Religious Extremism

Iranian Islamist Regime Continues Anti-Semitic Approach in Attack on VeggieTales Kids Animation Series

August 18, 2020

Iran’s Islamist theocratic regime is sustaining its longstanding anti-Semitic rhetoric and policies and commitment to the destruction of Israel, with state-run media denouncing the Persian-language-dubbed release of the VeggieTales’ kids animation movie on “Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen” as “Zionist propaganda that has infiltrated Iran’s streaming services.”
Anti-Semitism in Turkey Has Deep Roots Now Amplified By Islamist Government

August 18, 2020

Declassified documents from Turkey's military and security apparatus indicated deep roots for the current anti-Semitism expressed by the country's Islamist regime, with political elites viewing Turkey's Jewish community as a potential disloyal fifth column requirement surveillance.
Turkey's Islamists Reject Secularism and Hint at Caliphate

August 05, 2020

As Turkey's Islamist government converted the Hagia Sophia World Heritage Site into a mosque, the country's President is openly rejecting secularism as a sociopolitical mode and the government's base is hinting at a reinstatement of the caliphate.
Defendant Accused of Violating Pakistan’s Islamic Blasphemy Law is Murdered in Courtroom

August 04, 2020

A defendant on trial for blasphemy in a Pakistan provincial court was shot to death in the courtroom by an assailant who took responsibility for the killing because of the defendant’s claims that he was “the last prophet of Islam.”
Turkey Is On Road to Becoming a Sharia State

July 28, 2020

NATO member Turkey is turning into a sharia state, with the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque just the most recent step in a series of foreign policy, societal, and political changes implemented by the Islamist regime in power in Ankara for the past two decades.
UN Report Warns of Pakistani Jihadist Cooperation with IS Afghanistan

July 28, 2020

SUMMARY: A new report by the United Nations (UN) is warning that one of Pakistan's most radical Islamist groups, Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), is cooperating with the Islamic State's (IS) branch in Afghanistan, in a collaboration by two jihadist groups that reject any form of government in the geopolitically crucial South Asian region that does not adhere strictly to sharia law and that does not wage war on the West.
Germany Foreign Ministry Makes Controversial Hire of Anti-Israel Islamist for Religion and Foreign Policy Team

July 28, 2020

Germany's Foreign Ministry has hired Nurhan Soykan, the Secretary General of the German Council of Muslims, as an advisor on the role of religion in peacebuilding, a move that has generated domestic and international controversy because of Soykan's affiliation with the Iran-supported al-Quds (Jerusalem), an annual event in Germany that brings together a constellation of groups calling for the destruction of Israel.
French Muslim Leaders Criticize PM’s Warning Against Radical Islamism & Separatism

July 21, 2020

Muslim leaders criticized France's new prime minister for warning against radical Islamism as a threat to the country's security, echoing earlier cautions by the French president about Islamist violence and identity politics as a threat political values of freedom and equality.
UK Debates Use of Islamism As Distinctive Ideological Term

July 21, 2020

UK counter-terrorism authorities debating whether to reject Islamism as a term for describing terrorist attacks in the name of Islam risk missing the deliberate ideological principles associated with Islamism, a project of political hegemony and violence that represents a clear and present danger for non-Muslins and Muslims alike.
Contemporary Iranian Islamism Has Long History Combining Anti-Israel & Anti-Jewish Discourse and Policy

July 21, 2020

The recent statement by Iran's Supreme Leader, the senior-most Islamic cleric who is also the head of state for the theocratic regime, calling on Muslims worldwide to wage a jihad on Israel, combines a long policy trajectory back to the mid-20th century with anti-Semitic discursive references to the "final solution" for Israel.