There have been a lot of very good analytic pieces on Islamic State of late, especially in the wake of US President Trump’s Tweet “we have won against ISIS; we’ve beaten them, and we’ve beaten them badly”. Here are links to a few: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/01/17/its-not-just-isis-many-terrorist-groups-have-been-declared-dead-only-rise-again/?utm_term=.dab4f12cf0b8 https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/tracking-jihadist-movements-2019-islamic-state https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/islamic-state-terrorism-extremism-eyes-southeast-asia-11199586 https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1577356/pentagon-isis-syria-could-regroup-6-months https://www.thedailybeast.com/isis-smuggler-sleeper-cells-and-undead-suicide-bombers-have-infiltrated-europe?ref=home The US office of the Director of […]
Search: “Palestine”
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If you were to ask anyone what they thought of terrorism in the Holy Land (i.e. Israel, Palestine), I am pretty sure that the first thing that would pop into their mind would be “Palestinian perpetrator, Israeli victim”. And, to be honest, you would be justified to an extent in thinking so. After all, there […]
I, like many others I suspect, have grown tired and increasingly frustrated at trying to understand anything the Trump administration is doing. So many of its decisions seem to be made with little forethought or analysis and appear to be taken in a ‘screw you’ kind of way. What other interpretation can be given to […]
I, and many others, have often been criticised for using the term Islamist terrorism or Islamist violent extremism. My critics have accused me of conflating Islam and terrorism and giving fodder to all the bigots and idiots out there that really do believe there is an intrinsic link between the faith of a billion and […]
When terrorists become statesmen
I see that Martin McGuinness died the other day. Mr. McGuinness was an Irish republican, a member of the Sinn Fein political party and, until he left politics in part because he was stricken with cancer, the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to early 2017. He was also, according to some, a […]
When fake news makes us less safe
Think what you want about fake news, or “alternative facts” as they are now known, but I think we can all agree that this is not a good development. People can definitely disagree on what facts mean and what their implications are, but it is simply wrong and indefensible to say that something is X […]
Jerusalem and terrorism
This is not going to end well. President elect Donald Trump has named a bankruptcy lawyer with precisely ZERO diplomatic experience, David Friedman, as the US ambassador to Israel and it is clear that his administration will move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Mr. Friedman is an extremist whose views on the Israel-Palestine conflict are […]
Why terrorists kill
I have just finished watching a very interesting film, the 2012 drama The Company You Keep. Starring Robert Redford, Susan Sarandon, Shia LaBoeuf and Julie Christie and based on a novel by Lem Dobbs, it tells the story of the Weather Underground (WU), a violent left wing group that came out the Students for a […]
Terrorism as political tool
Terrorism eats up a lot of our time as citizens and news consumers. IS. AQ. Boko Haram. Hizballah. Hindu extremists. Anti-abortion extremists. Boy, things have really changed since I was a kid. Sure there was the odd story about a hijacked airplane and the Troubles in Ireland, but it wasn’t a daily occurrence (maybe it […]
I have already blogged about the use of fear by the governing Conservatives in the most recent Canadian federal election. Voters were showered with warnings that the Islamic State was everywhere (and may be coming to a bedroom near you) and that only by returning Mr, Harper and his crew would Canadians truly be safe. […]