Religious Extremism

Saudis Tighten Control Over Wahhabi Establishment

November 08, 2017

Observers warn that a recent statement by Saudi Arabia’s monarch-in-waiting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that he would push for a moderation in the Wahhabi extremism exported globally by the Kingdom was actually a message about strengthening autocratic control over the Islamic religious establishment.
US Works to Broker Saudi-Iraqi Rapprochement

November 08, 2017

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is serving as the platform for the “Saudi Arabia-Iraq Coordination Council” to broker a united Sunni Arab front that can function to contain the geopolitical expansion of an Iran-supported Shiite arc generating Islamist sectarian instability with ripple effects from the Mideast across Eurasia.
Pakistan Islamism Legitimizes Intolerance of Pluralism

November 08, 2017

A new book explains how the steady consolidation of an Islamist authoritarian regime and a culture of intolerance in Pakistan, a key player in the geopolitically important region of Southwest Asia, has occurred through the steady decline of laws, social practices, and political parties that reject religious pluralism.
Turkey Islamizes Public-School Curriculum

November 01, 2017

The Islamization of Turkey's public-school curriculum, including the removal of teaching about evolution and the introduction of instruction about jihad, has pushed some parents and teachers to stage public protests about the end of secular education under the country's Islamist Justice and Development Party government.
Turkey’s Ruling Islamists Continue Targeting Civil Society

October 25, 2017

Turkey's Islamist AKP government continues to target prominent members of Turkey’s human rights community and civil society activist groups with ongoing arrests, indefinite detentions, and state media attacks used to frame all AKP opposition as terrorist followers of the alternative Islamist movement of Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen.
UN Observer Calls for Repeal of All Blasphemy Laws

October 25, 2017

UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed has called on all states that maintain blasphemy laws to repeal them due to "their stifling impact on the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief" and to expand citizens' ability "to engage in a healthy dialogue about religion."
Experts Look to Reagan's Soviet Policy for Solution to Iran

October 25, 2017

One model for US foreign-policymakers aiming to leverage Iranian constituencies that support an end to Iran’s Islamic theocracy is Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy toward the Soviet Union based on a combination of military-economic pressure and direct diplomatic engagement.
British Court Rules Against Gender Segregation in Islamic School

October 25, 2017

The British Court of Appeal has ruled that the al-Hijrah Islamic school in Birmingham must stop gender segregation in all aspects of the educational and social activities of the school, a legal finding that will now be applied broadly to all co-educational faith-based schools, encompassing all religious communities, in Britain.
Islamism Threatens Turkey's Strategic Relationship with US

October 25, 2017

The consolidation of an Islamist authoritarian regime in Turkey has produced a series of controversies in US-Turkey engagement, threatening to derail one of the most strategic relationships in the Transatlantic Alliance and raising questions about Turkey's commitment to combating the spread of radical Islamism.
Belgian Legislators Consider Transfer of Mosque Control

October 20, 2017

Belgian politicians are considering the transfer of control over the country's Great Mosque in Brussels from the current oversight by Saudi Arabia to a Belgian panel representing Belgium's diverse Muslim communities in an effort to thwart the influence of Salafist extremist thought imported to Belgium from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Turkey.