Violence and Security

West Faces Security Threat from Returning Foreign Fighters

December 19, 2016

The weakening of the Islamic State (IS) caliphate with military defeats in Iraq and Syria poses a blowback problem for Western security, as jihadists returning to Western countries from the caliphate frontline are likely to remain committed to jihadi goals and ideology in their European countries of origin.
Latest Attack in Nigeria Uses Young Girls for Islamist Terror

December 16, 2016

The latest suicide bombing that killed 56 people in a Nigerian marketplace bore all the hallmarks of the tactical shift by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram involving the use of young girls to carry out terror attacks against civilian targets in the ongoing jihadi war to impose sharia law throughout Nigeria.
International Jihadism Is the Victor in Syria War

December 16, 2016

According to Hassan Mneimneh of the Fikra Forum, given the hijacking of the anti-Assad opposition by Islamist extremists, the use of Syria as a proxy war for competing models of Islamist theocracy, and the continuing operation of global jihadis in Syria and the Levant, the real victor in the Syrian war is international jihadism.
IS Intel Linked to Iraqi Sunni Baathist Infrastructure

December 16, 2016

According to interviews with Islamic State (IS) defectors in a report by UK think tank Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, IS built its highly disciplined, globalized intelligence operation with significant input from the Sunni Muslim military-intelligence apparatus of the ruling Baathist Party of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
UN Agent Condemns Australian "Hate Speech"

December 15, 2016

During a recent visit to Canberra, Australia, UN Special Rapporteur on racism, Mutuma Ruteere, called on Australian politicians to avoid supporting "xenophobic hate speech" and anti-migrant opinions and called on the country's government "to take pre-emptive action against" so-called "fringe" parties moving to the mainstream.
German Businesses Pull Ads from Breitbart

December 15, 2016

AP reports that, responding to pressure from a social media campaign called "“No Money for the Right," a group of German companies has pulled advertisements from news and opinion website Breitbart, citing "discriminatory actions and statements" on the site that frequently covers topics related to migration and Islam.
CoE Chief: Free Speech Does Not Include "Hate Speech"

December 14, 2016

In remarks ahead of the international celebration of Human Rights Day, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland asserted that "hate speech," ranging from incitement to "hostility or discrimination" to "posting offensive comments online," is not a protected form of free speech.
Dutch Court Convicts Politician of Public "Insult"

December 14, 2016

An article in The Economist explores whether the recent conviction of Dutch politician Geert Wilders by a court for "public insult and incitement to discrimination" in suggesting there should be fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands will, in the end, only increase the popularity of Wilders' nationalist Party for Freedom.
MEPs Condemn "Incitement" to Fear and Hatred

December 14, 2016

In a resolution on fundamental rights in the EU, Members of the European Parliament called for national and supranational leaders to stop "inciting fear and hatred" of migrants and instead to develop "positive information campaigns" regarding migration to uphold "European values."
IS Caribbean Presence Expands Islamist Radicalism

December 12, 2016

Security experts warn that local radicalization in the Caribbean - including the largest Islamic State (IS) recruitment hub in the Western Hemisphere, the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago - is an expanding, intrinsic dimension of the globalization of jihad activities.