Martin Chulov

The Shia militias are not directly involved in the fight to recapture Mosul, their role being confined to taking up blocking positions to the west of the city. Shia iconography is on ready display in the city though, flying from the back of Iraqi trucks and on top of their outposts. The flags jar among some members of the city’s Sunni population, who believe they frame the war in sectarian, not nationalistic terms....

Sune Engel Rasmussen

The Taliban have already shown such an inclination, for example by teaming up with Iran, a Shia state and a historical foe, to fight the Islamic State in Afghanistan. Now, thanks partly to the popular reaction to the Islamic State, the Taliban may have come to realize that, to be a legitimate part of modern Afghanistan, they must make space for the country’s Shias, too....

As a political system, Islamists insist that Islam is meant to dominate the environment in which it is practised. In a sharply divergent society like Nigeria, any attempt to implement the principles of Islamism portends great danger for the nation. The various military government of Nigeria, starting from the regime of Murtala Muhammad in 1975, did not hide their preferences for the imposition of Islamism upon Nigeria....

Anabel Inge

The abuse, no doubt, would be even more extreme if anyone knew they were converts to Salafism, now thought to be the fastest growing Islamic faction in the UK. Salafism, often referred to as Wahhabism, is an ideology commonly associated with Isis and often features in the news, usually as a label applied to Jihadis who’ve committed atrocities abroad....

Liz Sly

The figures mean that not only do Sunnis comprise a majority of the victims of the war with the Islamic State, but also that a majority of the Sunni community has been afflicted. Sunnis represent about 20 percent of Iraq’s population of 32.5 million, according to CIA figures for 2014 — or about 7 million people — and U.N. figures suggest that as many as 6 million of them either have been displaced or their villages and towns occupied by the Islamic State....

M D Nalapat

The reasons these “moderate freedom fighters” of Libya gave for their antipathy to Qaddafi was the latter’s refusal to convert Libya into a Wahhabised State by blocking the education of women and making what they defined as religious law the basis of the jurisprudence of the State, stoning and amputation included. ...

It is unclear whether the new ties with IS bring local militants more resources and manpower, or simply more publicity and ambition. But unless Pakistan cracks down on home-grown terror, it will remain fertile ground for IS to launch more attacks….

Tallha Abdulrazaq

But to ask them to take responsibility as if ISIL or al-Qaeda somehow morphed out of their belief system is the pinnacle of ignorant folly that stokes the fires of Islamophobia, creating further divisions and playing the game that the extremists want open societies to play....

Turki Aldakhil

He actually has a base of supporters. It is important to realize the extent of challenge posed by disastrous fundamental ideas at an early stage before we wake up one day and discover they have destroyed everything....

ISKP in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region is not cut of the same cloth as the Islamic State we have witnessed in Syria and Iraq; therefore it is a mistake to think of them as the same. The regional brand of ISKP in the making is more a consortium of several TTP fragmented groups combined with the already existing LeJ, JuD, Jem, Jundullah, IMU, disgruntled Taliban groups, and a dozen other groups nurtured through the decades in Afghanistan and Pakistan.…..

Haroon Khalid

A mosque has been constructed next to his shrine whose minaret vies to be one of the tallest structures in the city. We visited the shrine a couple of years before Sufi shrines across the country started coming under attack, so there was minimum security. As has been the tradition for centuries, the shrine remains open all night, giving refuge to anyone in need of it. At the courtyard, facing the room housing the grave of Bulleh Shah, devotees sang Bulleh Shah’s poetry…

Hassan Hassan

His legacy is so controversial that his name is often used by both jihadists and anti-jihadists as a slur against each other. The reason is that he was a pioneer of the bridging between revolutionary ideas derived from political Islam and traditional religious concepts taken from Salafism. The mixture helped produce what is known today as Salafi-jihadism – of which ISIL and Al Qaeda are products….

