Religious Extremism

Creeping Islamism a Concern in Indonesia's Public Schools

July 11, 2014

Dress, teacher training, and curriculum changes in Indonesia's public schools point to trendlines of creeping Islamism in a Muslim-majority country known for its tolerance for religious pluralism.
Jihadi Advance Cleansing Christians from Iraq

July 11, 2014

Iraq's remaining Christians are being forced to flee the country or to become internally displaced, in the face of violence being perpetrated by the jihadi group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (“ISIS”) as it imposes sharia law in captured territories en route to Baghdad.
Global Islamist Terrorism Targets Muslims and Non-Muslims

July 11, 2014

The militant Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab's attack days ago in Kenya bears all the markers of al-Qaeda attacks on voters in Afghanistan's recent elections and the current ISIS assault in Iraq, with Islamist terrorists targeting Muslims and non-Muslims alike for failing to conform to sharia law.
Internecine Islamist Struggle in Turkey

July 11, 2014

The struggle between Turkey's competing Islamist factions – the government's Justice and Development Party and the international Gulenist network – are producing continuing chaos in the country's political and social institutions, given wholesale purges of the police, judiciary, and media in Turkey.
Sharia and Anti-Terrorism Laws the Keys to Silencing Dissent in Saudi Arabia

July 10, 2014

Saudi Arabia continues to combine new anti-terrorism legislation with sharia law in order to silence internal dissent over the regime's human rights abuses, applying corporal punishments such as public lashings and beheadings.
Twitter Caves in to Islamist Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan

July 10, 2014

Social media colossus Twitter has caved into Pakistan's draconian blasphemy laws by agreeing to censor tweets considered "insulting to Islam."
Islamist Extremism a Growing Threat to Stability in Jordan

July 10, 2014

Representatives from the Jordanian Council on Foreign Relations are sounding alarm bells about the growing threat from Islamist extremists, Salafists and jihadis, to the country's domestic order, governability, and Christian minority population.
Democracy the Casualty in Competing Islamisms of Turkey, Iran, Saudi

July 10, 2014

Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are running point in support for competing versions of Islamism - Sunni, Shia, Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabi, and others - which, despite their differences, have combined to undermine democratizing forces in the Middle East.
Prodromou: ISIS Endgame Is Islamic Caliphate

June 23, 2014

Elizabeth Prodromou writes that the long-term goal of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ("ISIL" or "ISIS") to establish an Islamic caliphate in Baghdad should encourage "prudent policy planning" in Washington.
Jihadi Wars in Iraq and Syria Signal Islamist Takeovers and New Caliphate

June 19, 2014

The staggering success of radical jihadi group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ("ISIS") to capture and control territory in Iraq continues ISIS's gains on the Syrian front, signaling the group's ascendancy over competing Islamo-terrorist group al-Qaeda, as well as progress toward creating a new Middle East caliphate organized according to strict sharia law.