iran proxy war in Yemen, signals the expanding appeal of the Iranian Shiite revolutionary model across the Middle East.
Islamist Militants Stage Major Attack in Egyptian Sinai

July 10, 2017

Islamist militants staged a major attack with high casualties in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, serving notice to the Egyptian government that the ongoing Islamic State-affiliated insurgence in the geopolitically crucial region is intensifying.
Boko Haram Kills, Kidnaps in Ongoing Jihad in Western Africa

July 10, 2017

Militants from the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram continued to widen their strike zone across West Africa with an attack in a Niger town, killing civilians and taking large numbers of women and children as hostages.