Religious Extremism

Taliban Ignore Coronavirus Pandemic and Ramadan Holiday to Advance Jihadist Goal of Control Over Afghanistan

April 28, 2020

Sharply increasing their attacks this week on government and civilian targets in Afghanistan, the Taliban have demonstrated their jihadist commitment to capturing the South Asian state, ignoring the Islamic holy period of Ramadan, the public health challenges of coronavirus mitigation, and the commitment to the peace deal recently signed with the United States.
Saudi Wahhabi Soft Power Is Reshaping Indonesia into a Frontline Islamist State

April 22, 2020

Saudi Arabia's Islamic theocratic regime has systematically deployed the Wahhabi kingdom's soft power resources to reshape Indonesia into a frontline state in the globalization of fundamentalist Islamist ideology and violence.
Jihadists Call for Caliphate in Mozambique

April 15, 2020

Local Jihadists in Mozambique’s energy-resource-rich northern region have called for the imposition of a caliphate in the West African country, joining the ecosystem of diverse Islamist extremists groups warring to replace Mozambique’s government with a sharia regime.
Frantzman: Shiite Sectarian Influence Grows in Iraq

April 15, 2020

Writing in Foreign Policy, Seth Frantzman argues that Shiite Islamist sectarian influence in the political social, and religious infrastructures of Iraq has grown steadily over the past half decade, threatening to consolidate a pro-Iranian influence under the umbrella of Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
MEMRI: State Media and Ministry of Religious Affairs in Turkey Promote Religious Extremism

April 15, 2020

State-supported media reports in Turkey and sermons issued by the state's Ministry of Religious Affairs regularly use discursive tropes advocating jihad, praising martyrdom through jihad, and a return to the caliphate as the means to end the imposition of democracy in the Muslim world.
COVID-19 Will Expose MENA Region to Growing Islamist Sectarianism and Jihadist Activities

April 15, 2020

Writing in the The National Interest, Colin Clarke and Hajer Naili opine that It is likely that the COVID-19 pandemic will result in the intensification of Islamist sectarianism and the expansion of jihadists’ operations across the Middle East and North Africa ("MENA"), which is already a politically and economically weak region.
Saudis Use Cyber-weapons for Surveillance Campaign Inside US

April 08, 2020

A whistleblower with knowledge of Saudi Arabia's three largest telecommunications companies indicates that the Sunni Islamic fundamentalist regime is weaponizing its global mobile phone technologies for a systematic surveillance campaign targeting Saudi nationals inside the United States and other countries, towards the goal of taking retribution against real and perceived opponents of the Islamist monarchy.
Council on American-Islamic Relations Loses Pressure Campaign to Prevent Speaker on Islam at US Army War College

April 06, 2020

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) failed in its efforts to prevent the US Army War College's Heritage and Education Center from hosting a speaker on the history and present state of Islam, Islamism, and war.
Pakistan Detains Four Islamists Acquitted for Murder of US Journalist Daniel Pearl

April 06, 2020

Following U.S. and international human rights groups’ outrage over the decision by a Pakistan court’s acquittal and early release of the four Islamists convicted of the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, local authorities in Sind Province have detained the men, citing concerns that their release could produce actions detrimental to the country.
Pakistan Officials Fuel Islamist Violence by Sunni Muslim Majority Against Hazaara Shiite Minority for Spreading COVID-19

April 06, 2020

As Pakistan authorities accuse the country's Hazaara Shiite minority of spreading the COVID-19 virus, members of the country's Sunni Muslim majority are targeting them for violence as the source of the "Shiite contagion."