Violence and Security

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.
IS Chief Mocks Enemies and Promises Revenge for Global Islamic Nation

January 04, 2016

The leader of the Islamic State's ("IS") caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, recently released a new message mocking both the US-led military coalition and Saudi-led Islamic military coalition against IS, promising unrelenting revenge attacks against all states that threaten the global Islamic nation (umma).
IS Focuses on Cyber Capabilities to Attack US Infrastructure

January 04, 2016

Intelligence experts confirm that the Islamic State ("IS") is working aggressively to upgrade its cyber capabilities for launching mass-casualty terrorist attacks against primary US infrastructure, including the nation's electricity grid, nuclear power plants, and air traffic controls.
Radical Islamists Use Terror Against Bloggers to Suffocate Secularism

January 04, 2016

The sustained attacks against secular bloggers in Bangladesh by radical Islamist groups signals a broader effort by the Islamic State ("IS") to consolidate its hegemony over Bangladesh's Islamist groups, as well as use terror to suffocate the pluralist speech and media freedoms that have been the hallmark of the country's secular politics.
Experts Explore IS Internet Incitement and Curbs on First Amendment

December 29, 2015

The Islamic State's ("IS") sophisticated use of the internet to recruit, radicalize, and, most especially, incite hatred and violence in the name of Islamic jihad is generating a crucial debate among US constitutional and security experts, on possible curbs on the First Amendment under the "clear and present danger" standard of “imminent lawless action.”
UN Emphasizes Muslim "Victimhood" as Result of Terrorism

December 29, 2015

Anne Bayefsky of the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Voices writes that two panels recently hosted at the UN's New York headquarters characterized American Muslims as victims of Islamophobia in the wake of the 9/11 and San Bernardino attacks perpetrated by Islamic terrorists.
IS Is a Pseudo-State, Not a Simple Terrorist Organization

December 29, 2015

Security experts are debating the diagnosis of the Islamic State ("IS") as a pseudo-state that combines the force projection capabilities and economic functions of a state with extremist Islamist ideology, with implications for an offensive containment strategy integrating decisive diplomacy with innovative military operations.
IS Theologians and War Spoils Department Manage Slavery and Sex with War Captives

December 29, 2015

Islamic State ("IS") theologians have issued a religious ruling with detailed sharia justifications permitting male "owners" to enslave, buy and sell, and have sex with female captives of jihad, with the fatwa on slavery and sex intended to support the operations of IS's newly established "Department of War Spoils."
Suicide Bombing Signals Rising Islamism in Bangladesh

December 28, 2015

A suicide-bomb attack targeting an Ahmadiyya mosque in Bangladesh sends a worrying signal of the growing influence of extremist Islamism in Bangladesh, given that many Sunni Muslims worldwide consider Ahmaddiya to be heretics warranting persecution.
Resurgent Taliban Gains Ground in Sharia Struggle for Afghanistan

December 28, 2015

Taliban militia continue to make headway in the battle for Helmand Province, a strategically important region that would allow the Taliban to use the opium economy and access to Pakistani support in order to oust the Afghan government and impose sharia through the country.