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IS Jihadist Operations Continue Despite Military Defeat
April 23, 2019
Data collected from Islamic State (IS) news outlets indicate that, despite the military defeat of the caliphate, regional and local branches of IS continue to perpetrate violent attacks stretching across Eurasia, Africa, and Australia, just as the group's Islamist extremist ideology is being spread through IS messaging and institutions.
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UN Chief Requests Global Action Plan to Protect Religious Sites
April 23, 2019
In comments condemning the recent mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, UN Secretary-General António Guterres blamed anti-Muslim “hate speech” for the attack and announced he had asked the head of the UN Alliance of Civilizations to develop a global action plan to safeguard religious sites.
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Infants Born of IS Rapes Face Abandonment
April 23, 2019
Infants born from rape by Islamic State (IS) fighters who kidnapped and enslaved women from Yazidi, Shiite, and other communities that rejected the caliphate now face either scorn from their home communities or abandonment by their mothers who fear ostracism after liberation from IS enslavement.
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Iranian Forces Shut Down Cafes in Morality Crackdown
April 23, 2019
The Iranian Public Places Police have shut down cafes hosting a music festival in Iran's Persian Gulf Coast city of Bushehr after hardline Shiite Islamists associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards threatened the festivals performers and participants over "immoral behavior" incompatible with the Islamic Republic's teachings.
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Home Countries Hesitate to Repatriate Foreign Fighters
April 22, 2019
Thousands of foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State (IS), as well as wives and children of IS fighters, are now living an uncertain future in custody in camps in former caliphate territory, as home country governments are loathe to repatriate them in what is likely to be a complex legal process with uncertain political and social effects.