French President Emmanuel Macron took aim at radical Islam Friday, announcing
plans to outlaw what he called “Islamic separatism” in communities where

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


October 5, 2020

 

The Wall Street Journal: France’s Emmanuel Macron Targets ‘Islamic Separatism’
With Proposed Law
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“French President Emmanuel Macron took aim at radical Islam Friday, announcing
plans to outlaw what he called “Islamic separatism” in communities where he
said religious laws are taking precedence over civil ones. Mr. Macron said the
law, if passed, would empower authorities to shut down associations and schools
that he said indoctrinate children, and monitor foreign investment in religious
organizations in France. It would also improve public services in poor suburbs,
he said. The bill, which will go before Parliament early next year, risks
escalating tensions between Muslim groups in France and authorities who enforce
the country’s strict secularism. France began introducing bans on wearing
Islamic dress such as face coverings in public areas years ago. Since then, the
social and economic alienation of French Muslims has only deepened. Groups that
practice radical forms of Islam, Mr. Macron said, were trying to create a
parallel society governed by different rules and values than those espoused by
the Republic. “What we need to take on is Islamic separatism,” Mr. Macron said,
during a visit to Les Mureaux, a suburb northwest of Paris.”

 

Associated Press: Mali Releases 180 Jihadists In Likely Prisoner Exchange
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“Malian authorities have released 180 Islamic extremists from a prison in the
capital and flown them to the country's north, an official confirmed late
Sunday, fueling speculation that a prominent opposition politician held by
jihadists could soon be freed after more than six months in captivity. The
militants who abducted Soumaila Cisse back in late March were believed to be
seeking a prisoner exchange with the Malian government. Some 70 men were
released on Saturday and another 110 on Sunday, according to an official who
spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. There was
no immediate comment late Sunday from Mali's transitional government, which was
only recently put in place more than a month after the country's democratically
elected president was ousted in a military coup. Cisse, a 70-year-old who has
run for Mali's presidency three times, was campaigning ahead of legislative
elections not far from Timbuktu at the time of his abduction. His bodyguard was
killed in the attack, and the only proof of life has been a handwritten letter
delivered back in August.”

 

United States

 

The Wall Street Journal: Homeland Security To Grant Millions To Groups To
Combat White Supremacists And Other Extremists
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“The Department of Homeland Security, through a little-known program, intends
to distribute millions of dollars to groups focused largely on combating white
supremacists and other far-right extremists, even as President Trump has sought
to play down their threat. Homeland Security’s new Targeted Violence and
Terrorism Prevention program announced $10 million in grants in recent weeks to
several organizations dedicated to stopping white supremacist and far-right
violence, and identifying extremists of all kinds. The new initiative is a
revamped version of an Obama administration program that focused more on
countering homegrown Islamic terrorism. That effort was criticized for being
overly broad and ineffective … The Counter Extremism Project was awarded
$277,755 to collaborate with another organization, Parallel Networks, to work
with inmates at a California correctional facility in San Diego County who
adhere both to white supremacist or jihadi ideology—or are involved with prison
gangs or groups that espouse extremist ideas. The organizations will develop a
curriculum—one for white supremacists, and the other for jihadis—aimed at
providing alternative narratives to extremist ideology that will be
administered both in person and through email correspondence.”

 

New York Post: Ex-Nazi Hunter Wants US To Deny Entry To Alleged Terrorism
Sponsor For Harvard Post
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“A Manhattan lawyer famous for hunting Nazis is urging federal authorities to
deny entrance into the US to an alleged terrorism sponsor who is scheduled to
teach at Harvard University. In a recent letter to Attorney General Bill Barr,
Neal Sher cites “an overwhelming amount of publicly available evidence” to
suggest that Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Liberation
Organization, incited terrorist violence when he helped establish a fund that
pays the surviving families of suicide bombers killed during their acts of
terror. “At a time when all nations are working to combat the scourge of
terrorism, this ‘pay to slay’ policy does nothing but incentivize and encourage
terror,” writes Sher, the former head of the federal Nazi-hunting Office of
Special Investigations, in the Sept. 16 letter to Barr. Erekat was recently
named a Fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs for
the current academic year, and is scheduled to arrive for in-person classes in
the spring semester, according to Sher. The prestigious appointment came
shortly after the Palestinian authority donated nearly $2 million to Harvard
between 2017 and 2019.”

