Violence and Security

Radical Indonesian Cleric Declares Support for New Islamic Caliphate in Mideast

August 13, 2014

Abu Bakar Bashir, a militant Islamic cleric jailed by the Jakarta government for terrorist activities in Indonesia, declared through the radical organization Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (“JAT”), that he endorses the jihadist caliphate, The Islamic State, proclaimed recently in the Mideast.
Chinese Muslims Call on OIC to Follow Turkey's Lead in Supporting Islamist Separatism

August 13, 2014

The World Uighur Congress has called on international organizations such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (“OIC”), the European Union (“EU”), and the UN to reinforce and support Turkey's demands for an independent inquiry into China's treatment of its Uighur Muslim population and to accept Turkey's claims that it has responsibility for what it calls the state of Eastern Turkistan, the region in China where Uighur/Turkic Muslims are concentrated.
Jihadists Erasing Christian Presence in Middle East

August 13, 2014

The assault against the ancient Christian populations of the Middle East by Islamist jihadists –first, as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (“ISIS”) and, now, as the expanding territorial caliphate of The Islamic State – goes beyond murders and expulsions of Christians, as profiteers have begun plundering and black-market profiteering of ancient Christian artifacts and texts.
Catalan Separatism and Radical Islamism Converging in Spain

August 11, 2014

Growing discussion about details of a tentative plan by the Emir of Qatar to build the world's third-largest mosque, in Barcelona, has spurred a sharp public debate about the growing linkages between jihadist Islamist immigrants and the Catalonian separatist movement in Spain.
Arab Spring Reform Hopes a Distant Memory

August 06, 2014

A Guardian report indicates that hopes of political liberalization and tolerance for pluralism that accompanied the Arab Spring events in the Middle East and North Africa have been erased by the emergence of a regional political map dominated by secular military autocrats, Islamist militant-extremists, Islamist theocratic hardliners, and renewed Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Militant Islamists Bring Jihadi Attacks into Lebanon from Syria and Iraq

August 06, 2014

Militant Islamists from the jihadi groups al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State are bringing their battle to Lebanon, after a weekend assault on a border town in the southern part of the country, raising fears that jihadist Islamists may be gaining ground in their goal of establishing a caliphate whose footprint covers the entire Levant.
Boko Haram Continues Assault on Christian Churches in Nigeria

August 06, 2014

The militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which aims to make Nigeria into a sharia state, continued its assault on the country's Christian presence, destroying five churches and publicly beheading two individuals over this past weekend.
Islamic State Moves to Control Oil and Water Resources May Heal Iraqi-Kurdish Rift

August 06, 2014

The jihadi leadership of the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS) has moved aggressively to capture control over income-generating oil and water resources in the areas around the key Iraqi city of Mosul, creating the possibility for a rapprochement between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government in order to face the security threat from the militant Islamist caliphate.
China Accuses Militant Islamists of Murdering Pro-Government Imam

August 04, 2014

Suggesting the growing radicalization and fragmentation of China's sizable Uighur Muslim minority population centered in Xinjiang Province, three Uighur militants have been accused of murdering China's leading pro-government imam and leader of the country's largest mosque.
Gaza War a Microcosm of Islamist Role in New Mideast Reconfiguration

August 04, 2014

There is growing consensus among Mideast experts that the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza reflects the contours of a regional balance-of-power struggle, pitting Israel and status-quo Islamic monarchies and secular authoritarian regimes (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Egypt) against hardline Islamist groups and their state patrons (e.g. Hamas, ISIS, Qatar, and Turkey).