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

On the ideological front Islamic State’s quest for “Islamic purification” through Shia-killing makes it a more natural ally for the Pakistani Taliban, with al-Qaeda not as passionate about killing “apostates” and the Afghan Taliban even condemning attacks on the Shia community. While both TTP and LeJ offer anti-Shia outlets for ISIS…

Sayyid Qutb

Between Sayyid Qutb and the Islamic State, two changes have had to take place within the tradition of Salafi jihadism. A new jurisprudence and ethic of jihad had to be developed and a new hardened and brutalised psychological type had to be born....

Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

It is unlikely that Daesh can extend its direct operational outreach into the AfPak region at a time when it is under increasing pressure in its Syrian and Iraqi heartlands, but the audacity of the attacks executed by its regional affiliates suggests a rising danger and an infusion of a greater lethality into the enduring trends in terrorism and sectarian strife afflicting both Afghanistan and Pakistan.....

Ajit Kumar Singh

Despite mounting losses, the Taliban remains unrelenting. Following Donald Trump's victory in the US Presidential Elections, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, stated, on November 9, 2016, "Most importantly, he (Trump) should withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and unlike other former US rulers, he should neither seek any more titles of ignominy for his self and American generals, nor worsen the American prestige, economy and military by engaging in this futile war."....

Sayyid Qutb

In this way the idea of Jahiliyya is linked in Qutb's thought to Hakimiyah. Hakimiyah has a straightforward meaning - namely, sovereignty. It is used by Qutb to suggest that in the world there are only two possibilities: either God's sovereignty or Man's. In those times or places where God's sovereignty is denied, the condition of spiritual darkness, Jahiliyah, reigns....

Sabria S. Jawhar

The election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States is the result of 9/11, the Iraq war, racism and closed borders.  The signs have always been there that has led the American public to elect Trump and marginalize religious and ethnic minorities....

Makhan Saikia

Besides, losing Mosul will pose a potential threat to the survival of the jihadists’ capital in Raqqa. The opponents of the ISIS will find it much easier to capture the city. As the major supply routes to Raqqa come from Iraq, recapturing of Mosul will finally help the Government forces cut the vital links to the city....

The clergy who run these seminaries are presented with unprecedented influence and luxury in the Pakistani society, with the promise of promoting the Saudi or, in case of the Shia seminaries, the Iranian ideology. Millions and millions of the pupils of these seminaries are then trained to serve as God’s army, and a moral brigade in the society, while the military establishment of Pakistan controls a precious chunk of these Mujahideen to set their scores with enemy states like India.....

Mohammad Jibran Nasir

As per a study by Never Forget Pakistan, at least 4,707 Pakistanis have been killed in sectarian violence between January 2001 and August 2016. The killing of Shias has been systematic in terms of targeting places of worship, religious gatherings and community leaders such as doctors, lawyers and clerics. A case for Shia genocide in Pakistan is indeed undeniable....

Nikos Barbaressos

ISIS has nothing to do with Islam and if we want to stop dividing our country and igniting more hate, the media, and our politicians need to stop using the words ‘radical Islam’ when referring to ISIS or any acts of terror caused by an “Islamic” group. These groups are filled with blood-thirsty individuals who have absolutely no morals, feelings, nor any sort of remorse and could not possibly quote you one verse from the Quran if you asked them to....

In the end, IS went with barely a whimper. The jihadists folded before the advance of Turkish-backed rivals after just a day’s battle. IS’s “caliph”, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had foretold of the capitulation in a dream, explained apologists. IS’s propagandists even pre-empted the fall with the launch of a new English title, Rumiya, deferring the end-of-days battle until IS reaches Rome....

Azaz Syed

Just days ago the Punjab counter-terrorism department had declared it had taken care of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. But what do we make of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi claiming Monday’s attack on Quetta’s police training camp, killing 61 cadets?...

Owen Bennett-Jones

Before 9/11, the idea of establishing a caliphate would have been almost universally written off as the stuff of fantasy. Today, there are many places where Westerners dare not tread. All over the world people are transfixed by the Jihadis’ capacity to reach their cities. It’s not just New York, Paris and London. The Chechens attack Moscow, the Uighurs bomb Beijing and the Pakistani Punjabis mount their raids on Delhi and Mumbai...