Islam,Terrorism and Jihad
The radical group adds a fresh dimension to the contest for Afghanistan's future. Their decrees threaten in some areas to reverse US-funded gains in education and women's rights. And they have made the Taliban, who have also committed atrocities, an appealing alternative in ungoverned regions.
Violence is a frequent visitor to Bangladesh. Its birth in 1971 had been through a particularly sanguinary civil war. Long spells of street demonstrations, state brutality and genocide and an India-Pakistan war had preceded its emergence as a new nation from the charred remains of East Pakistan….
When reports began emerging last year that some Afghan militants had shifted their allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, the government and international response remained measured. Experts noted that in Afghanistan, the Islamic State represented more of a splintering of the Taliban than a major expansion of the core group out of Syria and Iraq.
The fight against the so-called Islamic State (IS) has become a catchphrase in the contemporary world. The sole superpower, with all its air power and sophisticated intelligence apparatus, is apparently leading the fight against IS in Iraq and Syria. The US and its allies, Iran and Russia all consider IS to be a great threat to regional peace and stability.
West Asia is in a turmoil whose magnitude can undoubtedly compare with that at the height of the Crusades in the Middle Ages. The crisis lies in Syria, where a complex witches’ brew of a multi-cornered, intra-Arab conflict has extended itself over West Asia, eastwards from Libya and is now intruding into Asia Minor and touching the borders of Turkey.
Idris Emen from Hürriyet’s website reported on Oct. 12 that, according to security sources, one of the suicide bombers could be Yunus Emre Alagöz. He is the brother of Şeyh Abdurrahman Alagöz, who was the suicide bomber of the Suruç attack on July 20 this year in which 34 people were killed.
Last week, a weird story about a father and his teenage son was published in the local media. I do not know how it reached the media, but according to the father, it started when he was “scolding” his son for something he had done. Suddenly the boy went to his room and came out with a dagger claiming that he was from Daesh.
Yes, IS does exist in Bangladesh, protestations by the Honorable Prime Minister notwithstanding. We have to have a serious way to deal with a serious problem. We cannot hide our heads in the sand and hope it will go away. The recent murders of the foreigners and the subsequent claims show that IS is pursuing a strategy of creating fear and loathing in Bangladesh by going after the softest targets possible.
Two foreign nationals have been slain in this country in the space of five days. Who killed them has got the hierarchy of three answers starting at the bottom rung with the motorbike-riding assailants, who fired the fatal shots. Next is the Islamic State, which allegedly claimed responsibility for both the killings and threatened to kill more....
This country in the last three decades has been the target of many extremists groups that wanted to sponsor and create sympathisers for their cause and indeed to set up a base for their ranks here. The extremist groups that have germinated here have stemmed from causes quite germane to this country but not without influence generated by developments in other parts of the globe.
Here in Bangladesh, some people seem to be above the law, while others are subject to its rigour, or even to the whims of law enforcers, and outlaws in league with those supposed to enforce the law. While order brings security, disorder promotes insecurity among people. Sections of insecure/aggrieved people resort to violent crimes and even terrorism....
The assassination of two foreigners in a week has highlighted the growing danger posed by militants in Bangladesh, with experts warning that a long-running political crisis has radicalized opponents of the government.
Ambreen Agha
Ambreen Agha
The Pakistan military had launched an 'all out offensive', codenamed Operation Zarb-e-Azb [Sword of the Prophet] in NWA on June 15, 2014, in the aftermath of the attack on the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, on June 8-9, 2014, in which at least 33 persons, including all 10 attackers, were killed. According to SATP data, thus far 2,039 terrorists and 227 soldiers have been killed in this ongoing operation. ....
Is Hezbollah losing its edge?
Nicholas Blanford
Syria’s polarizing narrative
RAMZY BAROUD
The selfishness culture!
Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi
Media And Education Challenge In Afghanistan
ABDULLAH BOZKURT
The roots of Syria's tragedy
John McHugo
Re-humanising death in the media
Andrew Eagle
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
THE antennae of some Western diplomatic missions in Dhaka had received a signal that 'Western interests' might be targeted in a terrorist attack. But why didn't we have a clue of it? This brings to the fore an information sharing gap, a matter that comes along downstream along the article.
Franz-Michael Mellibin
Franz-Michael Mellibin
BE under no illusion: IS has arrived in Afghanistan. Just as the country is gripped by an economic exodus of people seeking better opportunities elsewhere, the self-styled Islamic State is spreading its tentacles into Afghanistan’s most lawless territories in an attempt to establish influence in a region seen as vital to the group’s endgame: a caliphate......
Nearly a year after the official end of NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan, this military failure confirms the worst fears about the weaknesses of the Afghan forces. Some 7,000 government forces and militiamen were overcome by far fewer Taliban in Kunduz.....
Bangladesh is an officially secular country, but more than 90% of its 160 million people are Muslim. It gained its independence from Pakistan after a brutal civil war in 1971, which left deep scars. In recent years a new surge of extremism has exacerbated long standing tensions between conservatives and secular liberals.
Muhammad Amir Rana
Muhammad Amir Rana
COUNTERING extremism is a missing link in the National Action Plan (NAP). Apparently, the plan was conceived from a counterterrorism and security perspective to address the immediate need of connecting different responses and putting these in a functional policy framework.
TTP: Enduring Shadows
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
The Badaber PAF base attack has several major precedents. Just a year earlier, on August 14, 2015, at least 12 terrorists wearing suicide vests and armed with RPGs and automatic weapons were killed, and 11 Security Force (SF) personnel were injured in an 11-hour gun battle near Khalid Aviation Airbase and Samungli Airbase in Quetta, The provincial capital of Balochistan….
The dilemma of how to react to IS atrocities has created a dreadfully confusing situation. The marauding armies of this group have taken over large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, overseen mass executions of men from the conquered areas, abducted large groups of women and children and then enslaved and sexually assaulted them; …
Syria is an immense collective failure. What has changed for the West in the past several weeks is that it has become more difficult to live in denial of this fact. Western responsibility is engaged by the unfathomable irresponsibility that has turned Syria into a slaughterhouse. President Obama has offered to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees; that is a pittance. A Europe of half a billion people must reject pampered smallness and open its eyes. Desperation cannot be met by penny-counting calculation, or doors slamming shut.....
How Islamic State Recruits Women To Its Cause
By Rudroneel Ghosh
UN Must Revamp Itself If It Wishes To Remain Relevant
By Sreeram Chaulia
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
Here is a brief account of how Pakistan, the world’s frontline sponsor of terrorism, religious extremism and radicalism, has escaped being declared a rogue state or a terrorist state. ...
Tufail Ahmad for New Age Islam
Tufail Ahmad for New Age Islam
If modern
civilisation is characterised by freedom of speech and individual liberty,
Islamic theocrats are the modern-day barbarians threatening the modernity of
our age. Among the numerous Islamic clerics who taunt the Indian republic and
its rule of law is Saeed Noori, the chief of Mumbai-based Raza Academy – a
Barelvi theocratic institution at the centre of a fatwa (Islamic decree)
against the Oscar-winner Indian music director A. R. Rahman and Iranian
filmmaker Majid Majidi for their film,
"Muhammad: Messenger of God."As per a media report, the fatwa
declared Rahman and Majidi as "infidel" and their marriages
"invalid" as per Islamic Shariah. It noted:"It is nothing short
of a crime to make a film on the Prophet; dramatizing his life and using
non-Muslim actors...Making such a film is making a mockery of
religion."....