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Islamic Financial Sector Continues to Gain Ground in Egypt
January 14, 2015
Despite the abbreviated tenure of Islamist government in Egypt, sharia-compliant/compatible finance continues to grow robustly, currently comprising 20% of the country's commercial banking sector clients and projected to experience healthy growth in 2015.
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Boko Haram Moves to Maximalist Strategy for Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria
January 14, 2015
The past two weeks' spate of terrorist violence against civilians in northeast Nigeria by the Islamist extremists of Boko Haram is being interpreted by some regional experts as a shift to a maximalist strategy by the jihadi group, aimed at the creation of an Islamic caliphate that may include Nigeria, Chad, and even Cameroon.
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Saudi Succession Raises Questions about Political Reform vs. Islamism in the Kingdom
January 14, 2015
Succession prospects raised by the declining health of Saudi King Abdullah are amplifying debates within the country's ruling class about how to balance the pace and scope of necessary political reform and liberalization against conservatizing pressures from Islamist jihadi groups and the country's Wahhabi fundamentalist religious establishment.
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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.
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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.