Dr. Azeem Ibrahim

Unlike the Tibetans, however, the Uighurs are Muslims, and they do not have an internationally iconic leader like the Dalai Lama who can campaign and raise awareness on their behalf. So although the methods of repression employed in Xianjiang are the same methods used in Tibet, except updated with newer technology, and they are implemented by many of the same Communist Party officials, the profile of these humanitarian abuses will inevitably be much lower....

Basil Hijazi, New Age Islam

The international community has been perpetually cooperating in a bid to consolidate the democratic regimes in the world, curb the extremist policies, strengthen the role of regional and international agreements and alliances in combating extremism and terrorism, and work at revising the educational curricula in the countries of the region and remove the discourse of hatred and ‘jihad’ as mentioned in the extremist Wahhabi thought. So the children should not be taught “the virtues of killing the infidel mother and the infidel father”. As for the fundamental problem, it is the Wahhabi and Ikhwani [Muslim Brotherhood] ideology which dominated the curricula of Arab countries and some Asian countries in order to bring out a religiously insane group exporting terrorism to all parts of the globe….

Bill Roggio

The Taliban has publicly flaunted at least 17 of its training camps since the end of 2014. In late 2015, the Taliban announced that its Khalid bin Walid Camp operated 12 satellite facilities throughout Afghanistan, and had the capacity to “train up to 2,000 recruits at a single time.” Additionally, it said the Khalid bin Walid Camp “trains recruits in eight provinces (Helmand, Kandahar, Ghazni, Ghor, Saripul, Faryab, Farah and Maidan Wardak) and “has around 300 military trainers and scholars.”...

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad 30 Jan 2018

 “Now there is a different kind of civil war in the city – between those who stayed and went through all the suffering of three years, and those who left. They say we were collaborators, and we say you didn’t suffer. Everyone wants to go back to 2014 and restart their lives from there. They can’t accept that the past three years have been for nothing.”...

Muhammad Nawaz Khan

The counter-terrorism phenomenon as observed in the contemporary world today is getting complicated. Hard measures alone are not enough to deal with the threat of terror. Counter-terrorism policies must also include psychological measures designed to lure people away from terror groups. ‘Soft power’ inventiveness is needed to develop more humane methods....

Siddharthya Roy

Modelled after the Afghan Mujahideen and thereafter the Taliban, a terrorist, in most Western portrayals, is still a madrasa-educated ignoramus and religious hothead from an underdeveloped country who takes up arms to protect his ultra-conservative and theocratic lifestyle. This is at best an ill-informed yardstick with which to gauge potential terrorists and at worst a result of deeply ingrained xenophobia about the “Muslim look.” Facts paint a different picture....

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

A week in, Isis issued its first manifesto: the Madina [City] Document. In archaic language laden with millenarian references, Isis congratulated the people of Mosul for “these divine victories” and staked out its central promise: Oh people, you have tried all the secular regimes, from the monarchy to the republic to Safavid [Shia] government. You have tried it and been burned by its fires. And here we are now in the reign of the Islamic State and the region of our imam Abu Bakr. And you shall see by the will of Allah the vast difference between a secular government, that oppresses and confiscates the will and energies of its people and erases their dignity, and our rule, which takes the divine word as a path....

Amina Khairy

Does this sound like the Middle Ages? It should. No matter how much the Islamists get radicalised in the West, or even what sort of terrorist activities they perform if recruited or attracted to IS and other groups, they still get judged according to the rule of man-made law, not “divine” law as interpreted by specific theologians at a specific time....

At least 95 people have been killed and 158 were wounded in a powerful suicide blast in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's assault, the third major attack in the past seven days. An interior ministry spokesman blamed the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, which has been behind many of the biggest attacks on urban targets in Afghanistan.....

Other Stories

Attack Shows Strongholds Are Vulnerable

Deadly Blast Rocks Kabul, Taliban Claims Responsibility

Mohamed Fayez Farahat

The transformation in the recruitment and indoctrination process has not only led to the rise of diverse types of terrorist organisations that are so ideologically intertwined and overlapping that it has grown almost impossible to categorise ideologically, it has also facilitated the ability of members to move from one organisation to the next, in view of the lack of ideological cohesion within a particular organisation and ideological distinctions between organisations....

Yasser Latif Hamdani

In this – clearly the minority view- Islam is the last Deen but reformers and subservient prophets, such as the founder of the Ahmadi community, may come to rejuvenate the religious community. Ultimately this is a theological debate and simply stating that Ahmadis should have the right to self identify does not at all mean an endorsement of their interpretation of the doctrine but simply a deference to the authority of the heavenly creator above in judging who is right and who is wrong....

Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

The problem of extra judicial killings in Province persisted through 2017. According to the SATP database, out 183 civilians killed in the Province in 2017, at least 86 were attributable to one or other terrorist/insurgent outfit. Of these, 10 civilian killings (all in the South) were claimed by Baloch separatist formations, while Islamist and sectarian extremist formations – primarily LeJ, TTP and Islamic State....

Rowan Scarborough

“In light of the defeats suffered by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq over the past year, there has been a change in its military doctrine on the battlefield,” MEMRI analysts said. “In recent weeks, the organization has been using tactics characteristic of guerrilla warfare and temporarily abandoning the doctrine of conquering and holding large areas.”....

Basil Hijazi, New Age Islam

Science of prevention of terrorism is still new. To understand this topic, it is very important to know the places of the world where the terrorist activities are taking place. What is the history of terrorism? How is the term “terrorism” used? Why does it not have a consistent definition? And why does it need to have a consistent definition? If we look at the 2011 terror map, it seems that among the countries most affected by terrorist activities are Afghanistan, then Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria and then Russia. The countries that have suffered least from terrorism are the Latin American Countries, China, Europe and America....

Francesca Astorri

“The increasing number of countries in which ISIS was operating could be an optical illusion: we see more countries, but it’s actually the result of other terrorist groups that were already there and that decided to use the ISIS brand,”....

Mashari Althaydi

Will a fatwa (or religious edict) forbidding suicide bombing in the name of jihad actually stop these satanic acts?

In other words, the real problem is not only in Pakistan, but in the minds that feed these people, and some mosques, schools and houses, which influence the minds of young men and women. This is the origin of the disease. Any effort to curb extremism is with no doubt appreciated and commended, but we should not exaggerate....

Arwa Mahdawi

Muslims are constantly denouncing atrocities that have been committed in the name of Islam. Yet many people seem to think Muslims don’t condemn terrorism enough. So Hashmi decided to put the notion to the test. Using Google spreadsheets, she made a “712-page list of Muslims condemning things with sources”, which she tweeted. The list includes everything from acts of domestic violence to 9/11....

Azadeh Moaveni

Structural racism keeps Muslims disproportionately unemployed and incarcerated, and governments increasingly stigmatize outward signs of Muslim identity, banning the veil and pushing Muslim causes like Palestine and Syria charity work under the eye of counterterrorism surveillance. For many, this exclusion imbues an idealized future Muslim state with both spiritual and concrete appeal: a place where jobs and opportunity are accessible, where integration won’t require secularization....

Fazel Hawramy

For months prior to that fateful late summer evening in 2013, the hardscrabble mountain town in the heart of Iranian Kurdistan had been buzzing with rumors that local Kurds were sneaking into Turkey and heading to the Syrian battlefront. Several had left backbreaking jobs on the region’s farms and orchards to join US-backed leftist rebel groups, but many others were pledging allegiance to extremist outfits such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The 30ish Fatehi was busy making a living and had little time for jihad or geopolitics....

We urge the state government to ensure the return of this budding scholar. We are hopeful that his safe passage home would be ensured without causing him any harassment. We also impress upon the state to introspect and revisit its policies that push our youth, with promising careers, to extremes. The talk of peace and prosperity is not in consonance with the policies that the state has adopted over decades. We also request civil society and different organisations to act as mediators in finding a lasting solution to this vexed problem....

Metin Gurcan

Beyond their physical presence, the networks' online presence in Turkish social media has been growing because Ankara still doesn’t have a comprehensive cyber security mindset. Indeed, social media has become the top recruiting platform for radical networks and other tech-savvy extremist groups....

Sophia A. McClennen

Heineman notes that in Iraq and Afghanistan the strategy seemed to be “shoot first and ask questions later.” The problem is “We don’t think ahead. We don’t think about the next steps and that is how ISIS took hold. There was a vacuum in power. There was a lack of infrastructure. And people were suffering.” Ignoring the rebuilding effort is a recipe for more radicalization...

Mahmut Bozarslan

If IS adopts this guerrilla warfare style, everything could start over. IS does not want to give up Kirkuk and the Iraqi army and international forces do not want to ease up on IS. With guerrilla warfare tactics, this war could go on for years as both the societal and political environments are conducive to it....

David D. Kirkpatrick

The American-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s furnished ample new material for jihadist preachers all over London, and Mr. Raja fell into a kind of voluntary social work. He mediated sectarian feuds, and befriended a small group of Kurdish immigrants who practiced what Mr. Raja called “gangsterised Islam,” justifying their street crimes by targeting non-Muslims. He tried to convince them that their faith required decency to all....

Asma Razaq

What a pity…. According to the official statistics, 60 million Pakistanis are living under the poverty line. Similarly, 2016 Global Hunger Index shows that 22 per cent of the total population of the country is undernourished having a serious hunger level while on the other hand, millions of rupees are being spent to construct a shrine made of cement and stones as a tribute to someone who was hanged for murder....