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Showing posts from December 23, 2018

Libya’s chaos continues to feed extremist threat

The last attack claimed by Daesh targeted Tripoli’s foreign ministry on Tuesday, killing three and causing major damage to one of the capital’s supposedly most secure buildings Daesh has “benefited from divisions” in the aftermath of Muammar Qaddafi’s regime falling in 2011 TRIPOLI: Two years after the Daesh group lost the Libyan city of Sirte — its last stronghold in the country — the extremists continues to launch attacks, including in the heart of the capital, profiting from government weakness and general chaos. The last attack claimed by Daesh targeted Tripoli’s foreign ministry on Tuesday, killing three and causing major damage to one of the capital’s supposedly most secure buildings. It followed two similar attacks, one in September against the headquarters of the national oil company that killed two and another that hit the electoral commission in Tripoli in May, when 14 were slain. “Daesh has proved that it is capable of maneuvering and of hitting stron

Terror Cell Behind Hikers' Gruesome Murder Targeted Security Services, Tourists

The number of arrests following the ghastly killing of two Scandinavian hikers has reached 19, spurring fears of far-reaching consequences for the Moroccan economy, which is heavily reliant on tourism. The recent batch of arrests conducted in connection with the macabre murder of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (24) of Denmark and Maren Ueland (28) of Norway include the alleged ringleader of the terrorist group, the head of Morocco's central office for judicial investigation, Abdelhak Khiam, said, as quoted by AFP. Investigators said that the terrorist cell, dismantled through a series of arrests in several cities, was made up of 19 members, including three with terror-related criminal records. Abdessamad Ejjoud, a 25-year-old street vendor living on the outskirts of Marrakesh, was identified as the "emir" of the group. According to Khiam, Ejjoud had formed a cell that discussed how to carry out a terrorist act inside the kingdom, targeting the security se

'Islamism is not Islam': confronting Europe's terrorism problem

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Distinguishing between Islam and Islamist extremism; calling terror attacks for what they are; backing tolerance. Three very different thinkers grapple with one of Europe’s most vexed issues. On a grey London afternoon in 1995, Ed Husain was sitting quietly in the public library opposite Newham College of Further Education, cramming for his upcoming exams, when he heard a commotion in the street below. The 19-year-old glanced out the window to see a small crowd gathered around a young man lying in a large pool of blood. As he was to later discover, a local Muslim youth whom he knew quite well had calmly plunged a knife into the chest of a Nigerian student leader, a Christian, killing him. The incident followed an argument over a pool table, and weeks of escalating tension between gangs of youths. Husain tore down the stairs and helped police disperse onlookers. When he left the bloody scene later that day, he was overwhelmed with guilt, even though it wasn't clear

Sub-Saharan Africa becoming new battleground against violent extremism as jihad ‘goes south’

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Experts say governments need an approach that doesn't rely solely on security forces but addresses local grievances Extremists are penetrating sub-Saharan Africa at an alarming rate, threatening states ill-prepared to deal with the resulting complex social and security challenge, western and African officials have said. Islamic radical groups, which include Isis ,  Al Qaeda affiliates and homegrown movements such as Boko Haram, threaten the continent – despite recent defeats at the hands of African armed forces. The encroachment poses unique challenges for policymakers and officials of shaky governments struggling with limited resources.

China firmly opposes defamation on de-extremism efforts in Xinjiang: FM spokesperson

BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes officials and media of certain countries "politicizing and stigmatizing" the efforts and measures taken by China to fight terrorism and eliminate extremism in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. She made the remarks at a routine press briefing on Monday when responding to recent media reports in the United States and some other Western countries about the alleged "surveillance, detention and assimilation" in Xinjiang and other Muslims-populated regions in China. "Those sensational news reports are irresponsible, either based on hearsay or citing false or fictional sources," Hua said, adding that some Western politicians and media outlets have made a "fundamental mistake" by defining China's efforts of fighting terrorism and upholding stability as specifically targeted at Uygurs or Muslims. "The Chinese government consist

Deciphering the extremism narrative

The language of terrorism, radicalisation and extremism has become racially charged. When on October 27, 2018, anti-Semite Robert Bowers opened fire on the Tree of Life synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh, killing 11 people, CNN and BBC called it a "mass shooting", while the Huffington Post described it as "slaughter". When Islamophobe Darren Osborne drove a van into a crowd near the Finsbury Park Mosque in London on June 19, 2017, re-enacting a terrorist modus operandi seen earlier in London, Berlin and Nice, the same news outlets also refrained from using the term terrorism for several hours, initially depicting the attack as a "collision". The same semantic tip-toeing was at play when, later that summer, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr drove a car into a crowd peacefully protesting a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In a familiar pattern cemented over the past few years, Western mainstream media have conspicuousl

