In response to deeply unpopular drone strikes, a public rally in Karachi demands the blocking of NATO supplies from Pakistan to neighbouring Afghanistan. The banner reads, in Urdu ‘Rulers! Come out of the US war’.
EPA/Rehan Khan
I learned a number of lessons about Islam in Peshawar, Pakistan. As a senior United Nations official, I arrived in the country within 24 hours of the massive earthquake that struck in October 2005. Pakistan…
Belgian security forces patrol near the Jewish museum in Brussels.
EPA/Julien Warnand
Even as the world was still trying to make sense of the Paris attacks, attention suddenly shifted towards Brussels with the news that two suspected jihadis had been killed in a police anti-terror raid…
Universities are acutely aware of their role in preventing terrorism. Now the government has proposed a statutory duty in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill that will require universities, schools…
Who’s attacking who?
Freedom via alexskopje/Shutterstock
There may well be an outcry from student unions and lecturers’ organisations against proposals in a new counter-terrorism bill from home secretary Theresa May for a new statutory duty on universities and…
Time to get the police hat out.
Dominic Lipinski/PA Archive
The results of seven school inspections in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets have brought a fresh wave of allegations that some schools are not providing a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils…
The chief inspector of schools’ intervention into the running of seven London schools shines a light onto several emerging developments in the Prevent strategy for countering violent extremism. Michael…
British Prime Minister David Cameron said we have to deal with the ‘root causes’ of terrorism.
AAP/Alan Porritt
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that “a new and pressing challenge” in the fight against terrorism is getting extremist material taken down from the internet. Addressing a special sitting…
Propaganda won’t affect you if you’re not listening.
Sonya Song
ISIS is winning the propaganda war, it’s been said, and top brass from the European Commission, EU member state governments, and representatives of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have met to discuss…
Moved with the spirit.
Dominic Lipinski/PA Archive
At a time of increasing concern about religious radicalisation, Tony Blair has issued a call for school children to be taught to respect religion. But he’s got it wrong on all counts: it’s literacy about…
Troops conduct an anti-terrorist drill in front of a banner of one of the Saudi royal family. Despite the kingdom’s role in fostering extremism, the US sees Saudi Arabia as an ally against Islamic State.
EPA/Saudi Press Agency
As Australia prepares to join combat operations, the coalition of nations stitched together by the US in response to the developing threat of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS or ISIL) is overlooking the…
With Islamic State’s advance in Iraq and Syria gripping the world’s attention, al-Qaeda has been left on the sidelines. That all changed on September 4, as al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri released a 55-minute…
Nansen Primary School, one of those put in special measures by Ofsted.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire
If a week is a long time in politics, then the school summer holidays must have seemed like a lifetime the for governors, teachers, pupils and staff at the 21 schools at the centre of the Trojan Horse…
Personal dispositions, feelings and beliefs may play a decisive role in explaining why people become radicalised.
EPA/Stringer
So far, the ongoing discussions about radicalisation of extremists both at home and abroad have tended to emphasise its sociological aspects. It has focused on concepts such as the religion and social…
The recent announcement by the new secretary of state for education Nicky Morgan that toddlers must be taught British values is the latest in a chain of events precipitated by the Trojan Horse affair over…
British support for opposition groups fighting against the Assad regime in Syria has waned considerably since the summer of 2013, with the increasing prominence of more radicalised Islamic organisations…
Following recent allegations of Muslim extremism in some Birmingham schools and Ofsted putting five of them in special measures, Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education announced that schools…
The long-awaited inspection reports on 21 schools in Birmingham accused of involvement in the “Trojan Horse” affair over alleged Islamic extremism, were released on June 9 to a hungry media. The affair…
Public attacks. May and Gove have denied a rift.
PA/PA Archive
Allegations of an “Islamist” plot to infiltrate and take over schools in Birmingham at the centre of Operation Trojan Horse are looking increasingly thin. But they have caused a very public row between…
Singing, dancing, touchy-feely school governors are in the firing line. A new website designed to attract and inspire more school governors was launched on May 15 by Michael Gove, the secretary of state…