Religious Extremism

Turkey's Hardline Islamists Converge with Anti-NATO Agenda

July 17, 2017

Turkey's Islamist authoritarian government, still waging a mega-purge against the grassroots Islamist organization of Fetullah Gulen accused by Ankara of plotting the summer 2016 coup attempt against the country's president, has demonstrated a marked tilt towards the military's Eurasianist clique that views cooperation with Russia as the optimal alternative to NATO.
MB Combines Ideological Expansion with Mainstream Politics

July 17, 2017

A new report from Harvard University's Kennedy School suggests important lessons for countering the Muslim Brotherhood's (MB) strategies of education as Islamist ideological indoctrination, of penetration and capture of mainstream political institutions, and of opportunistic alliances with Islamist extremists.
Egyptian Women's Group Seeks Counter to Islamism in Mosques

July 10, 2017

The UN-supported Egyptian women's empowerment group Taa Marbot has called on the leaders of Egypt's al Azhar University to send English-speaking Islamic educators to mosques worldwide, especially in the US, to combat the spread of radical Islamism propagated by Muslim Brotherhood activists.
Qatar-Saudi Row Shows Staying Power of Muslim Brotherhood

July 10, 2017

At the core of the rupture between the Saudi Arabia-led alliance against Qatar is Doha's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement whose political staying power is viewed by Jeddah and its allies as the greatest existential, revolutionary threat to their regimes.
Turkey's Islamist Regime Continues Christian Cleansing

July 10, 2017

Turkey's Islamist government arbitrarily expropriated more than 50 churches, monasteries, and cemeteries from the country's Syriac Orthodox community, continuing the cleansing of the country's Christian presence through an aggressive Islamization campaign aimed at both peoples and properties.
Liberal Berlin Mosque Elicits Islamist Condemnation

June 27, 2017

Official Sunni religious authorities in Egypt and Turkey have condemned a newly inaugurated, liberal mosque in Berlin that allows male-female joint prayer and invites participation from all Islamic sects in statements pressing German Muslims to stay away from the "depraved and un-Islamic" mosque.
Islamist Sectarian Geopolitics Drive Qatar Crisis

June 27, 2017

The 13-point ultimatum imposed on Qatar by a Saudi-led alliance of Sunni Gulf States reveals the underlying Islamist sectarian geopolitics driving the crisis, going beyond the Sunni/Saudi and Shiite/Iran Islamist theocratic competition and extending to competition between the rival Sunni Islamist regimes of Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
UN Agents Call for Repeal of Indonesian Blasphemy Law

June 23, 2017

A statement from a group of UN human rights mandate holders recently called on Indonesia, in the wake of a prison sentence imposed by a court in the country on the Christian former governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, for blasphemy, to repeal its laws prohibiting blasphemy and provide for the release of Purnama.
Turkey's Mosque Construction Reflects Islamization

June 20, 2017

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to spearhead a massive mosque construction program across the NATO member-state, using public-private partnerships to advance the Islamization of the country's economy, society, and culture.
Turkey's Islamist Battles Ensnare Activist

June 19, 2017

Turkey's Islamist government has expanded its purge of human rights activists and journalists accused of support for the Islamist Gulenist movement, which it blames for last summer's coup attempt in Ankara, arresting one of the country's most distinguished human rights activists, the Chair of Turkey's chapter of Amnesty International.