Violence and Security

Islamic State Has Staying Power Based on Multiple Assets

April 13, 2015

Despite the recent advances of international and regional actors arrayed against the jihadi terror group Islamic State ("IS"), the complex combination of religious, ideological, financial, and operational assets deployed by IS suggests the potential for protracted staying power and expansion of their political caliphate and military footprint within and beyond the Mideast.
Islamist Violence in Kenya Reveals Economics and Tactics of Jihadi Terror

April 09, 2015

The recent lethal attacks by the Somali Islamist extremist group al-Shabaab against Christians at Kenya's Garissa University displayed the jihadi group's economic and tactical logic, which relies on low-expense operations utilizing small cells of militants engaged in direct targeting of high-value targets, such as middle-class Christian civilians, that will minimize Muslim casualties.
Somali Islamist Terror Group Targets Christians in Lethal Attack on Kenyan University

April 08, 2015

The Somalia-based Islamist terror group al-Shabaab carried out a lethal attack on students at the Garissa University College in Kenya, explicitly targeting Christian students as "infidels in a Muslim land under colony" and pledging to use continuing violence to overthrow "the Christian government of Kenya" and to establish a sharia state that incorporates Somalia, Kenya, and other states in East Africa.
Islamic State Uses International Financial Networks to Fund Global Islamist Terror

April 01, 2015

The recent inaugural meeting of the Counter-ISIL Finance Group meeting in Rome formalized an action plan, in coordination with the multinational Financial Action Task Force ("FATF"), designed to target, disrupt, and terminate the Islamic State's ("ISIL/IS") successful use of international financial networks to fund global Islamist terror.
Islamism the Unifying Thread in Syrian Opposition Militias

April 01, 2015

Western support for anti-Assad forces in the Syrian civil war has been constrained by the shared banner of Islamism uniting all major opposition militia, which could result in an opposition victory that produces a form of Syrian nationalism mixed with extremist Islamism.
Yemen War Reveals State Islamist Power Struggles and Geopolitical Consequences

April 01, 2015

The full-scale, Sunni-Shiite civil war underway in Yemen is laying bare the serious geopolitical implications of the phenomenon of internationalized, militarized, state Islamism, represented by Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Global Jihadist Public Sphere Evident in Islamist Groups' Sharing and Adaptation

April 01, 2015

The borrowing, sharing, and adaptations across Islamist extremist groups such as the Islamic State ("IS") in the Mideast and Boko Haram in Africa, especially in terms of social media use, savage terror tactics, and operational strategy, point to the emergence of global jihadist public sphere aimed at appealing to multiple religious, socio-economic, and political constituencies.
Swedish Security Services Identify Islamism as a Domestic Threat

April 01, 2015

The Chief of Sweden's National Security Police has identified radical Islamism as a growing danger to the country's security, citing particular threats associated with the flow of European recruits to jihadi groups in Syria and Iraq, returning jihadists to Sweden, and high levels of asylum seekers to Sweden from the Mideast.
Turkey's Youth Radicalization Reflects Domestic Islamization and Supports IS Jihad

April 01, 2015

The increasing flow of thousands of radicalized Turkish youth fighters into Islamic State ("IS") militia in Syria is interwoven with the Islamization of Turkish politics and society under the Islamist authoritarianism of the ruling Justice and Development Party ("AKP") and may present a security threat to both the country's domestic stability and regional security order.
New Copenhagen Mosque Has Ties to Islamist Extremist Networks

April 01, 2015

Approval for a new mosque in Copenhagen by Danish authorities was secured by the Islamisk Trossamfund, a Danish Muslim faith group which was recently listed as a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates and whose former leadership was connected to the international Muslim Brotherhood.