 

Syria

 

The National: ISIS Supporters Channel Funds To Free Families In Syria Camps
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“ISIS supporters across Europe are using fund-raising apps to smuggle women
and children out of detention camps in Syria, it has been reported. Female
supporters of the terror group are getting funds from sympathisers in Britain
and other European countries to pay for illegal transport. Camp inmates have
been using mobile phones to make emotional appeals to a network of supporters
about their squalid living conditions. It is understood that hundreds of
European women who became ISIS brides and had children are stuck in the camps
after their husbands were either killed or jailed. To help them escape,
sympathisers in Britain have set up and promoted an international crowdfunding
operation that relies on an encrypted messaging app, The Sunday Times reported.
The cost to release a woman and three children is between $10,000 and $15,000.
“If 10 people send $1,000 each, we will reach the goal,” a woman, purportedly
being held in a camp, posted on Facebook. “Or if 20 people give $500 each, we
will reach it as well. Free your sisters from the camps. Spread the word.” The
post was shared by at least a dozen women across England. With many stripped of
their citizenship, the British women are unlikely to return home by legal
means.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Al Jazeera: Deadly Car Bomb Targets Gov’t Building In Afghanistan’s Nangarhar
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“At least 15 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded in a suicide car
bomb attack that targeted a government building in the eastern Afghan province
of Nangarhar, officials said. There were fears that the death toll could rise
after the explosion on Saturday at the entrance of an administrative building
that also housed some military facilities in the Ghani Khel district. “The car
bomb detonated at the entrance of the district headquarters building. Several
armed attackers tried to enter the building after the attack but were killed by
security forces,” the governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP news
agency on Saturday. “As a result, 13 civilians including one woman and four
children were killed. Two members of security forces were also killed,” he
said. Forty-two people, including four security forces members, were wounded,
Khogyani added. Provincial police spokesman Farid Khan confirmed the details.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. Armed groups such
as ISIL (ISIS) and the Taliban have carried out attacks against the Afghan
government, national security and defence personnel and civilians.”

 

Radio Free Europe: Is The Taliban Seeking A 'Sunni Afghan Version' Of Iran?
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“The Afghan government and the Taliban will need to find compromises on a
plethora of contentious issues to reach a peace settlement -- from civil
liberties and women’s rights to the country's name and flag. The most crucial
issue facing the warring sides is the makeup of Afghanistan’s future political
system, which is currently an Islamic republic that is modeled on Western-style
democracy. An extremist Islamist group, the Taliban is seeking to transform the
Afghan state into a theocracy. The militants see the current system as the
product of a U.S. “occupation.” The internationally recognized government in
Kabul is seeking to preserve as much of the current constitutional order as
possible, including key democratic tenets like women’s rights, free speech, and
competitive elections. The Taliban has admitted that it cannot revive its
Islamic Emirate, the official name of the brutal regime that ruled from
1996-2001. An international pariah that was targeted by U.S. sanctions and air
strikes, the regime committed gross human rights abuses and persecuted women
and religious minorities. Fragile and deeply divided, the Afghan government has
come to the peace negotiations that started on September 12 in the Gulf state
of Qatar in relative weakness.”

 

Pakistan

 

Radio Free Europe: Pakistani Army Kills Two Militants In Operation In North
Waziristan
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“The Pakistani army says it has killed two militants in a shoot-out in the
North Waziristan district, a former militant stronghold in the country’s
northwest. A third, a militant, was arrested in the military operation in the
town of Mir Ali in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on October 4, the army
statement said. Describing them as “hardcore terrorists,” the statement said
the militants had been involved in multiple attacks on civilians and security
forces. This was the second such operation in the area in recent days. Two
militants were killed by the army on the Mir Ali outskirts on October 2. The
remote tribal area along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan has long been a
sanctuary for the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other
militant groups. But the military claims that troops cleared the area in a
major offensive that was launched in 2014. Occasional attacks have continued.”

 

Yemen

 

Arab News: Yemen Kills Three Al-Qaeda Militants, Captures Two In Raid In Mahra
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“Yemeni security forces, backed by the Arab coalition, killed three Al-Qaeda
militants and captured two others in a raid on their hideout on Friday in
Al-Ghaydah city, the capital of the western province of Mahra, local media and
residents said. Large explosions rocked many districts in the city of
Al-Ghaydah on Friday morning as security forces raided a building, triggering a
gunfire battle. “The explosions began shaking the city at nearly 2.30 a.m. and
lasted for nine hours,” a resident who preferred to remain anonymous told Arab
News by telephone, adding that security authorities sealed off the area,
preventing people from leaving their homes. Army troops and security forces
also intensified security measures and checkups at the province’s main
entrances. Local media said that when security forces were about to storm the
building, an Al-Qaeda militant blew up his explosive-laden belt, killing
himself and two others. Two other militants surrendered during the raid, local
media reported. Mohammed Ali Yasser, the governor of Mahra, did not answer Arab
News calls. Al-Qaeda in Yemen, also known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
or AQAP, has suffered fatal blows since early 2016 when Arab coalition-backed
Yemeni forces pushed them out of their main strongholds in southern Yemen after
killing a large number of their operatives.”

