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Shiite Protestors Breach US Embassy Compound in Iraq as US-Iran Tensions Escalate
December 31, 2019
Evidencing escalated US-Iran tensions, Shiite Islamist protestors loyal to the Iranian-backed Kataeb Hezbollah Brigades breached the security perimeter at the US Embassy compound in Baghdad following US retaliatory strikes against Shiite militia who attacked US military and civilian personnel in Iraq.
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Turkish Police Detain IS Suspects to Preempt New Year’s Eve Attack
December 31, 2019
Turkish police have detained more than 100 people suspected of ties to the Islamic State (IS) network, a security move to prevent a repetition of the 2017 New Year’s Eve attack by an IS sympathizer who murdered 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub.
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Indonesia’s Sharia Economic Paradigm Portends Broader Political-Cultural Project Endangering Democracy
December 31, 2019
The steady shift to a sharia-based paradigm for Indonesia’s economy can be linked to the expanding political and social influence of the country’s diverse Islamist organizations, whose expressed goal is the country’s gradual transformation into an Islamic state.
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Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws Produce Another Death Sentence
December 31, 2019
In a decision condemned by international human rights groups, a court in Pakistan has handed down a death sentence to a young professor convicted under the country’s blasphemy laws, for insulting Islam’s prophet Mohammed and for blaspheming the Quran.
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World Leaders Condemn Jihadist Massacre of Civilians in Christmas Attack in Burkina Faso
December 31, 2019
Pope Francis and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres were among a chorus on global leaders who condemned a Christmas attack by over 20 jihadists that killed 35 civilians, mainly women, in Burkina Faso, the West African country where Islamist extremists affiliated with al Qaeda and IS are waging continuous war to impose sharia law across the Sahel region of the African Continent.