Violence and Security

Malaysian Hardline Islamists Try to Brand Anti-Terrorism Laws as Biased Against Islam

April 20, 2015

The Malaysian branch of the global Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir, whose declared aim is the establishment of a worldwide caliphate and a rejection of democracy, has denounced Malaysia's new anti-terrorism legislation as the promotion of "Western bias" that fails to differentiate between "extremism versus legitimate jihad against enemies of Islam."
Al-Shabaab Attack in Kenya Reflects Broader Islamist Ambitions Beyond Horn of Africa

April 20, 2015

The recent lethal attack against a Christian university in Kenya by the Somali-based Islamist extremist group al-Shabaab points to a strategic shift, based in the expansion of jihadi terror operations aimed at the imposition of sharia law beyond the Horn of Africa to all of East Africa.
U.S. Charges Returnee with Terrorism After Fighting with Islamists in Syria

April 17, 2015

A U.S. federal grand jury indicted a young Somali-American with material support to terrorism, as he confessed that he returned from fighting in Syria with the violent Islamist group al-Nusra Front in order to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.
UN Investigates Isamist Extremists' Use of Sexual Violence as Terror Tactic

April 17, 2015

The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence will be traveling to the Mideast to investigate the "catastrophic new trend" whereby armed Islamist extremist groups are using systematic rape and other forms of sexual violence as an ideological terror tactic to support their broader strategic goals, a phenomenon also growing in African countries where violent Islamists are active.
Radical Islamists Target Women in Europe for Recruitment into ISIS

April 15, 2015

International security experts and human rights organizations are warning about the growing success of Islamic State ("IS") in targeting women in European countries for radicalization and recruitment to the jihadi movement in Syria and Iraq, with an estimated 550 women, usually accompanied by their children, already having migrated from Europe to the IS front in the Mideast.
Jihadist Competition Presents Serious Longterm Threat to Global Peace and Security

April 15, 2015

The competition for hegemony between the world's two major jihadist franchises, al-Qaeda and The Islamic State ("IS"), is producing the kinds of organizational adaptations, operational innovations, and media strategies which, overall, are strengthening both movements and raising the longterm threat to global peace and security from Islamist ideology spread through jihadi violence.
Global Jihadi Competitors Using Media for Islamist Hearts and Minds Campaign

April 15, 2015

Competing jihadi movements, including The Islamic State ("IS"), al Qaeda, and Jabhat al-Nusra, continue to develop sophisticated and systematic media strategies designed to win the "hearts and minds" of the global community of Muslim believers (umma) and to gain monopoly control over recruits for jihadi military, political, and educational activities.
American Supporter of Islamic State Raises Concerns About Homegrown Jihadism

April 13, 2015

U.S. authorities have apprehended an American citizen planning to carry out a suicide attack in the name of the Islamic State ("IS") against a military installation in Kansas, raising concerns about the possible growth in jihadi ideas and operations on American territory.
Militant Islamists and Pakistani State Maintain Close Ties

April 13, 2015

The decision by a Pakistani court to release a leader of the violent Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, has raised concerns in India and the United States about the penetration of militant Islamist actors in Pakistan's state institutions.
Islamic State Has Staying Power Based on Multiple Assets

April 13, 2015

Despite the recent advances of international and regional actors arrayed against the jihadi terror group Islamic State ("IS"), the complex combination of religious, ideological, financial, and operational assets deployed by IS suggests the potential for protracted staying power and expansion of their political caliphate and military footprint within and beyond the Mideast.