Religious Extremism

Iranian Influence in Iraqi Parliament Involves Shiite Extremist Groups

June 22, 2018

The recent parliamentary elections in Iraq resulted in significant Iranian influence through a strong coalition of Iranian-allied Iraqi parties that include powerful Shiite extremists, raising the possibility of renewed Islamist sectarianism in Iraq and suggesting the importance of timing to avoid blowback from proposed US Treasury Department sanctions on accused Iranian proxies.
End of Saudi Driving Ban Clashes with Wahhabi Establishment

June 22, 2018

Women in Saudi Arabia are gearing up to drive legally for the first time in the history of the Islamist theocracy, though the end of the ban on women driving on June 24 runs against the position of the fundamentalist Wahhabi religious establishment that dictates social and political changes in the country.
Turkish Military, Islamist Partners Engage in Religious Cleansing

June 22, 2018

Turkish Armed Forces are coordinating with Syrian Islamist partners, a combination of jihadist groups still seeking the overthrow of the al-Assad regime in Syria, to target Christians and Yazidis, along with Kurds and non-jihadist Muslims, in the northern Syria region bordering Turkey.
UN Report Condemns Saudi Arabia for Torture

June 06, 2018

A report issued by UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and terrorism Ben Emmerson offers a scathing critique of widespread torture and other human rights violations perpetrated under the guise of counter-terrorism laws putatively designed to rid the Islamic theocratic kingdom of Islamist extremists and homegrown Wahhabi fundamentalists.
Qatar Wins Stand-off with Saudi Arabia

June 06, 2018

The result of a year-long Saudi-Qatar stand-off have proven to be a surprising diplomatic and geopolitical win for Qatar, thanks to the success of a massive lobbying campaign in Washington, a pullback in Qatari support for extremist Islamist groups, and a rebranding of Doha as protector of grassroots Islamic causes, among other factors.
Social Changes Challenge Hegemony of Iran's Islamist Regime

June 04, 2018

Incremental social changes that break the strict taboos and disobey the rigid laws of Iran’s Islamist theocracy, including gender mixing in private events and public spaces and fashion innovations to circumvent Islamic dress rules, signal ongoing public pressure to roll back the hegemony of Iran’s Islamist hardliners in government.
Magazine Cover Provokes Renewed Debate Over Wahhabism

June 04, 2018

A Vogue Arabia cover featuring a Saudi princess, intended to showcase the reformist agenda exemplified in the Islamic kingdom’s end to the ban on female driving, has provoked a social media backlash highlighting the recent spate of arrests in the country of women’s rights activists pushing for an end to male guardianship laws and other gender restrictions.
Russia Uses Chechnya as Counterweight to Radical Islamism

May 30, 2018

The arrival of the Egyptian and United Arab Emirates national soccer teams to the Russian North Caucasus Republic to prepare for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Moscow signals the Russian government’s efforts to enhance its relations with Mideast countries committed to combating Islamist extremism and to use majority-Muslim Chechnya as a counterweight to Islamist radicalism in the North Caucasus.
Turkish Regime Integrates Islamism, Economic Patronage

May 30, 2018

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is cementing his sultanistic regime by declaring the palace of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II as his Istanbul residence and using massive public works projects as an economic patronage system designed to maintain popular support for the ongoing Islamization of the country’s domestic politics and foreign policy.
UK Official Urges EU to Help End Blasphemy Laws

May 24, 2018

Britain’s Foreign Office Minister of State for Human Rights Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon has urged British, EU, and UN policymakers and officials to cooperate in ending global blasphemy and apostasy laws used by Islamists to silence religious freedom, while also recognizing that some EU member states have their own, albeit outmoded, blasphemy laws.