 

Middle East

 

Foreign Policy: The End Of The Age Of Insurgency
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“This week marks 20 years since the outbreak of the Second Intifada. The years
that followed witnessed bus and café bombings perpetrated by organizations
wrapped in the banners of insurgent political Islam, most importantly Hamas and
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Their tactics—including suicide bombings and
the deliberate targeting of civilians—were borrowed from an earlier generation
of Islamists, the Shiite jihadis of the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The history
of the past 20 years marks the rise of the revolutionary political idea of
insurgent political Islam—but also its sudden decline. For a distinct period,
bottom-up Islamism was the most vital political ideology in the Middle East,
capturing the energy that was once invested in pan-Arab nationalism in an
earlier era. Islamism’s ongoing eclipse is no less stark than the similar
decline of its predecessor ideology. The Second Intifada was the first eruption
of political Islam in its insurgent form against a Western democracy (Sunni
Islamism had already risen against and been defeated by the Syrian and Algerian
regimes in the 1980s and ‘90s, respectively.) It felt unfamiliar at first, but
would quickly become a harbinger. One year later, as Israel was still in the
middle of its assault of suicide bombings, al Qaeda destroyed the twin towers
in New York.”

 

Africa

 

Al Jazeera: Ethiopia: Suspects In Killing Of Musician Charged With Terrorism
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“Ethiopia on Friday filed terrorism charges against four suspects in
connection with the killing of a popular political singer whose death ignited
days of deadly protests, a spokesman for the attorney general told the Reuters
news agency. The assassination in June of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, a musician
revered by the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, sparked days of violence in
Addis Ababa and the surrounding Oromia region in which more than 178 people
were killed. More than 9,000 individuals including politicians, activists and
journalists were arrested in the aftermath of the biggest protests in recent
years. Last week, 2,000 people were charged in connection with the violence.
Among them was prominent media mogul and Oromo opposition politician Jawar
Mohammed, charged with violating anti-terrorism, telecom fraud and firearms
laws. State-run media the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation said on Friday the
individuals charged with terrorism were working with other suspects still at
large to assassinate prominent individuals, to create chaos and remove the
government.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Rugby 'Nazi' Teenager Guilty Of Right-Wing Terror Offences
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“A teenager told police he was “nine to 10” on a scale of terror, with “full
on Nazi Hitler” being a 10. The 17-year-old, from Rugby, Warwickshire, has been
found guilty of preparing for acts of neo-Nazi terrorism. Prosecutor Matthew
Brook said evidence showed the teenager wanted to create a firearm capable of
“smashing heads” after joining a far-right group. The teenager said he had not
intended any act of terrorism. Judge Paul Farrer QC remanded the teenager in
custody until a sentencing hearing on 6 November. He had previously pleaded
guilty to nine charges in relation to possessing documents likely to be useful
to a terrorist. Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court deliberated for more than 15
hours over four days before unanimously convicting the teenager, who was 16 at
the time of the offences, of preparing for terrorist acts between April and
September last year. At the start of what was a re-trial, Mr Brook said the boy
had praised the terrorist who carried out a mass shooting last year in
Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people at two mosques.”

 

BBC News: Man Found With 'Make A Bomb In Your Mother's Kitchen' Instructions
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“A man was found with al-Qaeda magazines on his phone, including an article
about how to make a bomb in your mother's kitchen, a court heard. Another
article demonstrated how to create a machine with rolling blades to mow down
the enemies of Allah, Birmingham Crown Court was told. Salim Youssoufi faces
four counts of intentionally downloading the documents. Mr Youssoufi, of
Coventry Road, Birmingham, denies the charges. Prosecutor Matthew Brook said
the Italian national, 26, had a copy of a summer 2010 edition of al-Qaida's
“Inspire” periodical, which had a front cover article entitled “make a bomb in
the kitchen of your mum”. It is also claimed Mr Youssoufi had downloaded the
autumn 2010 edition featuring a “virtual guide to becoming a terrorist”,
written by former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He is also said to have had
other editions with articles about “destroying buildings”, and one edition
released to mark the bombing of a UPS cargo plane in September 2010. Mr
Youssoufi was arrested on 13 December and his mobile phone seized, Mr Brook
said. “Contained on that telephone were four documents - electronic files -
which contained terrorist information.” An Islamic State “propaganda video”
showing an execution was also found on the defendant's phone, he said with an
edited version played to jurors.”

