Violence and Security

Afghan IS Strikes Against State, NATO Forces

May 04, 2018

Islamic State (IS) cells in Afghanistan carried out deadly suicide bombings against state police and NATO forces on Monday, killing numerous journalists and children in attacks marking a continuation of various Islamist extremist groups’ assaults aiming to consolidate sharia law throughout the country.
Germany Struggles with Confrontation of Imported Anti-Semitism

May 04, 2018

Rising trends of anti-Semitic violence against Germany’s Jewish citizens by refugees and asylum-seekers from Mideast Muslim-majority countries raises complex integration policy challenges for the German government, which has avoided the issue to avoid raising liberal charges of Islamophobia and to avoid provoking anti-immigrant right-wing parties.
Attacks in Mali Show Islamist Threat to West Africa

May 04, 2018

Jihadists linked to al-Qaeda staged a series of fatal attacks against Berber Tuareg tribes in Mali, part of the ongoing effort by Islamists to gain full control of the West African state and the entire region of West Africa.
IS Affiliate Gains Ground over Rival Boko Haram in West Africa

May 04, 2018

The Islamic State of West Africa (ISWA) is gaining ground in the Lake Chad region countries, including Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, providing development help to the economically neglected local population, thereby gaining ground in the competition with local Islamist extremists such as Boko Haram to establish sharia states across the region.
Study Details Significance of Islamist Forefathers' Prison Experience

May 04, 2018

A new study by a well-known British social scientist expert traces the formative impact of Islamist ideologue Sayyid Qutb’s prison experience as organizer of the al-Tanzim al-Sirri (the Secret Organization) and of prison as radicalizer to explain the ideological and organizational mechanics by which revolutionary Islamists developed in opposition to secular states.
US Seeks Saudi-Qatar Reconciliation to Deal with Islamist Sectarianism

May 04, 2018

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s message to state officials in Saudi Arabia to repair the rupture with Qatar by the other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council is a strong signal that Washington views Islamist sectarianism as a primary obstacle to stabilizing the Mideast security environment.
IS Low-Tech Terror Techniques Spawn Offshoots

May 04, 2018

The multiplier effects of Islamic State's (IS) and other jihadi groups’ use of vehicles to execute mass casualty attacks is evident in the recent, lethal Toronto van attack, which had no direct connection to Islamist terrorism but follows the precise template of violent Islamist groups that have pioneered lethal truck attacks across European cities.
Al-Qaeda Leadership Moves to Reclaim Primacy

May 04, 2018

Al-Qaeda's emphasis in recent leadership announcements on the strategic imperative to attack the West, "infidels in foreign lands," and "infidel agents" signals the Islamist terror group’s deliberate branding move to regain primacy over the Islamic State in the competitive global jihadi movement.
Radicalization of Sinai Peninsula Threatens Israel, Egypt

May 04, 2018

The Sinai Peninsula has become an operational space for terrorist activities and attacks on local populations by the now-consolidated Islamic State-Sinai Province (ISSP), posing economic and security threats to the weak Egyptian state and existential threats to Israel that may require swift diplomatic and military action by Israel to re-establish the territory as a buffer zone.
IS Aims to Use Mediterranean Migration to Destabilize Europe

May 04, 2018

European policymakers are raising red flags about Islamic State (IS) operatives using food shortages in Africa to push migrants across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe to embed themselves into those migratory flows and recruit in Africa from locals displaced from food insecurity.