Religious Extremism

OSCE Criticizes Turkish Sentencing of Journalists

March 19, 2018

The Media Freedom Representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has criticized an Istanbul court decision sentencing 25 Turkish journalists to multi-year prison sentences on charges of supporting a terror group, the Islamist movement of Fetullah Gulen, in supposedly plotting a coup attempt against the country’s Islamist Government.
Iranian Court Jails Participant in Headscarf Rebellion

March 09, 2018

The two-year jail sentence meted out to an Iranian woman who removed her headscarf, charged by the government with "engendering corruption," is the latest punitive pushback by religious hardliners in the Islamist theocracy against sociopolitical liberalization symbolized by ongoing protests by Iranian women against the compulsory head coverings in public life.
Turkish Newspaper Calls for Islamic Invasion of Israel

March 09, 2018

Turkey news sources supportive of the country’s Islamist government are pushing for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to form a global Islamic Army that would marshal all of the OIC’s 57 member states’ conventional military capabilities, along with Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, to invade Israel.
Malaysian Court Limits Religious Freedom in Deference to Islamism

March 09, 2018

A Malaysian federal court recently ruled that freedom to convert to Christianity falls under the legal purview of the country’s sharia courts, a determination viewed by rights experts as a nod to the growing influence of hardline Islamists seeking to dominate politics and society in the South Asian country with a multi-religious, multi-ethnic composition.
Indonesian Islamic University Bans Burqas

March 07, 2018

The Indonesian government has explained that the State Islamic University's ban of the wearing of the full-faced burqa covering by female students reflects growing concerns over evidence of the growing influence of extremist Islamist ideology and actions opposed to the religious tolerance that has been a hallmark in the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.
Western Institutions Criticize Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws

March 07, 2018

US and EU rights institutions are criticizing Pakistan's punitive blasphemy laws, which punish speech and actions deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet Mohammed, for inciting Islamist extremism and for targeting Pakistan's religious-minority communities.
Islamists Decry Pakistani Mixed-Gender Funeral

March 07, 2018

Pakistani Islamists decried the presence of both women and men at the funeral of Asma Jahangir, the founding chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and an internationally renowned human rights and religious freedom activist, in fatwas as "an affront against Islam" and a violation of Pakistan's gender-segregation practices.
Gulf Grant to Maldives Faces Criticism as Exportation of Islamism

March 05, 2018

The announcement by the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of a $160 million development fund for the Maldives has provoked charges from the Maldivian political opposition that the economic assistance is a form of extremist Islamist penetration and infiltration to compete geopolitically with India and China in the Indian Ocean.
Turkey Uses Hostage Politics Against Western Allies

March 05, 2018

Turkey’s Islamist regime is resorting with increasing frequency to hostage politics in its relations with the US and European countries, imprisoning and detaining their citizens in exchange for lucrative arms contracts and as leverage for forced extradition of Kurdish and Turkish nationals.
Creeping Islamism in Malaysia, Indonesia Poses Election Challenges

March 05, 2018

Malaysia and Indonesia are facing electoral challenges from hardline Islamist organizations that have been steadily expanding their activities through a combination of terrorist attacks by cells connected to global jihadi networks and of systematic grassroots organizing in civil society.