Islamic State

Fareed Yasseen, Iraq’s ambassador to the US, is optimistic about defeating ISIL – but sees several structural threats to Iraq’s stability.

A propaganda war between the Iraqi government and ISIL is raging alongside the military campaign to retake Mosul.

Throughout his campaign for president of the United States, Republican nominee Donald Trump has time and time again denigrated Muslim communities living on American soil and abroad. Trump’s critics have underscored how promoting the prejudicial treatment of Muslims only helps to strengthen anti-American Islamist organizations. By targeting Muslims, the arguments go, Trump inadvertently validates claims made […]

With the rise of the Islamic State, for the first time in nearly 100 years the call to prayer was heard in a caliphate. But the muezzin call of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was not merely incanted from a minaret in Mosul – in the ancient style his followers claim to espouse. Nor was it just […]

Despite their prominence in America’s daily news cycle, the leaders of the Islamic State remain misunderstood.  Many pundits and analysts seem to fail in differentiating their brand of Salafi Islam from the practices and beliefs of the vast majority of Muslims, while others overcorrect and artificially separate the Islamic State’s actions entirely from religion. In […]

On March 10th, the British parliament rushed through new anti-terror laws aimed at stopping potential jihadists from traveling abroad. In less than 15 minutes, it banned people subject to a “Terror Prevention and Investigation Measure” from boarding planes and obliged airlines to provide the government with detailed passenger lists. The Parliament further instituted “temporary exclusion […]