In The News

Threat for India: Islamic State, Al Qaeda and Taliban

Saroj Kumar Rath November 20, 2014
India's Muslims represent 15 percent of the nation's population, the world's third largest group in any nation after Indonesia and Pakistan. Extremist groups like the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Haqqani network increasingly view India as a target, notes author and professor Saroj Kumar Rath. Several trends explain the rise: Terrorism threats in South Asia are...

The Lost Children: France Takes Stock of Growing Jihadist Problem

Julia Amalia Heyer November 19, 2014
In regulating immigration, policy planners anticipate newcomers to assimilate, especially over generations. Most do, but children of immigrant families long settled in France are often intrigued by jihad. Julia Amalia Heyer profiles a French family – the mother atheist and the father Muslim – whose 17-year-old daughter traveled to Antakya on the Turkish-Syrian border and then called home to...

Interview with an Islamic State Recruiter: “Democracy Is For Infidels”

Hasnain Kazim October 31, 2014
A few military successes by Islamic State terrorists in chaotic Iraq and Syria attract extremists from around the globe. Hasnain Kazim interviewed one recruiter in Turkey for Spiegel Online. The recruiter claims that the Islamic State can be highly selective, secretly interviewing applicants arriving in Turkey to assess motives and religious beliefs – exactly how far each will go in obeying...

Specter of Islamic State Looms Over Pakistan

Farhan Bokhari October 30, 2014
After conquering towns in Iraq and Syria, and now under air attack in those same places, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is no doubt searching for additional recruits and countries in chaos. Sunnis represent about 90 percent of Muslims, and the Islamic State promotes an extreme version. The terrorist group could turn to Sunni extremists in Pakistan next – perhaps part of an effort to...

New Theater of Cruelty: Beheadings Demand Civilization’s Response

Joji Sakurai October 9, 2014
Islamic State extremists burst forth on the world scene with brutal acts, with all the absurd petulance of an angry, bullying yet powerless adolescent desperate for attention. In an era of rapid communications, images and messages spread instantly. The depraved put on a performance – a new theater of cruelty – perverting a centuries-old religion, and globalization ensures instant judgment....

Muslim Pilgrims Begin Hajj Pilgrimage

October 8, 2014
Saudi Arabia has dispatched more security personnel and health workers for this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca – 85,000 security and civil defense officers and 18 aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters have been deployed, reports Agence France Presse. This security expansion is largely in response to the alarming spread of the Islamic State on the attack in Iraq and Syria and threatening...

War Against the Islamic State

Talmiz Ahmad October 1, 2014
The differences between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran seem small compared with barbaric plans for the region by Islamic State terrorists. Fast-spreading violence and a growing refugee crisis compel a coordinated response from Iran and Saudi Arabia to defend the region, argues Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia and other nations in the region, for the Hindu. He calls for...