Religious Extremism

Canadian Woman Lured by IS to Syria Details Jihadist Recruiting Strategy

April 01, 2020

A Canadian woman supporter of IS who is now seeking repatriation from a detention camp in Syria details the combination of sophisticated recruiting and brutal repression used by jihadists to enmesh Western women in the jihadist project.
Indonesia's Islamic Sects Advocate Niqab Coverings for All Women

April 01, 2020

The range of born-again Islamic sects across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, are promoting the full-body-full-face covering of all women under the niqab, a practice that has raised concerns among the country's political democratizers as a sign of growing social pressure by hardline Islamists.
Nordic Monitor: Coronavirus Pandemic Fuels Hate Speech in Turkey

April 01, 2020

According to the Nordic Monitor, the coronavirus pandemic has fueled hate and xenophobic speech in the predominantly pro-government Turkish media, which accuses the usually targeted groups and countries including Jews, the Gülen movement and the West of being the source of COVID-19 and spreading the virus among Turkish society.
Turkey Pursues Domestic Islamization Agenda with Moves to Church of Hagia Sophia into Mosque

March 25, 2020

The Islamist government of NATO-member Turkey took another step in its aggressive Islamization policies that include converting the historic Byzantine Orthodox Cathedral into a mosque, with the Islamic call to prayer being practiced from the minarets imposed on the church that will be activated as the “Grand Hagia Sophia Mosque.”
AQ Congratulates Taliban for “Defeat of U.S.” and Pledges Allegiance to Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

March 24, 2020

Al-Qaeda command has heralded the Afghan Islamist extremist Taliban’s Doha Agreement with the United States, presented by Washington as a peace deal to end two decades of war in Afghanistan, as a jihadist victory over the West, and pledged allegiance to Taliban Emir Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada as head of a new sharia state in the South Asian country and as the leader of global jihad.
Social Stigma and Guardianship Laws Are Ongoing Roadblocks to Women in Saudi Theocracy

March 18, 2020

Women in Saudi Arabia’s Islamic theocracy report increasing freedoms in legal-formal terms since notable liberalization moves in the last year around rights to drive and work, but some laws continue to limit women as equal citizens in the Sunni Islamist kingdom.
UN Lauds Interfaith Iraqi Religious Leaders’ Statement on Justice and Empathy for IS Victims and Legal Accountability of IS Perpetrators

March 18, 2020

The leadership of UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh (IS) has lauded Iraqi religious leaders’ for issuing an interfaith declaration aimed at reconciliation and durable peace-building in post-Islamic caliphate Iraq.
Attacks on International Women’s Day Marchers in Pakistan Should Raise Alarm about Scope of Islamic Extremism

March 18, 2020

The physical and verbal attacks by Islamic fundamentalist groups on International Women’s Day marchers in Pakistan underscores the decades of growth and consolidation of sociopolitical power of Islamic extremist groups in the nuclearized South Asian country that is crucial to the global effort to thwart Islamist fundamentalism and jihadist violence.
MENA Islamist Authoritarians Weaponize Coronavirus Threat for Geopolitics

March 18, 2020

The authoritarian Islamist regimes that dominate the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are weaponizing the coronavirus threat for purposes of domestic political repression, to shut down protests for regime reform and to target opposition voices for arrest.
Coronavirus Exposes Islamic Regime Frailty, But May Postpone Change

March 18, 2020

The rapid spread of the coronavirus among citizens and the state’s Islamist leadership has laid bare the theocratic regime’s incompetence in meeting the challenges of the pandemic, a phenomenon that may hasten regime change but at a more sluggish pace.