Murder of French Priest Brings ISIS' Long-threatened War on Christians to Europe

Stavridis: Islamic State the Big Winner in Turkish Coup

July 18 -- James Stavridis, Fletcher School dean at Tufts University, discusses the failed coup in Turkey, the political response from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and concerns over European migration out of Turkey. He speaks on "Bloomberg Surveillance."

151 Canadians on Islamic State Kill List

USA: FBI Confirm Orlando Shooter's Links to IS after Nightclub Massacre

Inside The Heart Of The IS Caliphate

Netherlands: IS Planning Further European Attacks - Europol Director

The so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL) “has the willingness and the capability to carry out further attacks in Europe,” Director of Europol Rob Wainwright said during presser held in Amsterdam, Monday. “All of the national authorities are working to prevent that from happening,” he added.

Inside Islamic State's New Stronghold in Libya: 'Isil Beheaded My Friend for Witchcraft - He Did Acupuncture'

THE TELEGRAPH: Residents of Islamic State's new 'caliphate' in Libya describe their terror of 'sorcery' trials

Sitting in the shabby parlour of his temporary home, Haaji Mohammed can barely bring himself to watch the Isil video playing on his mobile phone. The film was made just last month – yet the horrific scenes it shows could be from 500 years ago.

Kneeling before a masked executioner are two men in orange jumpsuits, charged under a statute that drags even the medieval barbarity of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to new depths. The pair are accused of “sorcery”, and just as in witchcraft trials of old, justice is swift, brutal and dispensed to the sound of a baying mob.

As the executioner beheads them with a four-foot scimitar, a crowd of men and boys scream “Allahu Akhbar”, jostling each other for a closer look.

Mr Mohammed is less keen. “I know that man personally,” he says, pointing to the older of the two defendants, whom he names as Said Jabr. “He is not a witch, he is just an alternative healer who does homeopathy and acupuncture. He was wrongly accused.” » | Colin Freeman, Misrata | Monday, January 18, 2016

Rise of ISIS Islamic State Documentary

The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced its intention to reestablish the caliphate and has declared its leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph.

The lightning advances the Islamic State made across Syria and Iraq in June shocked the world. But it's not just the group's military victories that have garnered attention — it's also the pace with which its members have begun to carve out a viable state.

Islamic State Leader Baghdadi Goads West in Rare Audio Statement

THE TELEGRAPH: In what is believed to be his first public message in seven months, Isil chief warns Israel attacks are imminent

The leader of Islamic State has released an alternative Christmas message goading the West, saying [the] do not dare send troops to their territory.

In a rare audio statement - his first in seven months - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said Western countries have "learned from" previous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Crusaders and Jews don't dare to come on the ground because they were defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said in his 23-minute statement.

The leader, who has rarely been pictured and has not been heard from since he was believed to have been injured in an airstrike by Iraqi forces in October, Russian or US-led airstrikes had failed to weaken the group, which was only "expanding and getting stronger".

"Be confident that God will grant victory to those who worship him, and hear the good news that our state is doing well. The more intense the war against it, the purer it becomes and the tougher it gets," he said.

He also called on Saudi citizens - the biggest contributor to Isil ranks - to "rise up" against their government as he dimissed the kingdom's newly formed Muslim coalition against the caliphate.

He also said Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) would soon be in Palestine to establish an Islamic state there. "Jews, soon you shall hear from us in Palestine which will become your grave," the voice, purporting to be Baghdadi, is heard saying. » | Josie Ensor | Saturday, December 26, 2015

Ex-Muslim to Obama: Islam Is the Disease, Terrorists Are Just Symptoms

Ex-Muslim to Obama: Islam is disease, terrorists are just symptoms, face the fact and speak the truth! A college educated Moroccan ex-Muslim under the pseudonym of "Brother Rasheed" confronts Mr. Hussein Obama's lies and delusion about Islam and ISIS with plenty of common sense and brutal facts, based on his education in "Religion Studies" for undergraduate and "Terrorism" for graduate programs, and his own personal experience as a Muslim (for more than 20 years, before converting to Christianity), and as a son of an imam dad.

"Brother Rasheed" says Islam is the root of problem, and terrorist organizations (ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab) are just the symptoms, and until one goes after the root of the problem and not the symptoms, the never-ending cycle will just continue. Yesterday it was Al-Qaeda, today it is ISIS, tomorrow will be some other terror group.

Quite a few rhetorical questions ... ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. How can ISIS not be Islamic? ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi got a PhD in Islamic Studies (from Baghdad University). How could he not know more about ISIS and Islam than Obama? ... If Islam is not the reason for the bloodshed, why don't we see non-Muslims commit terror or suicide bombings, even in Muslim countries, living in the same economic condition as (if not worse than) the Muslims? If Islam is not the reason for the bloodshed, why do we see Muslim converts suddenly commit terrorist acts? ...

One liner at the end ... "By the way, I do NOT give out my full (real) name, because Islam is the religion of peace."

‘ISIS Far Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For’ – McAfee Predicts Cyber War

Islamic State has quote 'unprecented' support within the United States according to a report released by the George Washington University. This comes as cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee warns that world war 3 will be a cyberwar and that civilization has created a doomsday machine that terrorists can use against us. He thinks that the way cybersecurity is handled in America needs to be changed and improved.

Paris Teacher Stabbed by ISIS Sympathizer, Manhunt Underway

Dec. 14, 2015 - 2:20 - Victim's injuries are not life threatening

Related »

The Ruthless Civil Service behind the Islamic State

Financing Terror: A look at the sophisticated and well-established civil service that funds the Islamic State

France: Teacher Stabbed in Paris School by Man Citing Islamic State

A 45-year-old teacher from a Paris suburb was stabbed as he prepared a nursery class on Monday. A masked assailant allegedly cited the so-called Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL) during the attack.