Extremism must not be allowed to take hold again in the region

As Ankara leads way on battle against ISIS, there is a danger of self-implosion in Syria As the US announced its plan to withdraw 2,000 troops from Syria, US-backed troops were fighting ISIS militants trying to recapture Hajin in the east of the country – just further proof, if any were needed, that Donald Trump’s premature exit comes while the extremists still pose a serious threat. Indeed, as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said, the withdrawal could lead to a resurgence of ISIS and give “terrorism the momentum to recover and conduct a terrorist campaign in the region”. It is into this volatile breach that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stepped, declaring he will lead the fight against the remaining ISIS fighters in Syria . As a member of the 79-nation Global Coalition, Turkey does indeed carry some responsibility for countering and dismantling ISIS’s ambitions. But it has not always proven itself capable of rising to the task. Its laissez-fai

Leftwing extremism more popular among youth

While many young Swiss support extreme political ideologies – whether leftwing, rightwing or Islamist – few approve of extremist violence, a survey has found.  Despite a high rejection of capitalism (47.1% of respondents) and the police and the state (21.7%), only 8.1% approved of violence against the police, according to a study external link on extremist attitudes published on Tuesday by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and the School of Social Work Fribourg.  The survey, which questioned 8,317 people aged 17-18 in ten cantons in 2017, showed that leftwing extremism was more widespread in Switzerland among young people than rightwing or Islamist extremism.  Extremism was defined as attitudes and forms of behaviour reflected in the rejection of the democratic constitutional state and the use of violence to replace it with another political order.  A total of 7% of respondents could be classed as leftwing extremists, with 5.6% backing communism and 4.4% s

Left Wing Extremism: Blast Outside Athens Church; Police Officer, Caretaker Injured

The police officer was hospitalised with minor injuries to his face and hands sustained when he went to inspect a "suspicious" package after being alerted by the caretaker. Athens:  A homemade explosive device went off early on Thursday in front of a church in central Athens injuring its caretaker and a police officer, police said. The explosion happened at 7:10 am (0510 GMT) in the upmarket Kolonaki area, the police said, adding that an arterial road had been sealed off. The police officer was hospitalised with minor injuries to his face and hands sustained when he went to inspect a "suspicious" package after being alerted by the caretaker. The caretaker was also hospitalised. A worker at a cafe near the church told Skai television that the blast had been "powerful." Non-fatal attacks targeting centres of power and embassies have been common in Greece in recent years, often by anarchists or far-left groups Ten days ago, a homemade b

Indian-origin police officer ‘working overtime on Christmas’ shot dead in California

In honour of Corporal Ronil Singh of the Newman Police Department, Capitol flags in California will be flown at half-staff, the Governor’s office said. Corporal Singh is survived by his wife, Anamika, and 5-month-old son. A 33-year-old Indian-origin police officer in the US state of California has been killed after being shot by an “armed” unidentified gunman while he was conducting a traffic stop. Corporal Ronil Singh of the Newman Police Department was shot and killed during a traffic stop when he was “working overtime on Christmas night to provide the best for his family.” “A few moments later he called out ‘shots fired’ over the radio,” the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement, which is leading the investigation. “Multiple agencies responded to assist, and Singh was found at the scene with gunshot wounds.” He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, the department said. It said the suspect had fled the scene in

No Plans To Withdraw Troops In Iraq, Says Trump

After pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq in 2011, President Barack Obama ordered them back to the country at the Iraqi government's request in 2014. President Donald Trump said he has no plans to withdraw American forces from Iraq, a week after announcing a surprise pullout of troops from Syria and ordering the Pentagon to bring home roughly half of the American forces deployed to Afghanistan. The decision allows the United States to maintain a presence in the heart of the Middle East and a bulwark against Iranian influence, while also keeping a nearby staging ground should American forces be forced to reenter Syria and engage a resurgent Islamic State. A longer-term presence in Iraq provides Trump with a hedge against his withdrawal from Syria, a decision that was widely opposed by his advisers and which led to the resignation of his defense secretary, retired Marine Corps general Jim Mattis. The development also suggests that Trump's proclamation of victor