 

The Independent: Prisoner Accused Of Launching Terror Attack Inside Jail
Claims He Translated Isis Propaganda ‘To Improve French’
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“A prisoner accused of launching a terror attack inside jail has told a court
he translated Isis propaganda videos to practice his French. Brusthom Ziamani
claimed it was a coincidence he was carrying the last speech of a suicide
bomber in his pocket while attacking a prison officer at HMP Whitemoor. The
25-year-old Muslim convert admitted giving the transcript to his co-defendant,
Baz Hockton, and said it was from one of 64 videos from an illicit SD card. Mr
Ziamani said he put the paper in his pocket after it was returned and had
“forgotten about it” when the pair attacked a prison officer while shouting
“Allahu akbar” and wearing fake suicide vests. “It was a speech from a French
Isis jihadi that I translated into English,” he told the Old Bailey on Friday
“At the same time I was taking notes I improved my French with it as well.”
Asked by prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC why he would write out the last words of
Isis suicide bombers, Mr Ziamani replied: “I’m not saying I was agreeing with
it, I was just translating it. “He was speaking eloquent French as well, it’s
very rare that I hear French stuff in this country on TV.” The court heard that
the defendant spoke French as his first language as a child, because his
parents had moved to Britain from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

 

France

 

Associated Press: 8 Charged In French Cryptocurrency Scheme To Finance Jihadis
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“France's anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said Saturday that eight people
have been charged for their alleged involvement in a complex scheme financing
Islamic extremists in Syria through the use of cryptocurrencies. Two suspects
have been handed preliminary charges of financing terrorism and terrorist
conspiracy in a judicial investigation opened Saturday. The same preliminary
charges have been given to another suspect in a related case. Five other people
who have been charged with financing terrorism will be sent to trial by the end
of the year, the statement said. The prosecutor's office said French police
arrested a total of 30 people around the country in the case. Most were
released without charges. Earlier this week, a statement from the
anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said search warrants are out for the two
main figures in the scheme, French jihadis who have likely been in northwestern
Syria since 2013 and are suspected of creating “the architecture of this
network of terrorism financing.” The scheme was initially uncovered by a team
within the French Economy Ministry that traces fiscal fraud, money laundering
and terror financing. This week's police operation targeted a financing network
that has been active since 2019.”

 

Germany

 

The New York Times: Germany’s Far Right Reunified, Too, Making It Much Stronger

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“They called him the “Führer of Berlin.” Ingo Hasselbach had been a
clandestine neo-Nazi in communist East Berlin, but the fall of the Berlin Wall
brought him out of the shadows. He connected with western extremists in the
unified city, organized far-right workshops, fought street battles with
leftists and celebrated Hitler’s birthday. He dreamed of a far-right party in
the parliament of a reunified Germany. Today, the far-right party Alternative
for Germany, known by its German initials, AfD, is the main opposition in
Parliament. Its leaders march side by side with far-right extremists in street
protests. And its power base is the former communist East. “Reunification was a
huge boost for the far right,” said Mr. Hasselbach, who left the neo-Nazi scene
years ago and now helps others to do the same. “The neo-Nazis were the first
ones to be reunified. We laid the foundation for a party like the AfD. There
are things we used to say that have become mainstream today.” As it marks the
30th anniversary of reunification on Saturday, Germany can rightly celebrate
being an economic powerhouse and thriving liberal democracy. But reunification
has another, rarely mentioned legacy — of unifying, empowering and bringing
into the open a far-right movement that has evolved into a disruptive political
force and a terrorist threat, not least inside key state institutions like the
military and police.”

 

The New York Times: Attack At German Synagogue During Sukkot Raises
Anti-Semitism Fears
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“A man wearing army fatigues and wielding a shovel attacked and badly injured
a Jewish student coming out of a synagogue in Hamburg on Sunday, less than a
year after an assault on a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle turned
deadly. Security guards and police officers deployed to the Hamburg synagogue,
where people were marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, swiftly subdued and
arrested a 29-year-old man, whose name the authorities did not disclose. The
suspect was carrying a piece of paper with a swastika in his pocket, the German
news agency DPA reported. The 26-year-old victim, who was wearing a kipa, or
skullcap, when he was attacked, suffered grave head wounds and was taken to a
hospital, the police said. “This is not a one-off case, this is vile
anti-Semitism and we all have to stand against it,” the German foreign
minister, Heiko Maas, wrote on Twitter. Germany has seen the number of
anti-Semitic crimes nearly double in the past three years. Last year alone, the
government recorded 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes, culminating in the attack on the
synagogue in Halle on Oct. 9. In that attack, a gunman tried and failed to
force his way in during services for Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish
calendar, and then killed two people elsewhere.”

