Religious Extremism

Pakistan’s Punitive Blasphemy Laws Target Christians

November 15, 2017

Christians remain a favored target of Pakistan’s punitive blasphemy laws, which international human rights groups continue to condemn as violations of free speech and conscience.
Saudi Sociopolitical Upheaval Targets Wahhabi Islamism

November 15, 2017

The massive sociopolitical upheavals underway in Saudi Arabia, catalyzed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s decision to allow women the right to drive and his recent anti-corruption dragnet, has been part of a more complex effort to curtail the expansive powers of the Wahhabi establishment and the draconian Islamist culture that has dominated the theocratic kingdom.
Malaysian Media Urges Public Discussion of Islamism

November 15, 2017

The growing radicalization of Islamist discourse and penetration of Arab jihadi groups in Malaysia is spurring some of the country's media to call for public debate about the causes and sources of extremism in one of Asia's geopolitically important countries that has sent significant numbers of fighters to support the Islamic State and al-Qaeda operations in the Mideast.
Saudi Political Shakeup Raises Risk of Mideast Conflict

November 14, 2017

The political purge and corruption dragnet underway by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, second in line for the throne of the Wahhabi theocracy, is creating unprecedented authoritarianism inside the country and threatens to provoke direct Saudi-Iran violence in the already geopolitically unstable Gulf region.
UK Court Rejects Muslim School Segregation Appeal

November 13, 2017

A UK appeals court has rejected an appeal from the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS) requesting review of a ruling that some AMS schools were causing discrimination through their policy of gender discrimination on the grounds of sharia law requirements.
Saudi, Iranian Islamists Compete in Lebanon

November 08, 2017

The competition for post-Islamic State Mideast hegemony between the competing Islamist regimes of Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran is growing sharper, evidenced in the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in what regional experts widely concur is a Saudi power play to destabilize the Lebanese regime dominated by the pro-Iranian-Shiite Hezbollah movement.
Turkish Islamization Goes Local as Erdogan Purges Mayors

November 08, 2017

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to drive state Islamization by drilling down to local levels of governance, commanding mayors from the country’s largest municipalities to resign on the basis of his interpretation of authentic Islam and his evaluation of personal loyalty.
Rights Group Criticizes Iran's Religious Freedom Violations

November 08, 2017

Global rights organization Human Rights Watch has issued a critique of Iran’s Guardian Council, the government agency for interpretation of the country’s Islamic constitution, for religious freedom violations involved in suspending a fairly elected city council member due to his Zoroastrian religious identity.
Iran Benefits from Kurdish Referendum Fallout

November 08, 2017

The Islamist theocratic regime in Iran has emerged as the geopolitical winner in the complex fallout from the now-stymied independence move that drove Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) referendum, with evidence of a consolidated Shiite geopolitical arc stretching from Tehran to Baghdad and Kirkuk to southern Lebanon and Syria.
Saudi Prince Seeks Return to "Normal" Islamism

November 08, 2017

In a recent interview, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely regarded as next in line for the throne in Saudi Arabia, linked his Vision 2013 economic diversification and reform program to the “normal” Wahhabi Islamism that defined the Kingdom prior to what he claimed was a reactionary Sunni turn against the Shiite Iranian Revolution.