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Clashes Between Police and Islamic Rebels Threaten Fragile Peace in Philippines
January 28, 2015
The eruption of violent clashes between Philippines police forces and fighters from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front ("MILF") has frozen progress on legislation to grant autonomy to the Muslim-dominated Bangsamoro region in the southern part of the country, jeopardizing the fragile peace process that had halted decades of fighting and giving renewed traction to the radical Islamist separatists of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters ("BIFF").
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Military Versus Muslim Brotherhood Rivalry Reflects Fragile State in Egypt
January 28, 2015
The past four years of political and social upheaval that have characterized Egypt's Arab Spring experience signal the serious fragility of the Egyptian state, whose endemic corruption and widespread capacity failures have made for an exhausted but still-restive citizenry polarized by the ongoing power struggle between the secular authoritarian al-Sisi government and the sharia-model Muslim Brotherhood.
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New Saudi King Faces Pressure to Support Islamic Fundamentalist Agenda Against Rights and Freedoms
January 28, 2015
The ascension of King Salman to the leadership throne of Saudi Arabia is provoking social commentary about the pressures that the new king will confront from fundamentalist political and religious leaders, led by Interior Minister Prince Naïf, who are committed to an extremist interpretation of Islam.
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Extremist Wahhabi Religious Establishment May Gain Strength in Saudi Arabia with New Saudi
January 28, 2015
Saudi Arabia's new ruler, King Salman, is known for his loyalty to the fundamentalist-extremist Wahhabi religious establishment, and many political analysts suggest the real possibility of a revitalized symbiosis between the Saudi royal family and the Wahabbi clerics, with anti-reformism at home and export of Islamist extremism abroad.
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Turkey Blocks Facebook Images as Blasphemous
January 28, 2015
Courts in Turkey have ordered the blocking of Facebook pages depicting images and commentary deemed "blasphemous" to Islam, signaling the expanding use of Islamist justifications to limit media and speech freedoms under the country's Islamist government.