 

Associated Press: Wife Of German Rapper Convicted Of Terrorism Charges
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“The widow of a German-born rapper who joined the Islamic State extremist
group in Syria and was killed in an airstrike was herself convicted Friday of
membership in a terrorist organization. The Hamburg state court sentenced
Omaima A., 36, to three years in prison, the dpa news agency reported. The
Hamburg-born woman of Tunisian heritage, whose last name wasn't provided in
line with German privacy laws, was also convicted of failing to properly care
for her children, weapons violations and aiding in the enslavement of a Yazidi
girl. The woman followed her first husband to Syria in 2015 and lived in the
Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa with their three children, according to the
court. After her husband was killed in 2015, she married his friend, German
rapper Denis Cuspert, who went by the stage name Deso Dogg before giving up the
profession and joining IS. Cuspert, who toured in the U.S. in 2006, lent his
voice to record anthems for the militants to use in recruiting videos they
circulated online. The U.S. government designated him a “global terrorist.” The
Pentagon initially said in 2015 that Cuspert was killed in an airstrike, but
withdrew the claim the following year. In 2018, Islamic State announced the
Cuspert had been killed in an airstrike in Syria.”

 

Europe

 

Associated Press: Swiss Arrest 4 Suspected Of Ties To Islamic State, Al-Qaida
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“Authorities in Switzerland say they have arrested four people on suspicion of
having ties to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. The federal prosecutor's
office said police searched three houses in the western canton (state) of
Fribourg early Friday as part of two criminal investigations into alleged
extremist activity. The suspects are alleged to have violated Swiss law banning
involvement with al-Qaida, IS and related organizations. Prosecutors said the
four people detained are also suspected of having “supported or participated in
a criminal organization.” They identified the four suspects only as a
28-year-old Kosovar woman, a 29-year-old Macedonian, a 26-year-old Kosovar man
and a 34-year-old Swiss-Kosovar dual national. “As they had been in contact
with each other, the house searches and arrests were all carried out at the
same time,” prosecutors said. Further information, including which of the
suspects had ties to which group, wasn't immediately available.”

 

Canada

 

Al Jazeera: Canada: Murder Raises Fresh Concerns About Far-Right Violence
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“Mohamed-Aslim Zafis was sitting outside a mosque in Toronto’s west end last
month when a man approached him and stabbed him in the neck with a knife. The
brazen killing, which police later accused 34-year-old Guilherme (William) von
Neutegem of carrying out, sent shockwaves across Canada’s largest city and
stirred fears among Muslim and other minority groups experiencing an uptick in
racism. Weeks later, after von Neutegem’s ties to a white supremacist ideology
were reported, experts say Zafis’ murder is evidence of a dramatic rise in the
number of right-wing hardline groups in Canada and raises questions as to how
well Canadian authorities are addressing far-right violence. “We have over 300
white supremacist groups operating in Canada,” said Mustafa Farooq, CEO of the
National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), an advocacy group. “That’s why,
when we see things like what happened to our brother Mohamed Zafis, with his
killing being at the hands of a man who has connections to neo-Nazi white
supremacy, we are shocked but we are not surprised,” Farooq told Al Jazeera.”

 

The Guardian: Did The 'Caliphate Executioner' Lie About His Past As An Isis
Killer?
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“For months, unbeknown to his classmates and neighbours, a self-professed
executioner was living freely in Canada’s largest city. But in 2018, his
exploits were made public on a blockbuster podcast produced by the New York
Times, in which the man who called himself Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi confessed to a
string of grisly crimes as a member of the Islamic State’s religious police.
The revelations prompted fear and outrage across Canada. Political rivals
accused the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, of letting a “bloodthirsty”
terrorist loose on the streets of Toronto. Recently, however, the story took an
unexpected turn. When the Royal Canadian Mounted police finally laid charges
last week against 25-year-old Shehroze Chaudhry – the man behind Abu Huzaifa –
they weren’t for any crimes in Syria. Instead, he was charged under Canada’s
hoax laws: police argued that his identity as a ruthless killer was a lie. The
son of Pakistani immigrants, Chaudhry spent much of his youth in the city of
Burlington in Ontario. After high school he travelled to Lahore for university.
In 2014, at 17, Chaudhry is believed to have traveled on his Pakistani passport
to Syria.”

 



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