Terrorism Watch

Gun violence is killing 30,000 Americans a year. Why not treat it like smoking? Or heart disease? For over two decades, there has been a virtual freeze on gun violence research in the United States. In 1996, Congress passed a bill preventing the use of federal funds for studies that advocate gun control, which was widely interpreted as preventing all research into firearm violence. Though U.S. President Barack Obama reversed the order in 2013, Congress continues to block dedicated funding. And this data deficit is posing a significant complication for those hoping to find a solution for America’s gun-death epidemic. Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University, stresses that  gun violence is a public health problem . But before preventative measures can be taken, he says, Americans need research. On Friday,  Maclean’s  talked to Siegel about how the lack of federal funding is harming firearms research in the United States, and what that means

The war, battle or campaign against Islamic extremism is one that only Muslims can lead. After at least 15 years of violent extremism within its ranks, Islam has still not organized an effective counter campaign toward the proponents of extremist Islam, such as the Islamic State (IS), al-Qaeda and others. One need only look at the events of last week during Islam’s holiest month, Ramadan. Terrorist attacks in  Turkey ,  Bangladesh ,  Iraq  and  Saudi Arabia  have claimed the lives of  over 350 victims , mostly Muslims. The latter occurred in Islam’s second-most revered city, Medina, home to the mosque and tomb of the Prophet Mohammed. All of the attacks are believed to be the responsibility of the Islamic State. One might also add the Orlando nightclub attack of June, whose perpetrator claimed to be acting in the name of IS. A RISING DEATH TOLL According to the organization  The Religion of Peace  (TROP), this year’s Ramadan “bombathon” is responsible for 238 attacks and 1,

Before the assassination of five law enforcement officers in Dallas, the city had begun to build something wonderful — a new way of policing that embodies the principle that all lives matter. It is a policing style that recognizes the special vulnerabilities of both black lives and blue lives, and could be key to building connections between the two communities. Thanks to deliberate changes in tactics, such as officers training in de-escalation techniques and using  less-than-lethal force  in situations where they’d previously be instructed to fire weapons, complaints about overly aggressive policing in Dallas had dropped from more than 150 in 2009 to fewer than 20 last year. And most dramatically,  police shootings dropped too . The root of the change, according to the  Dallas Morning News ,   was aggressive and consistent re-training. Officers did not learn to de-escalate in classrooms. They practiced on the streets. Supervisors used footage from real-events — at least half of

The horrific and dastardly attack on innocent civilians in an upscale bakery in a posh section of Dhaka, which took the lives of 22 persons, mainly foreigners, is yet another instance of the rise in  terrorism  in the country. However, those who have been closely following  Bangladesh  politics might have seen this coming. Over the past last three years, over 30 people belonging to minority communities, mainly Hindus, have been brutally murdered by machete-wielding radicals. They had also not spared Muslim secular writers, publishers and bloggers for raising their voices against extremist ideology. The recent attack, unlike the earlier lone wolf attacks, is certainly not the handiwork of these local elements. The way the attack was planned and executed points a finger either at the  Islamic State  group or al-Qaida, though the government has been quick to blame local groups for carrying out the attack. So far, Bangladesh ’s government has refused to accept the involvement of either

A look at protests and related events nationwide and in the United Kingdom on Friday following the police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, and the deadly sniper attack on police officers in Dallas About 300 people gathered in front of the  state capitol  to seek solutions to racial strife, which Little Rock knows so well. The pastor of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in North Little Rock said Friday everyone should be working to end the nation's unsettled time. "The question remains, 'When will enough be enough?'" Earl Graham Jr. asked. The crowd chanted the question back to him. Little Rock was the scene of one of the nation's first desegregation battles in 1957, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent troops into the city to escort nine black children into Central High School. ___ ARIZONA Freeway ramps were closed in Phoenix after protesters marched near an interstate highway. The Ari

At least 15 youths from Kerala's Kasaragod and Palakkad districts who had travelled to the Middle East have gone missing for the last one month and their families suspect they may have joined the Islamic State. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has directed the police to launch a probe into the matter urgently, Kasaragod MP P Karunakaran said. The families of the youths, including a couple, have not heard from them for the past one month and fear that they have been radicalised after having gone to the Middle East for religious studies. Kasaragod District Panchayat member V P P Mustafa said that during Eid, the parents of two missing youths received 'Whatsapp' messages saying "we are not coming back. Here there is Divine Rule. You aso should join us". "We have joined IS to fight US for attacking Muslims", read another message, he said adding the veracity of the messages has to be checked On being approached by the families, Karunakaran, Thrikar

Bangladesh on Thursday asked India to examine the speeches of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Nayak after reports that his 'hate speech' inspired one of the five Bangladeshi militants, who hacked to death 22 people at an upscale cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave last week. "Already there are certain complaints from the Maulanas of Bangladesh that his (Nayak) teachings are not in line with the Quranic teachings and Hadith," information minister Hasanul Haq Inu said "How much Nayak's teachings influenced the terrorists that is to be investigated. We are investigating the whole matter," he said. Requesting the Indian government to examine the teachings of controversial preacher, Inu said: "I also request the Indian government and information minister that they also examine the context of Dr Nayak's teachings." One of the Bangladeshi attackers, suspected to be Rohan Imtiaz - the son of a politician of Bangladesh's ruling Awam

A WAVE of terrorist attacks — from Istanbul to Bangladesh and Iraq to Saudi Arabia — has shaken the Muslim world. The deadly week has left hundreds of people dead and wounded. The militant Islamic State group (IS) has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and others clearly seem to be inspired by the group that has now established itself as the most lethal terrorist network with global reach. It promised to make the holy month of Ramazan a pain for those who it considers ‘infidels’. Most of the victims of the terror attacks carried out in the name of Islam were Muslims. These terrorist attacks came even as the militant group was being driven out of much of the territory under its control in Syria and Iraq, and marked a dramatic shift in its strategy to extend its terror war to other regions. While the suicide bombing in Baghdad appears to be in retaliation to the series of military setbacks received by IS over the past months, the attacks in Istanbul and Saudi Arabia sig

WHATEVER you say about Pakistan’s foreign policy and its de jure head, Sartaj Aziz, you will have to concede both are pretty consistent, and if this consistency of thought and policy comes at unimaginable cost to the nation so be it. Towards the end of last week in an interview to Reuters, the prime minister’s adviser on foreign affairs, answered the critics of the country’s policy who say Pakistan does not crack down on all militant groups and is only targeting those attacking Pakistani defence forces. Reuters reported his words thus: The military has acted “without distinguishing between ‘good and bad’ Taliban” but [Aziz] suggested that seeking a large-scale crackdown on all at once would overstretch the armed forces and lead to more terrorist attacks. “So we have to make sure that we move in a decisive way, but at a measured pace and according to our capacity, and ensuring that the blowback is manageable.” How can a nation find it justifiable for groups based on its soil to