Violence and Security

Media Strategy Shows IS State-Building Approach

January 19, 2016

The media outfit known as Amaq News Agency, which is closely linked to the Islamic State's ("IS") propaganda machine, offers sophisticated reportage and spin on IS, functioning with all the hallmarks of totalitarian state news operations.
Chinese Step up Actions Against Uighur Muslims Under Countering Islamist Extremism Policy

January 19, 2016

Chinese officials are preparing to draft new regulations on countering religious extremism, aimed at the Uighur Muslim population in western China, whom Beijing blames for an uptick in violent Islamist attacks in the county but whom international rights groups defend as victims of Han Chinese ethnic and religious discrimination.
Indonesian President's Response to IS Attacks Emphasizes Policing Approach to Violent Islamism

January 19, 2016

Indonesia's President issued an official response to the recent terror attack by Islamic State ("IS") sympathizers, choosing to emphasize policing, rule of law, and societal-cohesion policies, rather than counter-terrorism, as the optimal response to Islamist jihadi groups trying to penetrate the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
French Officials Warn IS Is Seeking Chemical Weapons

January 19, 2016

France's Prime Minister has requested that Parliament extend the country's state of emergency for three months, warning that the Islamic State's ("IS") recent terror attack in Paris could be a prelude to the group's efforts to acquire chemical and biological weapons for future jihadist attacks.
Saudi-Iran Competition Fuels Islamist Radicalization in Pakistan

January 19, 2016

Pakistan is becoming an ever-intensifying target for cooptation in the competition for hegemony in global Islamic geopolitics between two Islamist extremist regimes, Saudi Arabia and Iran, with massive funding by both countries to Pakistan's Islamic parochial schools and Saudi pressures on Pakistan to join Sunni-led sectarian military ventures against pro-Iran Shiite regimes in the Mideast.
Assault in Burkina Faso Reflects African Sweep of Violent Islamism

January 19, 2016

The high-casualty attack on a hotel in the capital of the African nation of Burkina Faso by a local affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ("AQIM") points to the emergence of Africa as a new front line in the globalization of violent Islamist groups that take advantage of corrupt governments, endemic poverty, and criminality to radicalize and recruit from local populations.
Evolving Global Jihadist Landscape Presents Complex Challenges for US Response

January 19, 2016

The increasingly competitive global Islamist landscape, exemplified by hegemonic struggles between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, involves two alternative models, one focused on violence to fast-track implantation of sharia and the other on the gradualist imposition of sharia through gains in local support, thereby demanding a more complex, differentiated threat response by the United States.
Jakarta Attack Shows Broad Reach of IS

January 19, 2016

The Associated Press reports that the Islamic State ("IS") recent suicide bombings in the capital of Indonesia, funded through an Indonesian national who is now based in Syria, demonstrates IS's ability to finance and carry out deadly attacks across the globe.
Radical Islamization in Malaysia Produces Societal Tensions and Security Threats

January 15, 2016

Radical Islamization in Malaysia, supported by an influx of funds and radical imams from Saudi Arabia, is increasing socio-cultural tensions caused by the Arabization of Malaysian Islam and is aggravating security risks associated with recruitment by Islamic State ("IS") actors.
US Relies on UN for Latin American Refugee Screening

January 15, 2016

The US government has announced that it will expand its reliance on the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ("UNHCR") to conduct initial screenings of asylum seekers by giving UNHCR the authority to pre-screen applicants from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala before they are re-settled in the US.