Violence and Security

Paris Attack Illustrates Pernicious Threats of Violent Islamism

January 14, 2015

This week's assault on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo illustrates the pernicious, insidious threats associated with the globalization of violent Islamism and the long-term implications of unresolved policy questions relating to immigration and integration in France.
Boko Haram Carries out Another Jihadi Attack on Nigerian Civilians

January 08, 2015

The militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which aims to impose Sharia law throughout Nigeria, staged the second attack in only a few days on another town in the northeastern part of the country, raising both the number of civilian casualties and refugee flows from Nigeria into neighboring Chad.
Speech and Press Freedoms Provoke Islamist Terror Attack on French Newspaper

January 07, 2015

European leaders are condemning the gangland executions of senior editorial staff and guards of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo as an attack on speech and media freedoms, as the perpetrators shouted Islamist slogans about avenging Islam's prophet Mohammed as they fled the site of the Paris headquarters of the newspaper well-known for satirical commentary and cartoons about religion.
Muslim Leaders and Activists Use Social Media to Condemn Islamist Assault on French Newspaper

January 07, 2015

Muslim religious leaders, social activists, and public intellectuals, from Paris to Detroit, have taken to social media to issue condemnations of the fatal attack by apparent Islamist extremists at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, reflecting the strident debates within Islamic communities worldwide about the use of religious violence for political purposes.
Radical Islamist Expansion in Iraq Erasing Civilizational Footprint of Christianity

January 07, 2015

The jihadi war being waged by violent extremists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (“ISIS”) has led to massive casualties for non-radical Muslims and Yazidis in Iraq, but experts note that the disproportionately negative effects on the country's Christian communities is hastening the extinction of the two-millennia presence of Eastern Christianity in Iraq.
Islamist Extremist Militias in Libya Target Coptic Christians for Kidnapping and Killing

January 07, 2015

Islamist extremist militias fighting to capture full control over Libya carried out another episode in the trend of targeted kidnappings and killings against Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians working as guest laborers in Libya.
Egypt's Main Islamic Institutions Condemn ISIS Fatwas

January 07, 2015

Egypt's preeminent institutions of Islamic learning, the renowned Al-Azhar and Dar al-Iftaa, issued a series of reports that condemn the theological declarations of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (“ISIL/S”) as violent-extremist deviations and misinterpretations of Islamic jurisprudence.
Islamist Extremists Use Book Burning to Erase Mideast's Religious Minorities

January 07, 2015

In tandem with their violent campaign of religious cleansing against the Mideast's religious minorities, the extremist Islamic State has begun a policy of burning all books that identify Christians and Yazidis as indigenous to Iraq and, therefore, to erase any presence of those non-Muslim religious communities in Iraq.
Global Islamism Relies on Violence and Rage Against Modernity and the West

January 07, 2015

The world's diverse forms of Islamism share a unifying logic and strategy, namely hostility against the West as the purveyor of modernity understood as antithetical to the interests of global Muslim community and a willingness to use political violence to combat modernity and the West.
Spread of Islamist Radicalism in Sweden Causes Threats and Social Disorder

January 07, 2015

The Swedish government is trying to maintain domestic social order and the country's liberal democratic freedoms, in the face of security threats from the spread of Islamist extremist recruitment to the jihadi Islamic State and recent anti-immigrant attacks against mosques in Sweden's main cities.