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.....

‘Write until the end of my life'–Ananya Azad

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

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.

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; …

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. ...

Despite the PYD’s denials, and probably their best intentions, the conflict in north-east Syria has many aspects of an ethnic war: the Kurds are driving out Sunni Arabs, whom they accuse of being Islamic State supporters. Those Arabs who flee are seen as demonstrably in league with the enemy: those who stay are suspected of belonging to ‘sleeper cells’, waiting their moment to strike. The Kurds say that they and their ancestors have lived in the area around Tal Abyad for twenty thousand years; the Arabs, they maintain, are recently arrived settlers

The point I am trying to make is that reading the IS phenomenon only through the prism of religion would be a mistake. Sure, religious extremism is a factor. But there are economic factors as well. It’s quite possible that many of the Indian IS recruits were as much motivated by the allure of wealth that they could grab in IS territories as they were by religion.

In Bed with the Reactionary Saudis

By Paul R. Pillar

Why Islamic State’s Gold CoinsWon’t Replace the Global Banking System

By The Economist

Covert Migration to the Islamic State

By Clive Williams

Terrorism or Islam phobia!

By Zaheer Bhatti

Compiled by New Age Islam Edit Bureau

They see their truth as not only first in the world but as defining the world, determining right from wrong, good from bad, true from false. Any truth but theirs is blasphemy. In another instance, and as justification for attacking the 8th century BC citadel of Assyrian king Sargon II at Khorsabad, 10 miles northwest of Mosul, Iraq, the IS forces said, simply, “We’re ridding the world of polytheism and spreading monotheism across the planet.” This is how the ISIS views the world and why it murdered Khaled al-Asaad and displayed his bloodied, headless body in a public square: It is afraid of difference in the world. ….

Sabria S. Jawhar

It can’t be emphasized enough that early Islamic education in the Middle East must address religious terrorism and political Islam while western nations must find a balance to allow primary- and secondary-school-age Muslims to exercise their right to free speech to air their views on terrorism.

Both ISIS and AQIS threaten the security of Bangladesh. ISIS has the potential to empower existing Islamist militant movements with the ideology, network capabilities, financing and, most importantly, with its brand image. And despite ISIS’ growing influence, AQIS’s local focus means it will likely continue to have its own niche of support.

Pakistan’s Fight against Violent Extremism

By Senator Sehar Kamran

The Arab Reaction

By Rasul Bakhsh Rais

Appeasing the Baloch

By Syed Fazl-E-Haider

Counterterror In K-P And FATA: A Turnaround?

By Imtiaz Gul

Women after War

By Rafia Zakaria

Will Military Courts Help Pakistan Eliminate Terrorism?

By Sajjad Ashraf

Who Is Secular In Pakistan?

By Raza Habib Raja

Compiled by New Age Islam Edit Bureau

ISIS and other Islamist groups -- such as the Taliban and al Qaeda -- collectively rain violence and misery upon the world but most directly upon imperiled Muslims who are subject to their rule. Muslims who are not Islamists, but followers of Islam.

Anti-Muslim Bigotry Has No Place in Politics

By Terri A. Johnson and J. Richard Cohen

Dangerous Redefinition of ‘Terrorism’

By Robert Parry

The Muslim World Is Broken, It Doesn't Have To Be

By Haroon Moghul

Our Radical Islamic Bff, Saudi Arabia

By Thomas L. Friedman

The Islamic State Conundrum

By Graham E. Fuller

Stop the Syrian War, Stop The Refugee Influx

By Murat Yetkin

Why Iraq Needs A United Sunni Authority To Face Extremism

By Hamdi Malik

Compiled by New Age Islam Edit Bureau

Tackling the Is Tentacles in India

By Sazzad Hussain

The Indian Paradigm For Religious Tolerance

By Balbir Punj

Poison of Demographic Prejudice

Editorial, Economic and Political Weekly

Compiled by New Age Islam Edit Bureau

David Brooks

It’s time to stop underestimating this force as some group of self-discrediting madmen. ISIS is a moral and political threat to the fragile and ugly stability that exists in what’s left in the Middle East. ISIS will thrive and spread its ideas for as long as it has its land.

It is an honor to be with you today while my country, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, assumes the UN Security Council’s presidency for the second time during its current membership in the council. I am particularly pleased to be attending this debate on youth in conflict zones and their role in peacemaking. The world is facing a formidable challenge, namely, terrorism and extremism, which may be the greatest challenge to world peace and security, with the youth being its prime victims.

Jason Burke

Terrorism’s greatest effects are thus achieved indirectly, through the reaction it inspires, rather than the actual destruction of life and property. This is why, in that moment when, having read of an attack or the threat of an attack, you experience a sudden pang of fear, you become a victim yourself. The fact that the number of people to have been killed in Britain in terrorist attacks by Islamic militants – 53 (52 during the 7/7 attacks, plus Lee Rigby) – is statistically negligible is irrelevant. To be afraid of terrorism is normal; to be concerned is natural. But it is better to be so in measure and in reason, not in panicked ignorance, and thus win one immediate and important victory....

Ajit Kumar Singh

The rise in the numbers of women and children killed and maimed from conflict-related violence is particularly disturbing. This year, UNAMA recorded the highest number of children and women casualties compared to the same period in previous years. All parties to the conflict must undertake stronger measures to protect civilians from harm. When the conflict kills or maims a mother, child, sister or brother, the repercussions for families and communities are devastating and long-lasting....

Ajai Sahni

Significantly, after assuming the post of Home Minister of the Province on October 13, 2014, Khanzada had reportedly been involved in major operations against domestically oriented terrorists in Punjab, though there was little evidence of any relative improvement of the security environment as a result.....

The death of Mullah Omar has minimised the challenge posed to the IS by the Afghan Taliban. Many factions’ of jihadists in the Afghan-Pakistan region have already announced their loyalty to the IS. Al Qaeda is also facing a severe financial as well as manpower crisis. The launch of the Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent with much fanfare has turned out to be a damp squib.....

If we have forgotten it, the almost ritualistic murder of another blogger has reminded us of it yet again. While the act of killing resonates with the nihilistic terror that religious extremism is inflicting upon in various parts the world (and no doubt it derives inspiration from those practices), it has a very specific local history. It lies in the nature of encounter that the Shahbag movement had with its opposition.....

S. Binodkumar Singh

These killings are, in some measure, a reaction to the assertiveness demonstrated by the Government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid, as a result of which the threat from Islamist terrorism in Bangladesh has been minimized. Significantly, various Islamist terrorist and extremist formations had been operating menacingly across the country before Wajid coming to power in 2009. The Government's sustained efforts, since, have led to widespread anxiety among the extremists, who now find their very existence under threat....