The Extremism Roundup

Islamist Extremism

Mohammad Sharifullaha member of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) - Alexandria Sheriff's Office via FoxNews

Militant-Right and Militant-Left Extremism

 NYPD cleared pro-Palestinian demonstrators from Barnard College after a group of student protesters occupied Milstein Library on Wednesday night - Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images

Anti-Israel Mob Takes Over Building at Barnard College

• Over 50 anti-Israel protesters took over a building at Barnard College in New York City on Wednesday, February 26, leading to the assault of a college employee who was sent to the hospital.
• The protests resulted in several arrests by the NYPD after approximately 100 demonstrators gathered, chanting slogans and attempting to breach police barricades.
• The unrest was sparked by the expulsion of two Barnard students who had disrupted a Columbia University class in January with anti-Israel flyers, prompting demands from protesters for their reinstatement and amnesty for disciplined students. Read More

Hate Crime

A pro-Palestinian protest and pro-Israel counterprotest in the Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park, Brooklyn -  X via The Jewish Chronicle screenshot

Anti-Israel Protesters Target Hasidic Area of Brooklyn

• Anti-Israel protesters from the Pal-Awda activist group marched through Borough Park, a predominantly Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, chanting slogans like “Zionists go to hell” and “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” ostensibly to oppose a real estate event but effectively targeting Jews and Israel’s existence.

• The demonstration led to physical altercations, resulting in at least one arrest—Anthony Frausto, 42, charged with assault after allegedly punching a 61-year-old man—while videos showed protesters flipping off passersby and chanting inflammatory rhetoric. Read More

Illinois Man Convicted of Hate Crime Murder

• Joseph Czuba, a 73-year-old Illinois man, was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery, and two hate crime charges for fatally stabbing 6-year-old Palestinian-American Wadea Al-Fayoumi 26 times and brutally attacking the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, in October 2023.
• The attack, which occurred a week after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, was deemed a hate crime, with prosecutors stating Czuba targeted the family due to their Muslim faith. Read More

School Threats

Michigan State University police car - Sylvia Jarrus via The State News screenshot

MSU Student in Custody Following Social Media Threat

• An 18-year-old Michigan State University student was taken into custody after allegedly posting an anonymous threat on Snapchat targeting the university, referencing the 2023 campus shooting that killed three students and injured five. Read More

Ohio Teen Arrested for Threat

• New Philadelphia, Ohio, police arrested a 15-year-old boy for allegedly posting a threat of school violence targeting New Philadelphia High School on social media. Read More

Foreign Influence Operations

Former CAIR employee Lori Saroya sued the group over allegations of sexual harassment and its shady foreign funding - blainemn.gov via The New York Post screenshot

CAIR Settles Lawsuit to Avoid Disclosing Funding Sources

• The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group repeatedly linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, settled a defamation lawsuit rather than disclose its funding sources, prompting renewed scrutiny of its finances.

• CAIR’s decision to settle came after a Minnesota court ordered the group to reveal its finances in a case brought by former employee Lori Saroya, who alleged antisemitism, sexism, and corruption within the organization, claims CAIR denied.

• Despite reporting $5.3 million in donations in 2022 and projecting $10 million for 2025, CAIR has resisted transparency, fueling speculation about foreign funding, with past federal investigations linking it to Hamas via the Holy Land Foundation case in 2008. Read More

OpenAI Disrupts Two Chinese Influence Campaigns

• OpenAI identified and disrupted two Chinese influence campaigns using its AI tools, including one dubbed "Sponsored Discontent" that generated Spanish-language anti-American disinformation articles published by Latin American news outlets.

• The second campaign, labeled "Peer Review," involved accounts using ChatGPT to create marketing materials for a social media listening tool allegedly used to report protests to Chinese security services, violating OpenAI’s policies against surveillance. Read More

BlackRock to take control of Panama Canal in Wake of US Concerns Over Chinese Influence

• A consortium of firms led by BlackRock is buying two key ports in the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong-based firm as part of a $23 billion deal after President Donald Trump expressed concern that the strategic waterway was falling under Chinese influence.

• The deal would shift control of the strategic ports of Balboa and Cristobal into American corporate hands, a move that aligns with the Trump administration’s concerns over foreign influence near the canal. Read More

QUOTABLE
“What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Those who know what virtuous liberty is, cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads, on account of their having high-sounding words in their mouths.”

-- Edmund Burke

NOTE TO OUR READERS: We have pulled out the salient points of the articles in this newsletter to keep you informed and focused on the most relevant, important and timely news in national security and extremism. While our national security experts stand behind the summary bullets and deem them trustworthy, Clarion Project does not endorse all the views expressed in the articles linked.