In The News

Tunisia Museum Attack Is Blow to Democratic Shift

David D. Kirkpatrick March 20, 2015
In the wake of the Arab Spring protests, Tunisia became a success story by developing a democratic government and economy that serve citizens. “Gunmen in military uniforms killed 19 people on Wednesday in a midday attack on a museum in downtown Tunis, dealing a new blow to the tourist industry that is vital to Tunisia as it struggles to consolidate the only transition to democracy after the Arab...

Countering the Islamic State Scourge

Riaz Hassan March 19, 2015
The Islamic State terrorists have roots in Al Qaeda and a network of Sunni jihadi groups that coalesced in the midst of the Iraq War. “After being subjected to years of political and economic marginalization, state-sanctioned repression, lawlessness and corruption in the hands of Iraq’s Shia-led government, Sunni Iraqis rebelled by joining militant groups that pledged allegiance to ISIS,” writes...

All It Takes to Cross From Turkey to ISIS-Held Syria Is $25

Sophia Jones March 2, 2015
Once aspiring jihadists reach Turkey, the last stage of crossing into the Islamic State controlled area is simple, with $25 and help from smugglers, explains Sophia Jones for the WorldPost. “Despite Turkey’s insistence that it’s doing all it can to secure the 500-mile-long border, smugglers, fighters and refugees say that Turkish criminal gangs and bribed Turkish paramilitary police have created...

Why the West Is Losing the Battle Against Radical Islam

Azeem Ibrahim February 26, 2015
The West can no longer hold its tongue on fundamentalist religious sects that emphasize piety to the point of counting a few followers worthy while dismissing everyone else in the world. Such is the case with Wahhabism, or Salafism, the state religion in Saudi Arabia that’s exported to other Muslim nations with the help of oil dollars. Azeem Ibrahim, PhD, international security lecturer at the...

Foreign Recruits Are Islamic State’s Cannon Fodder

Eli Lake February 24, 2015
Military forces fighting the Islamic State militants are reporting the terrorist group’s extensive use of foreign recruits, about 20,000 in all. Iraqi and Syrian Arabs are more likely to win safer, higher-ranking positions in the terrorist organization, while foreigners – especially the unskilled – are sent to the front lines of combat or dispatched as suicide bombers, reports Eli Lake, a...

What ISIS Really Wants

Graeme Wood February 23, 2015
Among Islamic State terrorists’ bizarre beliefs: The end of the world is near, and Muslims should embrace fear of God and rigid IS beliefs. As self-appointed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claims to lead all Muslims. Despite roots with Al Qaeda, he and other leaders became frustrated with priorities that did not include a caliphate controlling the Muslim world. IS now hold strands of territory and...

The Fight Against ISIS After the Death of Jordan’s Pilot

Aaron David Miller February 6, 2015
The civilized world is repulsed by the war crimes committed by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq: rape and coerced marriages for young girls; numerous beheadings of aid workers, journalists as well as the organization’s own foot soldiers who question orders; the execution of a young Jordanian pilot by burning him alive. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Aaron David Miller suggests the war...