Religious Extremism

Iran's Islamic Vanguard Cracks Down on Christians

March 14, 2017

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the vanguard institution of the Islamist regime, has arrested converts to Christianity and performed dragnets of Christian literature in a crackdown against Roman Catholicism as a putative domestic threat.
Turkey's Islamists Divide on Caliphate

March 14, 2017

In a move underscoring the state's willingness to silence all voices that challenge the ruling party's hegemony over Islamism, Turkey's Islamist government arrested leading members of one of the country's key global Islamist groups, Hizb ut-Tahrir, on the pretext of a disagreement over an annual conference on the restoration of the Ottoman caliphate.
Indonesia Visit Reflects Saudi Islamist Strategy

March 08, 2017

Saudi Arabia's King Salman's visit to Indonesia reflects the Gulf kingdom's longstanding cultivation of an "Islamist ecosystem" in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, part of a global strategy of Saudi investing in Islamist extremist educational institutions, political organizations, and infrastructure.
Turkey's Islamic Nationalism Is Recreating the Ottoman Caliphate

February 28, 2017

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has used 15 years of uninterrupted power to implement a domestic and foreign policy agenda that synthesizes Islamism and nationalism toward the goal of creating a new Ottoman Empire and reviving the caliphate in Turkey.
Maryland Mosque Memorializes Pakistani Murderer

February 21, 2017

A mosque in Pikesville, Maryland, celebrated a one-year memorial honoring as a holy man the assassin of a governor in Pakistan who had called for the abrogation of the country’s draconian Islamic blasphemy laws.
Election Contest Is a Litmus Test on Indonesian Islamism

February 20, 2017

Indonesia's standing as a secular state safeguarding principles of religious pluralism is facing an ongoing litmus test in the second round of the election for Governor of Jakarta, as hardline Islamist groups remain committed to rolling protests against the ethnic Chinese-Christian incumbent governor for his alleged blasphemy against Islam.
Blasphemy Killer Shrine Underscores Extremism in Pakistan

February 14, 2017

The construction of a memorial shrine and mosque to honor a police officer convicted of murdering a provincial governor in Pakistan, Salman Taseer, because of his campaign to overturn the country's draconian Islamic blasphemy laws, indicates the extent of societal support for such blasphemy ordinances.
Experts Link Global Islamism, Authoritarian Regimes

February 03, 2017

Some experts argue that the global jihadist movement receives support from authoritarian "Muslim regimes and governments who have appropriated Salafist-Wahhabist symbols" to divert attention from economic deprivation at home and to justify jihadi-civilizational attacks against non-Muslim and Muslim targets.
US Report Warns of Rising Islamism in Afghanistan

February 03, 2017

A US government report from the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction details a bleak picture of the "Talibanization" of the country, with opium-related revenue and violence fueling the Islamist terror group's growing strength against a weak, corrupt, and inefficient Afghan state.
Pakistan Pursues Aggressive Islamization

January 25, 2017

Christine Fair writes that a constellation of radical Islamist actors has penetrated and co-opted Pakistan's military, intelligence, and security agencies, leading to the consolidation of an Islamist authoritarian regime that aggressively represses all civil society opposition and that has made the country one of the most dangerous global exporters of jihadism.