Search: “Islamic State”

Every day we seem to read about yet another terrorist attack attributed to Islamic State.  Whether or not the group claims the event – and there is a lot of analysis over when it does and when it doesn’t – there is no question that in the minds of most people IS is the world’s […]

The last few years have seen an incredible spike in the creation and deployment of Countering Violent Extremism (or CVE) programmes around the world.  Although the meaning of the term is still developing, CVE generally is used to cover any effort that aims at stopping violent extremism (or radicalisation) from beginning or undo it once […]

There is a very important distinction in most Western courts of law between actus reus and mens rea, Latin for respectively, guilty act and guilty mind (more or less).   We  have decided that in order for a crime to have been committed, the alleged guilty party had to have the intent to commit that […]

The hostage taking and massacre at a Dhaka cafe in Bangladesh is over.  More than 20 innocent people were slaughtered by Islamist extremists, although exactly which terrorists were behind this heinous act is still unclear (Islamic State has claimed responsibility but the Bangladeshi government vehemently, and incredulously, denies IS has a presence in the country). […]

I swore to myself I would never argue with anything that comes out of the mouth of aspiring Clown in Chief Donald Trump for fear of lowering myself to whatever abyss he calls home, but here I am doing exactly that.  Thankfully, since I am really only keen to talk about terrorism in this blog, […]

In the run-up to the British referendum on whether to stay in the European Union or not there were many dire predictions on how a leave vote would effect the United Kingdom.  We are already seeing significant economic fallout and the weeks and months to follow will likely bring more negative consequences in the political […]

When we write and talk about foreign fighters we are normally referring to the phenomenon of outsiders who travel to engage in combat in a land that is not theirs.  More specifically, at least these days, we are focused on those joining up with terrorist groups like Islamic State and Jabhat al Nusra which are […]

The state of freedom of speech seems to be a hot topic these days.  The Economist devoted a recent cover story to it.  UK scholar Timothy Garton Ash has just written a critically acclaimed book on the issue.  Every day we read of new assaults on journalists and activists in China, Russia, Egypt (two Al […]

Another Canadian has been arrested on a terrorism peace bond.  Mohammed El Shaer, a 28-year old resident of Windsor, Ontario and a business graduate, had served time for falsifying information on a Citizenship and Immigration form that he filled out while in Turkey but was released only to be re-held on terrorism allegations.  It is […]

There is little doubt that Islamic State is under tremendous pressure in Iraq and Syria. Kinetic action carried out by airstrikes and ground forces have whittled away at the group and and the same time the group’s sources of financing are being targeted.  The size of its so-called “Caliphate” is smaller than it was and […]