Verwandt »

How to Beat Islamic State

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: To win against the jihadists, isolate them, undercut their appeal to Muslims and avoid a ‘clash of civilizations’

Islam is a religion, and like any other faith, it is internally diverse. Islamism, by contrast, is the desire to impose a single version of Islam on an entire society. Islamism is not Islam, but it is an offshoot of Islam. It is Muslim theocracy.

In much the same way, jihad is a traditional Muslim idea connoting struggle—sometimes a personal spiritual struggle, sometimes a struggle against an external enemy. Jihadism, however, is something else entirely: It is the doctrine of using force to spread Islamism.

President Barack Obama and many liberal-minded commentators have been hesitant to call this Islamist ideology by its proper name. They seem to fear that both Muslim communities and the religiously intolerant will hear the word “Islam” and simply assume that all Muslims are being held responsible for the excesses of the jihadist few.

I call this the Voldemort effect, after the villain in J.K. Rowling ’s Harry Potter books. Many well-meaning people in Ms. Rowling’s fictional world are so petrified of Voldemort’s evil that they do two things: They refuse to call Voldemort by name, instead referring to “He Who Must Not Be Named,” and they deny that he exists in the first place. Such dread only increases public hysteria, thus magnifying the appeal of Voldemort’s power.

The same hysteria about Islamism is unfolding before our eyes. But no strategy intended to defeat Islamism can succeed if Islamism itself and its violent expression in jihadism are not first named, isolated and understood. It is as disingenuous to argue that Islamic State is entirely divorced from Islam as it is to assert that it is synonymous with Islam. Islamic State does indeed have something to do with Islam—not nothing, not everything, but something. That something is the way in which all Islamists justify their arguments using Islamic scripture and seek to recruit from Muslims. Read on and comment » | Maajid Nawaz | Friday, December 11, 2015

Teacher Stabbed in Paris by Attacker Citing Islamic State

THE TELEGRAPH: Primary school teacher in a serious condition have being stabbed by a man wearing a balaclava and gloves in France

A hooded man claiming to be acting for the Islamic State group attacked a nursery school teacher with a knife as he prepared for classes in a school north of Paris.

The attack occurred at around 7am in Aubervilliers, north of Paris, when a primary school teacher was stabbed with a box cutter by a man wearing a balaclava and gloves, reported Le Parisien newspaper.

The attacker was dressed in painter's overalls and a balaclava and arrived without a weapon but grabbed what appeared to be a box cutter that was lying in the classroom.

According to local prosecutors the man shouted: "This is Daesh. This is a warning." Daesh is another name for IS. » | Agencies | Monday, December 14, 2015

Angela Merkel 'Dismisses US Request for More Military Help against Islamic State'

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Der Spiegel says US is asking for increased commitment from Germany after parliament voted to join military campaign in Syria

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, on Sunday brushed off what a magazine said was a request from the United States to provide more military help in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

"I believe Germany is fulfilling its part and we don't need to talk about new issues related to this question at the moment," Mrs Merkel told the ZDF broadcaster when asked about the Der Spiegel magazine report of the US request.

Der Spiegel reported on Saturday that Ashton Carter, US Defence Secretary, had sent a letter asking for a bigger military contribution from Germany, a week after parliament approved a plan to join the campaign in Syria. » | Reuters | Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Isis Papers: Leaked Documents Show How Isis Is Building Its State

The leaked Islamic State document sets out a blueprint
for building a state

THE GUARDIAN: Blueprint lays bare new contours of Islamic state, complete with civil service, regional government and Soviet levels of economic control

A leaked internal Islamic State manual shows how the terrorist group has set about building a state in Iraq and Syria complete with government departments, a treasury and an economic programme for self-sufficiency, the Guardian can reveal.

The 24-page document, obtained by the Guardian, sets out a blueprint for establishing foreign relations, a fully fledged propaganda operation, and centralised control over oil, gas and the other vital parts of the economy.

The manual, written last year and entitled Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, lays bare Isis’s state-building aspirations and the ways in which it has managed to set itself apart as the richest and most destabilising jihadi group of the past 50 years.

Islamic State blueprint

Together with other documents obtained by the Guardian, it builds up a picture of a group that, although sworn to a founding principle of brutal violence, is equally set on more mundane matters such as health, education, commerce, communications and jobs. In short, it is building a state. Read on and comment » | Shiv Malik | Monday, December 7, 2015

ISIS Claim Responsibility for California Shootings as FBI Investigate It As Act of Terror

EXPRESS: ISLAMIC STATE (ISIS) has said its followers carried out the deadly mass shooting that killed 14 people at a Christmas party in San Bernardino.

The revelation comes after US officials said the female shooter who carried out the mass shooting with her husband pledged allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS).

If a link to the terror group is confirmed, the mass shooting would be the first attack in America that has been led or inspired by ISIS.

Tashfeen Malik, who burst into a staff Christmas party with Syed Rizwan Farook, wielding assault rifles, pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook, according to officials investigating the attack in San Bernardino, California. » | Selina Sykes | Saturday, December 5, 2015

Russia Accuses Erdogan of Trading Oil with IS - BBC News

Russia's defence ministry has accused the family of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being directly involved in the trade of petroleum with the Islamic State group. Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said Turkey was the biggest buyer of "stolen" oil from Syria and Iraq.

Mr Erdogan said Russia had no right to "slander" Turkey with such claims.