Violence and Security

UN Meeting Seeks Human-Rights Solution to IS Recruitment

January 07, 2016

At a recent meeting of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman called for governments to look to the UN Charter and to international human-rights law as the bases for their response to Islamic State ("IS") recruiting efforts and foreshadowed the UN chief's release of a UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism.
US House Resolution Generates Free Speech Concerns

January 06, 2016

Judith Bergman of the Gatestone Institute expresses concerns that a resolution proposed by Members of the US House of Representatives that condemns "hateful rhetoric" against Muslims and calls on law-enforcement officials to prosecute and prevent "hate crimes" may be at the forefront of actions by US authorities to impose limitations on the freedom of speech.
Muslim-American ACLU Official Says Calls to Condemn IS Foment Islamophobia in US

January 05, 2016

The Muslim-American Deputy Director of the American Civil Liberties Union ("ACLU") of the state of Michigan has publicly condemned calls for Muslim Americans to denounce the Islamic State ("IS") as nativism and bigotry that provokes Islamophobia.
Islamist Extremists Disrupt Soft Civilian Infrastructure in Germany with Threats

January 04, 2016

The disruptive effects of Islamist extremists were on full display with the German authorities' recent closure of two major train stations in Munich after authorities received credible threats about planned rail violence by individuals associated with the Islamic State ("IS").
Islamism in Indonesia Suggests Possible Alternatives to Violent Radicalism

January 04, 2016

The comparatively weak results of the Islamic State's ("IS") aggressive efforts to recruit and radicalize in Indonesia, the state with the world's largest Muslim population, suggests the possible importance of Indonesia's Islamist alternatives to radical violence and competitive democratic speech freedoms as antidotes to totalitarian Islamist models.
US Counter-Narrative Efforts Against Violent Islamist Propaganda Need Fast, Crucial Adjustments

January 04, 2016

Experts are beginning to identify timely, logical adjustments to the myriad US counter-narrative programs designed to degrade the sophisticated, successful propaganda machines of radical Islamist groups that hold promise for improved results.
China Sees Rising Radicalization-Repression Cycle Among Uighur Muslims

January 04, 2016

China analysts are raising concerns about the destabilizing effects in the county's geostrategically important Xinjiang province and beyond, due to the intensifying cycle of state repression and domestic and foreign radicalization of the Sunni Turkish Uighurs.
UK Government Focuses on IS Sleeper Cells Among Medics in Sudan

January 04, 2016

Intelligence evidence pointing to the Islamic State's ("IS") transnational recruitment of British medics in Sudan has led the UK to expand the focus of its domestic counter-extremism policies to British nationals at Khartoum’s University of Medical Sciences and Technology.
Euro-African Jihadi Groups Coalesce in North Africa as Staging Ground

January 04, 2016

Diverse jihadi groups in North Africa and especially Libya are using the region as a critical staging ground for sharing intelligence, finance, and operational expertise for attacks ranging across Africa and into Europe.
Information Gaps on US Visa Overstays Stoke Security Concerns

January 04, 2016

US legislators have raised concerns over the admission by government security officials that they have little information on the number of people who have overstayed their visas in the US, despite a nearly 20-year-old federal law requiring the development of a system that tracks visa overstays and calls from security experts after the 9/11 attacks to implement such a system.