In The News

The Rise of ISIS and the Fall of Al Qaeda

Barak Mendelsohn June 19, 2014
A string of quick military successes for ISIS in Iraq has legitimized the group as a new leader of the jihadi movement. The group controls Tikrit, Mosul and many other smaller towns in Iraq and Syria – and nears Baghdad. The success “could be a harbinger of a tectonic shift within the jihadi movement,” suggests Barak Mendelsohn in Foreign Affairs. By comparison, Al Qaeda’s influence is diminished...

Call for Inclusiveness May Not Work for Middle East's Sectarian Divide

Dilip Hiro June 18, 2014
ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, began as an Al Qaeda offshoot in Iraq and is described as more fanatical than the parent group. With up to 5000 troops, ISIS controls an area of Syria and now storms through northern Iraq exploiting power vacuums and frustrations over minority rights. The group imposes a rigid Sunni interpretation...

Boko Haram Beyond Nigeria: Girls' Education Under Threat

Bina Shah June 11, 2014
Many are quick to blame Islam in the aftermath of Boko Haram’s kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria.. The real danger is not the religion, but rather fundamentalists’ beliefs that girls should not be educated, argues Bina Shah in an article for Al Jazeera. Directing anger at all Muslims is another form of extremism, she suggests, and the more pressing and solvable issue is that...

Why Pope Francis’s Peace Plan Won't Pay Off

Benny Avni May 29, 2014
President Shimon Peres and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mahmoud Abbas accepted an invitation from the leader of the world’s Catholics to participate in peace talks at the Vatican. Many remain skeptical that a “prayer for peace” will have significant impact on a long and bitter conflict. As Benny Avni of Newsweek details, one obstacle is the power differential between the two...

Why There Is No Stopping Boko Haram

Gayatri Chandrasekaran May 12, 2014
Law-abiding citizens are frustrated about extremism and acts of terrorism – including Boko Haram’s kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria as well as their violent attacks on towns and markets. The group’s aim is to establish a religious state in Nigeria and impose archaic rules. “A world that had become accustomed to news of the usual manifestations of terror from groups...

In Global Health, Abortion Bears the Scarlet A

Jill Filipovic April 30, 2014
Abortion poses a moral dilemma – ending the life of a child, but sometimes saving lives of individual women. Illegal, unsafe abortions have been cited as a leading cause of maternal death globally and a driver of gender inequality. “U.S. foreign policy exacerbates this global public health crisis, perpetuating a culture of stigma, silence and inaction around a leading killer of women,” argues...

Jihad in Nigeria: Past Lives On

Lamin Sanneh April 29, 2014
Boko Haram, a Salafist extremist group continues to terrorize northern Nigeria in a quest for a strict Islamist state. A bomb killed 75 in Abuja, April 14, followed the next day by the kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a school in Chibok. The group’s Arabic name suggests intention to wage jihad. But violence and coercion belie the meaning of jihad – a struggle against unbelief, mainly within...