Violence and Security

US Think Tank Critiques Congressional Resolution on Islamophobia as Free-Speech Violation

January 15, 2016

According to a think tank focused on national security strategy, a recently passed US Congressional Resolution (H. Res 569) condemning "hateful rhetoric" toward Muslims in the United States points to the corrosive effects on free speech caused by conflating criticism of radical Islamist violence with Islamophobia as a form of religious racism.
IS Attacks Show Dangerous Pattern of Expanding Networks, Support, Threats

January 14, 2016

The pattern of Islamic State ("IS") attacks over the past year points to the extremist group's ability to build global collaborative networks with violent Islamist groups, implement deadly assaults on civilian economic and social targets, and inspire lone-wolf attacks by sympathizers in Western countries.
Suicide Bomber Rocks Istanbul in Likely IS Warning to Turkey

January 14, 2016

Turkish state officials have identified the perpetrator of the lethal suicide-bombing attack in one of Istanbul's major tourist centers as a Syrian citizen who entered Turkey as part of the massive influx of economic migrants, but security experts warn that the attack constitutes a message from the Islamic State ("IS") against Turkey's cooperation with the international coalition against IS.
Boko Haram Continues Jihadi Expansion into Cameroon

January 13, 2016

Female suicide bombers from the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram staged a lethal attack on worshipers in a mosque in northern Cameroon, an indicator of Boko Haram's sustained, unrelenting expansion of jihadi activities aimed to impose sharia rule across the West African countries of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
Benard: Islamic Self-Estrangement Plays Role in Violence

January 12, 2016

Author Cheryl Benard writes that recent Islamist attacks in the West have demonstrated that supporting moderate forms of Islam is not enough to supplant the religion's more violent strains and argues that Western countries instead must find ways to aid those within the religion who favor Islamic integration with Western society and culture.
Violent Islamism Exerts Pernicious Effects on US Free-Speech Standards

January 12, 2016

Calls to restrict violent and hateful propaganda from extremist Islamists on social media and websites have produced concerns that these restrictions would give Islamists a victory over the United States' robust standards for the protection of the freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the country's Constitution.
NGO Highlights US Reliance on UN in Refugee Resettlement

January 12, 2016

The nongovernmental organization Center for Immigration Studies has published an article advocating increased scrutiny of the practices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ("UNHCR") given the US's reliance on the agency to select and pre-screen Syrian refugees for resettlement within the country.
Migration Crisis Exacerbates Germany's Islamization Challenges of Social Violence and Intolerance

January 11, 2016

The influx of over 800,000 Muslim migrants into Germany in 2015 generated huge integration challenges that are expected to intensify, including the emergence of no-go zones controlled by "sharia police" in working-class urban centers, sexual assaults against women for "provocative" and "culturally insensitive" behavior, and youth radicalization by Salafists in German mosques with fusing from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
IS Video Confirms Recruiting Pipeline to British Jihadi Outfit

January 11, 2016

British security experts believe that the speaker in the latest Islamic State ("IS") propaganda video is a British citizen and member of the outlawed British Islamist extremist group, al-Muhajiroun, whose members have perpetrated multiple Islamist terror attacks in Britain, thereby confirming transnational radicalization and recruitment linkages to the IS jihadi operation in Syria.
Congressional Vote Proposes Aid Cuts to Terrorist Travel Enablers

January 08, 2016

The US Congress is voting on new legislation that would cut foreign economic and military assistance to countries designated as enablers of jihadi global travel, a move aimed to develop a national strategy for countering terrorist travel associated with violent Islamist threats to American homeland security.