Religious Extremism

Sharia Law Has Globalized With Different Versions and Effects

January 21, 2022

The Council of Foreign Relations explains how Islamic religious law known as sharia, which is built on a combination of Quranic teachings, sayings and practices attributed to Islam’s prophet Mohammed, had been globalized, with different versions customized to national and local conditions, as well as different impacts affecting a broad panoply of social practices and political regime types.
French Interior Ministry Shuts Mosque Over Radicalization Concerns

January 19, 2022

France's Minister of the Interior closed a large mosque in the French Riviera city of Cannes, based on multi-year intelligence indicating that the site leaders were inciting hatred through anti-Semitic language, part of a broader problem of Islamist radicalization identiifed with an estimated 70 mosques in the EU country.
Ministers Highlight Islamic Logic of Pakistan-Turkey Security Cooperation

January 17, 2022

The Ministers of the Interior for the two Islamist authoritarian regimes of Pakistan and Turkey affirmed that their shared perspective on the “issues faced by the worldwide Muslim community (umma)” will define bilateral cooperation on security issues, including human smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and migration, which have a Eurasian scope and impact.
Iran & Proxies Export Extremism to Latin America

January 14, 2022

The Islamic Republic of Iran and its main proxy Lebanon-based Hezbollah have pursued a decades-long strategy of penetration into Latin America as a tool for weakening democracy in, and exporting the Islamic Revolution to, the Western Hemisphere, using the cover of cultural and mosque programs to build influence.
Suspect in Paris Attacks Defends Terrorism and Blames Foreign Policy

January 14, 2022

The suspect on trial in Paris for the Islamic State’s (IS) high-casualty attacks in the French capital in 2015 offered insight into Islamist extremist worldview, as he defended terrorism and war crimes as acceptable Islamic responses to French foreign policy, which he claimed as justification for the IS terrorist assault.
Past Export of Radicalism Haunts Saudi and Emirati attempts at Islamic Moderation

January 10, 2022

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have undertaken shifts away from the fundamentalist Islamist approaches that were the the hallmarks of the two Gulf theocracies and their global exportation of Islamism, but evidence from Muslim-majority countries in South Asia and Islamic communities in Europe suggests that there has been no shift in the trajectory of radicalization that was long funded by the Wahhabi Gulf regimes.
Al-Shabaab Advances in Somalia Signal Islamist Gains

January 10, 2022

The vulnerabilities of the Horn of Africa to radical Islamist groups are being revealed by the steady advance of al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab in Somalia, where a weak state, political fragmentation, and the refocus of US and African Union to other crisis spots are creating permissive conditions for al-Shabaab’s gains towards imposing an Islamist regime.
Afghan Women Told to Cover with Burqa by Taliban Religious Police

January 08, 2022

The Taliban’s religious police, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which are charged with policing the implementation of sharia law in Afghanistan, have announced that Islamic precepts demand that all women should wear the full face-body covering of the burqa, delivering another blow to the rapid corrosion in women’s civil and political liberties.
Islamist Extremism Poses Major Impediment to Monetizing Afghanistan’s Rich Natural Resources

January 08, 2022

Afghanistan possesses a huge stock key rare earth minerals that are essential to the world’s transition to clean and digital economies, however the country’s lack of ability to monetize those resources through foreign direct investment and know how remains a roadblock due to volatile security conditions and human rights violations under the Taliban Islamist extremist regime.
French Mosque Closure Following Imam’s Incitements to Hatred & Violence

January 05, 2022

French security authorities have ordered the six-month closure of the Great Mosque of Beauvais, following reports that the local imam was celebrating jihadists as heroes and inciting hatred against Jews, Christians, and homosexuals.