In order to tackle the menace of terrorism, the culture of extremist ideologies and intolerance must be defeated. This can be achieved through teaching our students critical thinking, flexibility and respect for human difference. We must learn to become more open, flexible and tolerant to diverse ideas and ideologies...

Amira Elghawaby

Besides, such terminology winds up affecting the millions of Muslim citizens who are just as horrified by these terrorists as anyone. “Terms like ‘Islamic terrorism,’ ‘Islamist terrorism,’ ‘Jihadism’ and ‘Islamofascism’ succeed only in conflating terrorism with mainstream Islam, thereby casting all Muslims as terrorists or potential terrorists,”....

Nicholas Kristof

Today Rafi is a voice against the Taliban, against conspiracy theories and against blind anti-Americanism, in part because the United States did not take Donald Trump’s advice to ban Muslims. Extremist American voices like Trump’s, Rafi says, empower extremist voices throughout the Islamic world. “It’s people like Donald Trump who are put forward by the extremists back home,” Rafi told me. “It pours cold water on us.”.....

Mahmut Akpinar

Despite the fact that the majority of Syrian Kurds do not support the PKK, the terrorist organization focused its forces in the north of Syria between 2013 and 2015, setting up a de facto, forced structure there and thus surrounding Turkey from the south. .....

Makhan Saikia

Boko Haram follows the Wahhabi understanding of “Tawhid” meaning “the oneness of God or monotheism”. The larger rhetoric of the group says that a secular polity, which is based on western precepts, preaches idolatry i.e. state worship and it is punishable by death....

Nile Green

Considering that the Sufis always presented themselves as the loyal heirs of the Prophet Mohammad, it’s even harder to understand why Muslims should despise them. And yet over the past century, wave after wave of Muslim reform and renewal movements have rejected almost every aspect of Sufi Islam. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – whose franchises have sentenced Sufis to death in Syria and bulldozed their shrines in Libya – is only the latest of these anti-Sufis. ....

Issandr El Amrani

What options are left to check the Islamic State’s progress in Libya? Since the prospect of large-scale intervention has always been fanciful, the remaining options include covert operations of the kind that have taken place in Libya since 2011, and coordinating a military operation with militias closest to IS’s stronghold in Sirte. ....

Sabria S. Jawhar

Saudi Arabia can be just as mystified as any other country why some of its bright young citizens stray so far from the path of Islam to commit murder. But why put the onus only on Muslim countries? Home-grown terrorists, often second-generation French, British and American citizens, have engaged in terrorist acts. So it must be asked whether those countries are doing enough to combat the disease and not just its symptoms. Religious extremism is a global problem, often born and nurtured in non-Muslim countries.....

Carlotta Gall

Pakistan regards Afghanistan as its backyard. Determined not to let its archrival, India, gain influence there, and to ensure that Afghanistan remains in the Sunni Islamist camp, Pakistan has used the Taliban selectively, promoting those who further its agenda and cracking down on those who don’t. The same goes for Al Qaeda and other foreign fighters. Even knowing this, it might come as a surprise that the region’s triumvirate of violent jihad is living openly in Pakistan.....

"On account of the exceptional circumstances the Islamic State is facing, it has been decided to reduce the salaries that are paid to all mujahedeen by half, and it is not allowed for anyone to be exempted from this decision, whatever his position."......

S. Mubashir Noor, New Age Islam

Unfortunately, question marks still dog the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) a year later, crucial madrasa reforms are stuck in limbo and known rabble-rousers like Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Abdul Aziz continue to roam free courtesy of legal loopholes. The army added torque to Operation Zarb-e-Azb after the APS attack, but scolds the Sharif government for not moving in lockstep. The ISIS analogy, to me, is where Gall's narrative creeps into foggy, conspiratorial territory because she offers no motive…..

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim

There are still plenty of failed states left in the Muslim world where ISIS could re-establish their territorial “caliphate”. And it seems that the new designated location might be Libya.....

The mounting concerns about IS in Libya have spurred diplomatic efforts to end the civil war through the creation of a government of “national accord”. Hopes were raised by a peace deal brokered by the UN that was signed in Morocco on December 17th by delegates from the rival parliaments.....

