Religious Extremism

Saudi Role on UN Human Rights Council Raises Red Flags

September 28, 2015

Saudi Arabia's role as a member of the advisory committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council ("UNHRC") has provoked an outcry from UN member states opposed to the potential impact of Saudi Arabia, a sharia-law state and egregious violator of international human rights standards, on special advisory and rapporteur appointments, as well as policy formulation of the UNHRC.
Islamo-Nationalism Fuels Culture of Violent Impunity Against Turkey's Minorities

September 23, 2015

The combination of hardline Islamism and exclusivist nationalism in Turkey is fueling an escalation in the acts of societal and state violence against minority communities, especially the ethnic Kurds, building on the history of violent religious cleansing against the country's non-Muslim citizens.
Afghan Women Use Art to Counter Controls of Islamist Extremism

September 16, 2015

Trends in commercial and folk art in Afghanistan reflect a deliberate move by women to use art as a mechanism for challenging the country's extremist Islamist religious and social codes which have been used to violate the civil and political rights of the country's female population.
Christians in Turkey Raise Growing Concerns About Threats from Radical Islamism

September 15, 2015

The escalation in threats and violent incidents targeting Turkey's Protestant Christians, many of whom are converts to Christianity, as "infidels and apostates violating the laws of Allah" have prompted Protestant community leaders to voice public concerns about being caught between the pincers of Islamic State ("IS") militancy and the indifference of Turkey's judiciary in prosecuting religious hate crimes against non-Muslims.
Saudi Religious Censors Ban National Geographic Cover Edition with Pope Francis

September 14, 2015

Saudi Arabia's government cited "cultural reasons" to ban the distribution of National Geographic’s Arabic edition whose August cover features Pope Francis, and experts speculate that the country's fundamentalist Wahhabi religious establishment objected to the Pope's comments about religious reform.
Iran Nuke Deal Lays Bare Saudi Sponsorship of Global Islamist Extremism

September 02, 2015

The policy debates over the proposed Iranian nuclear deal, whose opponents cite as a major rationale Tehran's support for Shiite Islamist violence, have also shown that the most committed financier and ideological sponsor of globalized Islamist radicalism and terror, in the name of orthodox Sunni belief, is the Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia.
Turkish Government Manipulates Islamism to Stifle Press Freedoms

September 02, 2015

Turkish courts ordered the arrest of three British journalists for abetting terrorism after they began reporting on Turkish security forces' clashes with the youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party ("PKK"), pointing to the Islamist government's opportunism in shifting its pro-Islamic State ("IS") stance in order to suppress freedom of expression on the issue of Kurdish rights.
Violence and Discrimination Against Non-Muslim Citizens Reflects Islamization of Pakistani State and Society

September 02, 2015

Pakistani state officials are increasingly supportive of radical Islamist groups and ideology committed to both the domestic application of sharia law and a jihadist foreign policy, as evidenced in the intensification of violent assaults and discrimination with impunity against Pakistan's non-Muslim minority citizens.
Distinction Between Islam and Islamism Is More than Dispute over Terms

August 31, 2015

The distinctions between Islam as a body of religious beliefs and practices versus Islamism as an ideology of political mobilization and organization has crucial policy implications for differentiating the contemporary globalization of Islamist violent extremism from the faith commitments of those who identify as Muslims.
Penetration of Islamist Sectarianism in Mali Raises Concerns About Regional Stability

August 26, 2015

As Iran and Saudi Arabia are implementing policies of deliberate religious and cultural penetration in Mali by introducing hardline Shiite-versus-Sunni interpretations of Islam to mosques and schools, security experts warn that radical Islamist sectarianism may destabilize West Africa.