Mogadishu’s Dilemma: Who’s in Control?

Over the past two years, Somalia’s fragile security has improved slightly following the retreat of the al-Qaeda-associated insurgent group al-Shabaab from the Somali capital of Mogadishu and other urban areas of south and central...

The Mobile Threat: Multiple Battlefields Ensure Instability in the Sahel/Sahara Region

There are signs that the scattered remnants of the Islamist coalition that occupied northern Mali for nine months are beginning to use their financial resources and pre-planned alternative bases to regroup in the Sahel/Sahara...

BRIEFS

MUSLIM BROTHERS’ SPIRITUAL LEADER YUSUF AL-QARADAWI CONDEMNS HEZBOLLAH

Andrew McGregor

There are few more prominent preachers in the Islamic world than Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian Islamic scholar now based in Qatar,...

BRIEFS

ARMED CLASHES NARROWLY AVERTED IN THE SINAI AFTER ENIGMATIC ABDUCTION OF EGYPTIAN SECURITY PERSONNEL 

Andrew McGregor 

A potentially explosive situation in Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula appears to have been averted...

Syrian Turkmen Join Opposition Forces in Pursuit of a New Syrian Identity

Syria’s Turkmen community is becoming increasingly involved in the country’s opposition movement. The mostly Sunni Turkmen of Syria represent a significant ethnic minority community that is located throughout the country,...

East Indonesian Islamist Militants Expand Focus and Area of Operations

The rise of Santoso (a.k.a Abu Warda, a.k.a. Abu Yahya) as Indonesia’s most wanted militant is forcing the country’s elite counterterrorist unit, Densus 88, to focus on his Sulawesi-based network – Mujahidin Indonesian Timur...

Directions in North African Jihadism in the Post-Mali Conflict Environment

Operation Serval, the French-led military intervention in Northern Mali brought major changes to the strategic landscape and geopolitical trends in the region, curbing, or at least slowing, the increasing presence and local...

The Father of the Taliban: An Interview with Maulana Sami ul-Haq

Maulana Sami ul-Haq is the director and chancellor of Pakistan's famous madrassa, Darul uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak. He has served in this post since the death of his father, Maulana Abdul ul-Haq, the founder of the madrassa,...

Afghanistan's Veteran Jihadi Leader: An Interview with Qazi Mohammad Amin Waqad

Qazi Mohammad Amin Waqad is a former member of the Hizb-e-Islami leadership council, a party led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Waqad was one of three key anti-Soviet leaders of the mujahideen and served as Hekmatyar's lieutenant. He is...

Violence and Iraq’s Constitutional Referendum: An Interview with Fareed Sabri

Fareed Sabri is the spokesman of the Iraqi Islamic Party in the United Kingdom. He also served on the party's leadership council in the late 1990s. This interview was conducted by Terrorism Monitor Editor Mahan Abedin on October...