Viju Cherian

According to the Global Terrorism Index 2015, India is the sixth-most affected nation in the world by terrorism. India has been on the list of the 10 worst-affected nations for the past 14 years. The NIA’s arrest of Abu Musab, along with a dozen other people, last month is disturbing proof that India cannot ignore the IS, not anymore....

Zahid Hussain

An intelligence report last year warned that the Maulana’s links with militant groups involved in terrorist activities presented a grave security threat. The report also cited a video message recorded by students of the Madressahs Hafsa pledging allegiance to the militant Islamic State group...

Abdulrahman al-Rashed

To try and sum up extremism in one word or reason will ultimately lead to a vast generalization. But the main reason behind the cause of extremism is the educational curricula, because this lays the foundations that shape one’s thoughts. So when these curricula teach extremism, extremists will be born.....

Abhinav Pandya

Counter-terrorism measures must reflect a nuanced understanding of the process in which an individual turns from a "religious person" to a "terrorist". Most followers fall in the second and third categories i.e. "religious" and "religious fundamentalist" so the right kind of policy intervention at these stages will be very helpful in checking the growth of radicalisation. And, it might be very helpful to engage liberal and spiritual religious scholars in such policy interventions as followers will be able to repose their trust in them.....

Yaroslav Trofimov

“The Islam that is spreading through society in Africa today is the new active Islam, not the dormant, Sufi, private-life only [version]. It’s going into policy, into economy, into culture, into education. It’s going into public life,” said Hassan al-Turabi, the leading ideologue of political Islam in Africa, who hosted Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders as Sudan’s de facto ruler in the 1990s....

David Ignatius

Asian security officials say the Jakarta attack demonstrates the Islamic State's appeal in normally quiescent Muslim populations, in such nations as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Indeed, the Indonesian affiliate was the first to swear allegiance after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the caliphate in late June 2014 and changed its official name to the Islamic State....

Harun Yahya

When terror spreads to European capitals, such precautions are regarded as normal, and nobody interprets them as an attack on freedom of ideas or the right to liberty. When it comes to Turkey, however, double standards on the subject of terror immediately go into operation, and measures taken by Turkey to protect its own citizens in the fight against terror attract the most astonishing criticism....

Terrorism is a form of theatre. Terrorists are more interested in capturing attention and putting their issue at the forefront of the agenda than in the number of deaths they cause per se. The Islamic State (ISIS) pays careful attention to stagecraft. The barbaric beheadings that are broadcast and disseminated through social media are designed to shock and outrage – and thereby capture attention. By exaggerating their effect and making every terrorist act a lead story, we play into their hands....

Cleansing the bloody hand of a terrorist group through peace talks while the other hand is drenched in the blood of Afghan civilians does not mean that Afghanistan should turn a blind eye to their atrocities - even if pushed by the West or by other Muslim countries to do so.....

Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi

Many scholars and other devout Muslims believe that only misled people and non-believers would carry out such bloody terrorist acts. The question, however, still remains: How can a man willingly blow himself up and kill others at the same time? What kind of brainwashing could lead anyone, young or old, to such depravity? If we are to blame depressing economic conditions, then history is full of those who suffered similar conditions without resorting to such acts. Thus, we need a psychological analysis of terrorism....

Dr. Theodore Karasik

Geneva 3 is an opportunity for ISIS to disrupt, degrade and destroy international resolve in finding a workable solution. From ISIS’s point of view, attacking Shiite targets is a notable step in its plans for 2016. This past weekend represents the group’s own next step as part of the Geneva 3 “anti-process”. ISIS is known for its anti-social and anti-civilization approach to its brand of global politics.....

Manish Rai

Moreover it can be argued that, in some senses, the military operations have strengthened the region’s fractious jihadist organisations by forcing them to put aside their differences and work together. For example the government’s commencement of the Zarb-e-Azb Operation in North Waziristan district and supplementary operations in other districts of the tribal areas, served to soften the TTP’s differences over the leadership and to bind these groups together against a common enemy, which is the Pakistani state....