Islamic Affairs Analyst 

*Shabab under pressure in Somalia
Civil war in Somalia has lasted for more than two decades. The country has come a long way in that time but the situation on...
27-Jan-2012

Islamic World Risk Watch
Afghanistan / Qatar / Pakistan Taliban plans Qatar office The Taliban on 3 January announced its willingness to open a representative office in ...
27-Jan-2012

Iraq's future: reasons to be fearful
On the surface, the departure of the last US combat troops on 18 December 2011 changed little in Iraq. The country's political leaders have continued...
27-Jan-2012

Prisoner campaign divides UK Islamists
Babar Ahmed, a 37-year-old UK national, has been in detention in the UK since 2003. He was arrested by London's Metropolitan Police following an extradition...
26-Jan-2012

Syria's splintered opposition
The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) was created in September 2011, yet so far its members have been unable to put an end to their...
23-Jan-2012

Islamic Affairs Risk Watch - 16 December 2011
Afghanistan Security transition continues The second phase of security transition in Afghanistan was confirmed by the Afghan government on 27 November 2011. As ...
16-Dec-2011

Pakistan and US ties in the balance
In the days leading up to the United States military vacating the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on 11 December 2011, a senior...
16-Dec-2011

Al-Nahda eyes the prize in Tunisia
Hamadi Jebali, secretary-general of the Islamist al-Nahda party, was appointed Tunisia's new prime minister on 14 December by President Moncef Marzouki. Given al-Nahda's commanding ...
15-Dec-2011

Stepping into Awlaqi's shoes
The death of Yemeni-American extremist preacher Anwar al-Awlaqi in September 2011 has deprived the Western, English-speaking Islamist landscape of one of its most influential figureheads....
15-Dec-2011

Marching towards democracy
The history of the Middle East shows that armed forces in the region have played critical roles in politics, society and large-scale processes of state...
14-Dec-2011

Turkey and Iran's relations go cold
Tensions between Turkey and Iran are increasing and the main arena looks to be Iraq. With the remaining United States combat forces set to leave...
09-Dec-2011

Islamic Affairs Risk Watch
Afghanistan Taliban 'phoning in' orders General John R Allen, commander of the United States-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), has claimed that mid-level Taliban ...
25-Nov-2011

Coptics face challenges in Egypt
The jubilation arising from the revolution that ousted then president Hosni Mubarak in February has quickly diminished as a collective sense of impatience has emerged...
25-Nov-2011

Tense Egypt prepares for landmark elections
Nine months after Hosni Mubarak was forced from power, a consensus is emerging among Egyptians and international observers that the events following the popular uprising...
25-Nov-2011

Salafism back in Balkan spotlight
On Friday 28 October, a lone gunman stalked the US embassy in Sarajevo, the capital of the troubled Balkan state of Bosnia-Herzegovina, firing randomly at...
24-Nov-2011

The legacy of Anwar al-Awlaqi
Anwar al-Awlaqi, the US-born Yemeni Islamist extremist preacher, was killed in late September in what Yemeni authorities said was a US air strike. According...
21-Nov-2011

Iran and Pakistan form delicate ties
Within weeks of the 2 May killing of Osama Bin Laden, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had paid two high-profile visits to Iran, the second...
09-Nov-2011

Islamic Affairs Risk Watch - 30 September
Afghanistan/Pakistan Taliban defends ISI on Haqqani On 27 September, the Afghan Taliban defended Pakistan against claims made on 22 September by Admiral Mike...
30-Sep-2011

Palestinians reach a UN crossroads
Palestinians pressed ahead with their bid for full UN membership in late September in defiance of the United States and Israel. This was the clearest...
30-Sep-2011

*NATO re-learns old lessons in Libya
Due largely to an apathetic domestic audience, the United States was a reluctant partner in the conflict in Libya, only throwing its weight behind UN...
30-Sep-2011

Corruption tops Morocco poll agenda
The seemingly endemic nature of corruption in Morocco has been the subject of consistent public concern, while foreign investors sometimes view this as a disincentive...
29-Sep-2011

A new leader with plenty to prove
Mustafa Abd-el Jalil is chairman and president of the Transitional National Council (TNC) and is a member of the Harabi tribe of northeastern Libya. ...
28-Sep-2011

*US military redraws 'war on terror'
Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the US military has dominated relations between Washington and Islamic world. The Pentagon has...
27-Sep-2011

Iran's Green movement stalls
It has been six months since the nominal heads of Iran's Green opposition movement (Jonbesh-e Sabz) were put under house arrest by security forces loyal...
26-Sep-2011

Assad seeks to weather perfect storm
Regardless of the outcome of the Syrian political crisis, what is beyond doubt is that the political foundations of the country, laid by Hafez al-Assad,...
22-Sep-2011

Islamic Affairs Risk Watch - 2 September
Afghanistan Kabul suicide attacks kill eight At least eight people were killed on 19 August in a series of suicide attacks targeting the ...
02-Sep-2011

Syria teeters on the edge of the abyss
The confrontation between the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition protest movement looks set to worsen in the months ahead, with many...
01-Sep-2011

Kuwaiti Shia walk tightrope to equality
Ever since Jordan's King Abdullah warned in 2004 of an impending 'Shia domino effect', leading to the emergence of a 'Shia crescent' stretching through the...
01-Sep-2011

Iraq confronts security conundrum
The past month has seen progress in answering the most urgent questions in the relationship between Baghdad and Washington: how many US troops will remain...
19-Aug-2011

Syrian unrest unnerves Hamas
The ongoing domestic crisis in Syria is already having reverberations beyond the country. While the concerns of the international community at the brutality of the...
18-Aug-2011

Turkey's military bows to the politicians
The resignation of Turkey's military high command on 29 July, including the chief of staff and commanders of the army, air force and navy, can...
18-Aug-2011

Islamic Affairs Risk Watch - 29 July
Afghanistan Kandahar mayor assassinated A suicide attack on 27 July in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar killed the city's mayor, Ghulam Haidar Hameedi, ...
29-Jul-2011

Jihadist web posting sparks Syria debate
The statement on the jihadist Ansar al-Mujahideen forum by Al-Masada Media group, the media wing of the Shumukh al-Islam forum was entitled Communiqué 'in ...
29-Jul-2011

*NATO looks for Libyan exit strategy
When NATO aircraft launched their first strikes against Libyan military targets on 19 March in order to enforce the no-fly zone mandated in UN Security...
29-Jul-2011

*What's in a name? OIC seeks new role
The fact that the world's second-largest multilateral body changed both its name and its brand identity in the past month has gone largely unnoticed by...
28-Jul-2011