Religious Extremism

Indonesia’s Sharia Dress Codes Affect Girls’ Education & Broader Socioeconomic Realities

March 21, 2023

A recent case in the West Sumatran Province of Indonesia, in which a Christian father challenged the mandatory hijab rule affecting his high-school-age daughter, highlights the complex intersection of educational rights and socioeconomic realities consequent to Islamist dress codes for women and girls, since the parent’s successful challenge generated a social media backlash threatening the family and culminating in their loss of livelihood and home.
Iran Reaped Rewards in 20 Years Since US Invasion of Iraq

March 21, 2023

Review of 20-year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq shows the political, economic, security, and cultural gains that have accrued to the Islamist regime in Iran, given that the destabilization and destabilization of Iraq generated regional changes benefitting Iran’s strategic aim of exporting the Islamic revolution, outcomes analyzed in leaked classified Iranian intelligence and to a meticulous study by the US Army War College.
Islamist Debates in Saudi Arabia Reflect Continuing Strength of Religious Hardliners & State Autocrats

March 18, 2023

A recently televised debate between two high-profile Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia over the issue of the death penalty for apostates from Islam revealed the internal tensions and contradictions in global debates about the permissibility and scope of sharia jurisprudential reform in Islam, with one of the clerics supporting the reformist movement currently spearheaded by Indonesia’s colossal Islamic civil society movement Nahdlatul Ulama, and the other cleric walking in lockstep with the Saudi regime’s policies (also adopted by the Islamic monarchy in the United Arab Emirates) of social liberalizations that stop short of any legal changes in the sharia-based laws that perpetuate systemic discrimination against women and violations of religious freedom.
Muslim Brotherhood Networks Rush to Use Turkey’s Earthquake Relief Funds to Promote Islamism

March 15, 2023

Muslim Brotherhood (MB) networks under the umbrella organization of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) are moving actively to gain access to Turkey’s multi-billion-dollar earthquake relief funds, aiming to use reconstruction in the country’s hard-hit southern provinces as an opportunity to promote the MB’s Islamist message through mosque- and school-building projects and to reinforce support for the reelection of Turkey’s current Islamist regime in the country’s forthcoming national elections.
HRCP: Pakistan’s New Blasphemy Law is Discriminatory & Repressive

March 13, 2023

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the largest independent human rights organization in the South Asian country, issued an official critique of the recent expansion of blasphemy legislation consequent to a unanimous vote by Pakistan’s National Assembly, with the HCRP expressing grave reservations about the law’s use as a tool of political repression of civil liberties in order silence opposition to the Islamist regime and as an instrument for societal discrimination and violence against the country’s non-Sunni Muslim religious minorities, who already are subjected to intimidation, persecution, and violence through the arbitrary deployment of Islamic blasphemy and apostasy accusations.
Islamist Terror Groups Use Turkey-Syria Earthquake as Jihadist Propaganda Tool

March 08, 2023

Sunni Islamist terror groups Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda (AQ) are using the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria to propagandize their message and to recruit and mobilize supporters, with both entities characterizing the earthquakes as a Divine warning for Muslims worldwide to follow sharia law; to practice anti-Western jihad, and to provide local humanitarian assistance to earthquake victims as a tool for recruitment.
Schoolgirls in Iran Face Escalating Poison Attacks

March 08, 2023

Schoolgirls in an estimated 30 schools under Iran’s Islamist theocratic regime have faces poison attacks perpetrated over the last several months of nationwide anti-regime public protests catalyzed by the death of a young women held in police custody on allegations of violating sharia-based dress requirements.
Bahrain Trial Highlights Briader Islamist Splits Between Pluralists Versus Autocrats

March 08, 2023

A high-profile trial in Bahrain has drawn the attention of global human rights groups and international organizations that are following the broad debates dividing Islamist reformers in favor of pluralism versus Islamist autocrats opposed to interpretive debate, where three members of the Al-Tajeed Society, a cultural organization that supports discussion and contestation of Islamic jurisprudence, are being tried under the country’s penal code for the crime of “mocking recognized religious texts” because of their support for reforming sharia law.
Turkey’s Islamist Regime Provokes Reaction With Ruling Allowing

March 02, 2023

Turkey’s Ministry of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) issued an Islamic religious (fatwa) allowing marriage between adoptive parents and adoptive whose children perished in the recent earthquakes based on a Quran of injunction against the legal status of adoption, provoking social backlash against the Islamist regime by human rights groups concerned that the fatwa will enable child abuse and increase the country’s already high incidences of underage marriage, which, in turn, provoked the Diyanet to file legal compounds against critics for inciting hatred and discrimination against the institution which regulates religious compliance with the Islamist regime.
Malaysia's Foreign Minister Calls for Leadership of Muslim World, Condemns West

March 01, 2023

Malaysia's Foreign Minister took aim at Western countries at the recent "Islamophobia International Forum: A Meaningful Engagment Through Madani Discourse," against what he called their hypocricy and prejudice as Islamophobes, and pushed for Malaysia's leadership under the slogan of Malaysia Madani (Civil Malaysia) to unite the global Muslim community (ummah) in a call for action to end what he defined as systemic discrimination and socioeconomic exclusion of Muslims.