International Crisis Group

Tackle early the conditions that breed extremism |  Jean-Marie Guéhenno (Crisis Group President and CEO)

The recent murders of Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto are tragic illustrations of the global reach of violent religious extremism.

The violence carried out by the Islamic State is particularly horrific, and a bitter first-hand experience for Japan. But it is part of a broader trend of extremist groups operating in deeply unstable pockets of the world and employing brutal tactics, including Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, the Pakistani Taliban, among others.

Closer to home, Islamic militants have attempted to blast their way on to the agenda in countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and India: all countries where Japan has sizable investments. They have had little success selling their ideology within these countries on any scale, but they remain a threat.

FULL COMMENTARY (via Nikkei Asian Review)

Photo: World Economic Forum/flickr

From Central Asia to Syria: A Teenage Girl’s Jihad | Crisis Group

As part of research for a report on Central Asian jihadis, to be published in mid-January, Crisis Group has interviewed numerous fighters and their families. In the excerpts below, printed with the permission of the family, the father, Ramaz, tells about his two daughters, one of whom suddenly left home to join the jihad in Syria (and get married there), the other of whom has disappeared and might have joined her sister.

Tell me, please, what is your name?

My name is Ramaz.

How old are you?

43.

Are you working at the moment?

Yes,  I work at a factory.

Did you go to Turkey to look for your daughter?

Yes. On 12 February [2014] my daughter ran away from home. She got a ticket to Turkey. Later that night, at 8 p.m., I called her. She said she was going to her grandmother’s and would stay there. But the next day we found out she went to the airport and flew to Istanbul. I immediately called the National Security Service (SNS) and the State Committee for National Security (SCNS). After I called them, they started working.

Working to find her?

Yes. We explained everything to them…. About two months before she left, she had started praying and reading the Koran at home. I have two daughters. The first is sixteen years old and the second just turned eighteen. They started to apply for documents, travel passports and state ID cards. I asked them why they would need travel passports; they were preparing to go for two months.

Only later did we find out that the eldest was communicating with a guy from Moscow. Her friend told us this. They were communicating by phone, through SMS, and Odnoklassniki (a Russia-based online social network). During those two months she started praying five times a day. She was never out overnight, she always stayed at home. She worked in the beauty salon nearby. She worked there for more than 6 months. She was earning money, she was a good girl. And then one day she announced she didn’t want to work at the salon anymore because she didn’t want to cut men’s hair.

Next thing, she flew quietly to Turkey, and two or three days later contacted us via Skype. As we were talking, our daughter was always looking to the side, back and forth, and it seemed like somebody was standing by her. She said she had arrived in Turkey without problems and that she wanted to study at a madrassa (religious school) in Turkey. Her argument was that she’d get a good education and she asked us for our permission to do this. I rejected her arguments and said the aim of this type of education is to prepare her for jihad. I told her it would ruin  her and that it was unnecessary. I did not agree to it. She just said “okay” and left.

FULL INTERVIEW (Crisis Group Blog - In Pursuit of Peace)

Photo: Screenshot from a video of alleged Uzbek jihadi training camp in Syria, June 2014.

IS back in business | Peter Harling

The so-called Islamic State (IS) — the jihadist movement also known as ISIL or ISIS and by the derogatory acronym Da’ish in Arabic — now controls much of northeast Syria and northwest Iraq (1). In a region beset with so much confusion, it appears uniquely determined and self-assured. Despite its name, it is in no sense a new state, since it rejects the concept of borders and largely does without institutions. Yet IS tells us much about the Middle East — and especially about its genuine states — as well as about western foreign policy.

IS is an aggressive movement with a surprisingly clear identity, given its origins and the fact that it is made up of volunteers from many different places. It began in Iraq where, following the 2003 US invasion, a handful of former mujahideen from the Afghan war established a local Al-Qaida franchise. Very quickly their ideology parted company from that of Al-Qaida central: they focused on enemies close at hand rather than less accessible ones, such as the United States or Israel. Increasingly ignoring the US occupier, they instigated a sectarian war between Sunni and Shia, and then descended into fratricidal conflict, using extreme violence against supposed traitors and apostates in their own Sunni camp. The ensuing self-destruction, between 2007 and 2008, reduced the movement to a few diehards entrenched in the Iraqi desert.

FULL ARTICLE (Le Monde Diplomatique - English Edition)

Photo: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Vanessa Valentine/Flickr

Bosnia Salafi Leader ‘Appeals to Youths to Join Isis’ | Gianluca Mezzofiore

The leader of the Salafi movement in Bosnia Herzegovina, one of the largest Islamist communities in the country, has called on young Muslims to join the ranks of Isis (known as the Islamic State) in Iraq and Syria.

Bilal Bosnic was filmed in the area of Cazinska Krajina in northwestern Bosnia preaching beneath an Isis black flag that “the truth and the Islamic State survive despite so many attacks of those who are confused and those who fight against the truth”. He then urged fellow Muslims to join the jihadists fighting to establish a caliphate between Syria and Iraq.

But when interviewed by the Avaz news site, the cleric retracted his comments, claiming that journalists misinterpreted his words.

FULL ARTICLE (The International Business Times)

Photo: Andreas Lehner/flickr

Jihad et contrebande, un dangereux mélange qui menace la Tunisie selon Michaël Ayari, analyste à l'International Crisis Group | Sarah Ben Hamadi

Le dernier rapport de l’International Crisis Group (ICG), “La Tunisie des frontières: Jihad et contrebande” paru le 28 novembre, analyse la situation des frontières tunisiennes et les raisons du développement de la contrebande, en pointant du doigt la montée de “l’islamo-banditisme.”

Selon l’organisation, le relâchement sécuritaire après la révolution de janvier de 2011 et la guerre en Libye ont entraîné la réorganisation des “cartels de la contrebande” sur les frontières. Dans les zones périurbaines des principales villes du pays, criminalité et islamisme radical tendent à devenir indissociables, et le phénomène gagne en ampleur. Mais pour ICG, la solution ne peut pas être uniquement sécuritaire, elle doit aussi être sociale et économique. Interview avec Michaël Béchir Ayari, analyste principal pour la Tunisie à l'International Crisis Group.

Lire tout l'interview (HuffPost Maghreb) 

Photo: Prof. Martel/Flickr

Jihadists’ rise in Arab world threatens region’s stability | The Independent 

The proliferation of militant jihadi groups across the Arab world is posing a new threat to the region’s stability, presenting fresh challenges to emerging democracies and undermining prospects for a smooth transition in Syria should the regime fall.

From Egypt’s Sinai desert to eastern Libya and the battlegrounds of Syria’s civil war, the push for greater democracy made possible by revolts in the Middle East and North Africa has also unleashed new freedoms that militants are using to preach, practice and recruit.

FULL ARTICLE (The Independent)

Photo: FreedomHouse/Flickr 

As Syrian War Drags On, Jihadists Take Bigger Role | New York Times

By Neil MacFarquhar and Hwaida Saad 

BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government grinds on with no resolution in sight, Syrians involved in the armed struggle say it is becoming more radicalized: homegrown Muslim jihadists, as well as small groups of fighters from Al Qaeda, are taking a more prominent role and demanding a say in running the resistance.

FULL ARTICLE (NYT)

Photo: FreedomHouse2/Flickr