Extremism

Cairo church bombing kills 25, raises fears among Christians
December 11, 2016 By Faith Matters

Cairo church bombing kills 25, raises fears among Christians

A bombing at Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people and wounded 49, many of them women and children attending Sunday mass, in the deadliest attack on Egypt’s Christian minority in years. The attack comes as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi fights battles on several fronts. His economic reforms have angered the poor, a […]

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U.S. estimates 50,000 Islamic State fighters killed so far – U.S. official
December 10, 2016 By Faith Matters

U.S. estimates 50,000 Islamic State fighters killed so far – U.S. official

The U.S. military believes that some 50,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since the United States started battling the group more than two years ago, a senior U.S. military official said on Thursday, calling it a “conservative estimate.” The official, who spoke to Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity, said the figure showed how […]

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Belgium detains 8 for questioning over Islamic State support
December 6, 2016 By Faith Matters

Belgium detains 8 for questioning over Islamic State support

Belgian authorities searched houses and detained eight people for questioning on suspicion of supporting Islamic State financially and through the recruitment of fighters for the Syrian civil war, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday. The prosecutors said nine houses were searched in a district of Brussels, as well as the cities of Bruges, Antwerp and Sint-Niklaas. […]

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San Bernardino marks one-year anniversary of shooting that killed 14
December 2, 2016 By Faith Matters

San Bernardino marks one-year anniversary of shooting that killed 14

Police and fire officials in Southern California who dealt with the carnage of a mass shooting by Islamic militants that left 14 people dead will mark the one-year anniversary on Friday of the attack that shook even the most hardened emergency responders. The massacre on Dec. 2, 2015, in San Bernardino by a married couple […]

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Video purports to show IS fighters attacking Iraqi forces near Mosul
November 20, 2016 By Faith Matters

Video purports to show IS fighters attacking Iraqi forces near Mosul

Video posted online on Saturday (November 19) by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq News Agency appears to show clashes between IS fighters and Iraqi forces near Mosul in Iraq. The first clip purports to show Islamic State fighters firing heavy machineguns at unspecified targets on the outskirts of Aden, east of Mosul. The footage also appears […]

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Sting to sing as Paris Bataclan venue reopens after 2015 attacks
November 4, 2016 By Faith Matters

Sting to sing as Paris Bataclan venue reopens after 2015 attacks

The Paris concert venue where Islamist militants killed 90 people in November 2015 has enrolled rock star Sting for a concert to mark its reopening a year after the tragedy. Sting, who headed up hit pop music band The Police before a long solo career, announced the news, saying on his website that the show […]

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Twenty dead, more than 100 wounded, in Pakistan police academy attack
October 25, 2016 By Faith Matters

Twenty dead, more than 100 wounded, in Pakistan police academy attack

Gunmen stormed a Pakistani police training academy in the southwestern city of Quetta late on Monday night, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 100, officials said. Some 200 trainees are stationed at the facility, officials said, and some had been taken hostage. Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of Baluchistan province, of which […]

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Declining Fortunes of Islamic State
October 17, 2016 By Faith Matters

Declining Fortunes of Islamic State

This video posted on social media purports to show rebel fighters in the village of Dabiq, Syria. Rebels — as well as Turkey, which backs them — said they fully captured the village from Islamic State on Sunday. Their victory forced the jihadists from their symbolic stronghold where they had promised to fight a final, […]

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Iraq PM Abadi announces start of Mosul offensive
October 17, 2016 By Faith Matters

Iraq PM Abadi announces start of Mosul offensive

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday announced the start of an offensive to retake Mosul, the capital of Islamic State’s so-called caliphate in Iraq. “I announce today the start of the heroic operations to free you from the terror and the oppression of Daesh,” he said in a speech on state TV, using an […]

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How Tanveer Ahmed (and others) exploit religious sentiment to justify murder
October 3, 2016 By Faith Matters

How Tanveer Ahmed (and others) exploit religious sentiment to justify murder

A video from an influential Pakistani hate preacher glorifying the actions of Tanveer Ahmed will likely be subject to police investigation. In a five-minute video uploaded to YouTube, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a Barelvi cleric, Pakistan’s largest grouping of Sunni Muslims, recounted Ahmed’s twisted account of the night he murdered Asad Shah. He confirmed that he […]

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