Religious Extremism

Saudi Islamic Theocracy Runs Female Detention Centers for “Social Correction”

July 13, 2022

Saudi Arabia’s Islamic theocratic has touted its relaxation of draconian religious laws regulating all aspects of civil society, but women designated by their either their families or the patriarchal judicial system are subjected to hidden detention centers where corporal punishment and psychological abuse is imposed to accomplish “social correction” that forces conformity to the Islamist laws and cultural practices that keep women in second class status.
IS Longterm Impact Shows in Challenges of Reintegrating Children Repatriated from Caliphate

July 11, 2022

The challenges of reintegrating IS foreign-fighter children repatriated from the caliphate war zone to Kyrgyzstan are indicative of the broader, longterm damage, across Central Asia and beyond, perpetrated by the Islamist terror group, as home governments and societies are asked to provide a combination of psycho-social, educational, and economic support needed to reintegrate children traumatized by the experience of the IS caliphate.
Malaysia’s Religious Affairs Minister Warns of Consequences for Insulting Islam

July 06, 2022

Malaysia’s Religious Affairs Minister has publicly warned that insults to Islam will produce “untoward incidents” in Malaysia and abroad, providing implicit support for blasphemy laws curbing speech freedoms in the name of respecting Islam, while he also reiterated that Islam and national identity are inseparable in the Southeast Asian nation in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion.
Taliban Convene Islamist Clerics & Tribal Leaders in Governance Meeting That Bans Women

July 01, 2022

The Islamist Taliban regime ruling Afghanistan for almost one year convened an assembly of three thousand Islamic clerics and tribal leaders to discuss governance issues in the South Asian country, while women were banned from the meeting, in another indication of the rapid marginalization and repression of women that has been a hallmark of the regime.
Turkey’s Reach Into US Senate Elections with Dual National Candidate

June 30, 2022

According to Turkey’s Islamist regime, its Islamo-nationalist progenitors are influence-building in US national election politics, given their direct ties to U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, the t.v. celebrity who won the Republican primary in Pennsylvania this year, with US politicians and Turkish human rights journalists highlighting the candidate Oz’s dual American-Turkish citizenship and his close personal and financial ties to Turkey.
International Union of Muslim Scholars Pushes for Broad Restrictions in Free Speech

June 22, 2022

The Qatar-based International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has announced that it will advocate for both the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to enact broad restrictions on free speech, with the international organization of Muslim Islamic theologians arguing that recent comments by a member of a India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about Islam's prophet Mohammed justify banning all speech deemed insulting to religions.
British Film Controversy Points to Deeper Divisions Within Islam & Challenges for Europe

June 20, 2022

According to unherd.com, Islamist extremist threats of violence that have successfully halted the showing of a British film about the wife of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed reflect the decades-long trend in Europe whereby Islamists justify intimidation and violence against free speech in the arts that are deemed blasphemous to their religion, reflecting a deeper contestation within Islam’s various tendencies and pointing to European governments’ submission to fundamentalist demands.
Women & Girls Suffer Loss of Rights Under Afghanistan’s Taliban Regime

June 20, 2022

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has moved with alacrity in what has become, in less than one year of Islamist regime rule, the full suspension of human rights for women and girls, including draconian bans on education and jobs, blocks on independent travel abroad, reversals of laws against domestic violence, compulsory full-body covering in dress, and prohibitions against movement in the public space unless accompanied by a male guardian.
Universities Are Frontline Space in Islamism Debate in France

June 15, 2022

The university system in France had emerged as a frontline space for intellectual debates about the differences between Islamism and cultural particle risk versus the universalist values and religion separation associated with French law and national identity, with pitched battles about curriculum, pedagogy, and research related to the politics of Left and Right in dealing with preventing Islamist violence.
Islamic Protests Stop UK showing of Film About Prophet Mohammed’s Wife

June 13, 2022

Protests and threats by Britain’s Islamic community leaders have condemned the new film Lady of Heaven as blasphemous given that it is a depiction of the life of the wife of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, leading two major United Kingdom (UK) theatre distributors to withdraw the film from all UK outlets out of expressed concerns for the safety of staff and patrons.