Violence and Security

Militant Islamists Continue War of Attrition in Somalia

July 13, 2015

Al-Shabaab, the militant Islamist group aiming to make Somalia a sharia state, staged a lethal attack on civilians in the country's capital, in an ongoing war of attrition against the Somali government currently protected by a multinational peacekeeping force.
Tunisia Faces Problem of Jihadi Recruitment

July 13, 2015

A new UN report on foreign jihadi recruitment patterns identifies Tunisia as a major source of recruits to violent Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria, and urges the Tunisian government to develop a national strategic plan to counter rising Islamist sentiment and support.
Tajikistan Cracks Down on Islamist Extremist Websites

July 13, 2015

Tajikistan's government has outlawed and publicly identified 80 internet websites associated with a range of Islamist extremist groups, all of which are working to consolidate a sharia caliphate in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Massive Islamist Attacks in Egyptian Sinai Aim to Push Boundaries of IS Caliphate

July 06, 2015

The Egyptian branch of Islamic State ("IS") carried out a massive wave of attacks this week in the Sinai Peninsula, the strategic connector between Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the Suez Canal, signaling a sharp upswing in efforts to expand the territorial boundaries of the IS caliphate and to continue the war of attrition against the current Egyptian government, which ousted the preceding Muslim Brotherhood ("MB") government from office.
Latest Egypt Violence Makes Democracy the Casualty in Secularist versus Islamist Battle

July 06, 2015

This week's assassination of Egypt's senior prosecutor, who had overseen the mandating of death sentences to hundreds of loyalists to the former Muslim Brotherhood ("MB") government of Muhamed Mursi ousted by the current military government of General Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, throws into sharp relief one of the most crucial policy lessons and challenges of the broader battle between secularist versus Islamist forces in the Greater Middle East, namely, the extreme risk to building democratic norms and institutions.
Egyptian Prosecutor's Assassination by Islamists May Signal Civil War

July 06, 2015

The assassination of Egypt's senior prosecutor earlier this week is widely seen as the clarion call by the Muslim Brotherhood ("MB") and other militant Islamist groups to target the country's judiciary in what is devolving into a civil war between the Al-Sisi military government and Islamist forces loyal to the MB, which was ousted in 2013 by a citation of actors led by Al-Sisi.
UN Appeal to Nigerian Government Reveals Boko Haram Use of Rape in Jihadi War

July 06, 2015

The controversial appeal by UN officials to the Nigerian government to loosen state restrictions on women's access to abortions comes as a result of the systematic use of rape by the Nigerian Islamist terror group Boko Haram against captive women and girls, underscoring the massive societal consequences of the group's use of rape as part of their jihadi campaign to impose sharia law throughout Nigeria and West Africa.
IS Threatens Hamas and Gaza as Weak on Islam

July 06, 2015

The Islamic State ("IS") issued an open threat against Hamas and Gaza, vowing to spearhead the imposition of sharia law in Gaza and criticizing Hamas for its failure to commit to the IS caliphate.
American Youth Are the Object of IS and al-Qaeda Recruitment Strategies

July 01, 2015

The story of a young American woman reveals a deeper picture of the relentless, sophisticated, systematic use of multiple forms of social media, by both the Islamic State ("IS") and al-Qaeda, to propagandize American youth to Islamist ideologies and to recruit that demographic for participation in Islamist violence.
Jihadis Use Divide and Conquer Strategy in Regaining Territory in Syria and Iraq

July 01, 2015

Committing mass civilian atrocities in the Syrian border town of Kobani, Islamic State ("IS") militias are using a strategy of divide and conquer, posing as either Syrian opposition forces or Kurdish peshmerga, in order to recapture lost territory by breaking the unified coalition of anti-Islamist-extremist forces comprised of units from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Defense Forces.