Religious Extremism

Attacks on Baul Mystical Singers Signals Growing Influence of Islamist Extremists & Endangerment of Religious Minorites in Bangladesh

September 07, 2022

A mob of extremists affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami Islamist party in Bangladesh carried out a two-day assault on Baul singers, their ashram-hermitage, and their musical instruments, in actions that signaled the Islamists' targeted rejection of the Baul mystical musical tradition of mistrel songs celebrating humanism and religious tolerance.
Taliban Prioritize Sharia Law in Afghan Foreign Policy & International Relations

August 29, 2022

The leading Islamic cleric of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime declared in a recent meeting that the country will organize its foreign policy according to the dictates of sharia law and will restrict its international relationships accordingly.
Islamists Close Public Family Park for Women in Pakistan

August 29, 2022

Hardline Islamist groups advocating the Talibanization of Pakistan are making headway with their recent successful demand to military authorities in a northwest city of Pakistan that a family park be closed to women and children in order to prevent the “spreading of obscenity and vulgarity” .
Turkish Police Detain Pop Singer on Incitement and Blasphemy Charges

August 26, 2022

Police arrested one of Turkey's most popular singers on charges of inciting hatred and insulting society, in another application of Islamic blasphemy laws used by the Eastern Mediterranean Islamist regime to limit speech freedoms.
Algerian Islamists Condemn French Diplomatic Delegation for Inclusion of Chief Rabbi

August 26, 2022

According to Alegemeiner, a coalition of Muslim Brotherhood-led Islamists in Algeria has publicly condemned the inclusion of France's Chief Rabbi in a 90-person diplomatic delegation led by French President Emmnuel Macron to the North African country, labelling the Chief Rabbi an "agent of Israeli and supporter of Zionist apartheid" in language consistent with Algeria's refusal to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
Turkey and Iran Islamists Trade Political Support for Free Militant Activities

August 24, 2022

Iran-backed Turkish Hezbullah and Turkey’s Islamist government have struck deals that have freed convicted prisoners of the Islamic-terrorist group in exchange for the radicals’ political and electoral support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in a tacit alliance that gives traction to the Hizbullah-AKP shared goals of consolidating an Islamic state in NATO-member Turkey.
Turkey’s Islamists Use Maryland Base to Train Lobbyists for Influence Building in North America

August 24, 2022

Turkey’s Islamist government is opening a new front for influence building in North America with the launch of a U.S.-Canada diaspora Advocacy Academy at the Maryland-based Diyanet Center of America, a branch of the Turkish state Ministry of Religious Affairs that coordinates with the Islamist regime’s National Intelligence Organization to identify diaspora individuals for for influence building through lobbying and espionage activities.
Drone Killings of IS & AQ Leadership Reveal Resilience of Competing Islamist Groups

August 23, 2022

The spate of killings of top al-Qaeda (AQ) and Islamic State (IS) leaders by US drone strikes opens up a window into the capacity for adaptation and resilience of the two main Islamist groups competing for global dominance, indicating that both groups have developed the capacity to move beyond their founding models of charismatic leadership and to build the kind of institutional durability and cross-generational staying power that makes AQ and IS Islamism an ongoing threat to global peace and order.
Taliban’s Battle for Afghanistan Has Sustained Decades of a Global Islamism

August 17, 2022

The one-year anniversary of the US-led peace building coalition in Afghanistan that left the Taliban in control of the South Asian country is a reminder of the staying power and contagion effects of the Islamist group for global jihadis, since the Taliban’s successful ouster of the Soviet Union in the late-1980s inspired jihadists worldwide to stand up against superpowers, just as the current a Taliban Islamic Emirate is viewed as an example for emulation by Islamists on multiple continents.
Taliban Celebrate Anniversary of Control in Afghanistan as Jihadi Defeat of West

August 15, 2022

Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban regime celebrated one year in power in Afghanistan as the fulfillment of jihadist responsibility to oust the US-led Western peace building coalition from the South Asian country.