Islamic State Archives

NOVANEWS By James M. Dorsey US President Donald J. Trump’s vow to defeat what he terms radical Islamic terrorism forces the United States to manoeuvre the Middle East’s and North Africa’s murky world of ever shifting alliances and labyrinths of power struggles within power struggles. The pitfalls are complex and multiple. They range from differences within the 68-member, anti-Islamic State (IS) alliance over what constitutes terrorism to diverging political priorities to varying degrees of willingness to tacitly employ jihadists to pursue geopolitical goals. The pitfalls are most evident in Yemen and Syria and involve two long-standing US allies, NATO member Turkey and Saudi Arabia. US Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson travels to Turkey this week as US and Russian troops create separ...

NOVANEWS By James M. Dorsey The Islamic State (IS) group’s New Year’s Eve attack in an upmarket luxury nightclub in Istanbul has fuelled culture wars in Turkey and Israel and laid bare aspirations among youth in socially restrictive Muslim societies for more liberal lifestyles. In doing so, the attack on Istanbul’s Reina restaurant-cum-nightclub that killed 39 people, mostly tourists, highlighted wider societal tensions that underlie the wave of jihadist attacks that have hit Turkey and other Muslim societies in recent years. They point to a struggle that more often than not is fought by youth who opt for individual ways of carving out spaces in which they can circumvent restrictive social mores rather than organising politically. To be sure, the IS’s multiple attacks in Turkey intend ...

Tag: Islamic State

Defeating the Islamic State group: A war mired in contradictions

Islamic State violence fuels culture wars and widens generation gaps