Category: Political Islam

Rebuilding Syria (and Iraq): Reconstruction and Legitimacy

     

On the sixth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, moderate rebels have never been weaker, analyst Charles Lister writes for Foreign Policy. Within two years of its resurgence, the Islamic State… Read more »

‘Secularizing Islamists’ – lessons for countering violent extremism

     

The experience of the Islamic political parties in North Africa shows that they are, just like non-Islamic parties, capable of change and adaptation to changing circumstances, says Mohammed Masbah, an… Read more »

Politics, not theology, at the root of Islamist ideology

     

New national security adviser H.R. McMaster is setting a strikingly different tone to discussions on countering violent extremism by saying the term “radical Islamic terrorism” isn’t helpful for US goals, CNN… Read more »

‘Radical Islamic terrorism’? Problematic assumptions

     

It is a misconception that the Islamic State is focused on fighting the United States or the broader West, says Richard Stengel, a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School. “I led… Read more »

How not to fuel extremism

     

Analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have warned that labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization “may fuel extremism” and damage relations with America’s allies, according to a summary… Read more »

Ideology underpins Iran’s rising axis of resistance?

     

The ideology underpinning the Iranian-led axis of resistance in the Middle East has evolved, according to Harvard analysts Payam Mohseni and Hussein Kalout. From a primarily state-centered enterprise, it has… Read more »

Islamist ideology, not Islam as theology, key to combatting extremism

     

Kosovo police said on Thursday that they prevented simultaneous attacks by the Islamic State group, including on the Israeli national football team that played a World Cup qualifier in neighboring… 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 »