Category: Middle East/North Africa

Tunisian minister ousted for linking Saudi ideology with extremism

     

A religious affairs minister has been fired from the government after linking Saudi Arabia’s religious ideology with extremism, Deutsche Welle reports: The minister, Abdeljalil Ben Salem, had been relieved of… Read more »

Autocrats using ‘toxic election’ to pour scorn on democracy

     

Russia, China and Iran are among several authoritarian regimes seeking to use the U.S. election as an opportunity to project soft power, to undermine the attractiveness of liberal democracy, and… Read more »

‘Zealous democrats’? Call to redefine political Islam

     

The definition of ‘political Islam’ should be narrowed to recognize that many Islamic political movements share democratic values, according to a report by an influential committee of British MPs. The… Read more »

Media and Countering Violent Extremism: An Uneasy Relationship

     

The term “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, is now commonly used to refer to a variety of tactics and strategies—usually employing tools for mass communication—to blunt the efforts of terrorists… Read more »

Repression without Borders: The Long Arm of Authoritarian Regimes

     

Immigrant groups remain subject to authoritarian repression even after they leave their homelands, according to new research by Dr. Dana Moss, a sociologist at the University of Pittsburgh. However, these… Read more »

‘Moderate Islam’ no antidote to jihadist ideology for countering violent extremism

     

The notion that “moderate Islam” is an antidote to jihadist ideology or a key to countering violent extremism is a misleading diversion, says a prominent analyst. “While at first sight… Read more »

‘Hogra’ protests test Morocco’s Makhzen

     

Grainy video images and the screams of a young fishmonger who was crushed to death in a garbage truck while trying to stop police destroying his stock have shocked Moroccans… Read more »

Democracies are ‘losing terrorism’s war of attrition’

     

Whatever happens after the recapture of Mosul, the future trajectories of al-Qaeda (AQ) and the Islamic State (IS) do not leave cause for optimism, nor do the faulty paradigms that… Read more »

Reclaiming Mosul: concerns about politics the ‘day after’

     

An array of Iraqi forces, backed by a broad international coalition, is closing in on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, united in their determination to crush the jihadists but… Read more »

Support Egypt’s democrats at ‘arms-length,’ says report

     

In the tumultuous two years since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt came to power, one ally has kept the Arab world’s most populous country from economic ruin: Saudi Arabia… Read more »