scholarly journals Origins, Evolution and Current Activities of Sunni Salafi Jihadist Groups in Bangladesh

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-80
Author(s):  
Labiba Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Muslim Country ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Freedom Fighters ◽  
Religious Interventions ◽  
Islamist Terrorism ◽  
Muslim Majority

Despite its global recognition as a moderate Muslim country, Bangladesh has been experiencing increasing bouts of religious fundamentalism and militant activities since 2005. This phenomenon is not altogether novel to the country. During the Liberation War of 1971, Bengali freedom fighters faced staunch opposition from the Pakistani armed forces as well as Islamist militias under the control of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party. Even after attaining its independence, Bangladesh has struggled to uphold the pillars of democracy and secularism due to political, social and religious drivers. Between January 2005 and June 2015, nearly 600 people have died in Islamic terrorist attacks in the country. These militant outfits either have close ties to or are part of Al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and the Islamic State (ISIS). Despite such troubling signs and the fact that it is the fourth largest Muslim majority country in the world, Bangladesh has generally received little attention from academics of security studies. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the drivers and trends of Sunni Salafi jihadist groups operating in Bangladesh to ascertain the implications for counterterrorism activities. Political, social and religious interventions that go beyond the hard approach must be undertaken to control the mounting threat of Islamist terrorism to the security and stability of the nation.   

Who Supports Suicide Terrorism in Bangladesh? What the Data Say

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 622-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Christine Fair ◽  
Ali Hamza ◽  
Rebecca Heller
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Success Story ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Islamist Terrorism ◽  
Important State ◽  
Empirical Foundation

AbstractBangladesh, one of the world's largest Muslim countries, is generally viewed as a success story with a strong tradition of secular democracy. Unfortunately, this assertion rests on a weak empirical foundation. Since becoming independent from Pakistan in 1971, democracy and secularism have been consistently undermined. Moreover, since 2000 Bangladesh has experienced more than 100 incidents of Islamist terrorism. More recently, the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent have assaulted religious and ethnic minorities as well as secular and liberal activists. While these turns of events are alarming, Islamist militancy in Bangladesh remains understudied. In this article, we address this lacuna by undertaking regression analysis of recent Pew Research Center survey data to exposit the determinants of popular support of Islamist terrorism. With this study, we hope other scholars will be motivated to turn their attention to this increasingly important state.

Malaysia: Religious Pluralism and the Constitution in a Contested Polity

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 356-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Harding
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
Religious Conversion ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Historical Developments

Malaysia has a classically plural society with a Malay/ Muslim majority and a legal system which, for historical reasons, is bifurcated between the common law and Islamic law. It also has a colonial-era federal constitution under which Islam is a state issue. Disputes concerning religion are both many and divisive. They are dealt with mainly in constitutional terms, especially in debates about the notion of an Islamic state, in light of Article 3 and the enshrinement of an official religion and in litigation. The latter is rendered complex by the separation of Islamic from common law jurisdiction in 1988, a fact that has given rise to highly sensitive and troubling litigation involving, especially, religious conversion in Lina Joy (2007). This article traces historical developments relating to religion and the law, and finds cause for some optimism that religious divides can be bridged by constitutional means, in light of recent judicial responses and evolving debates about the constitutional position of Islam.

scholarly journals The Jihadi Current and the Lay Thinking: A “Re-Anchorage” Process Hypothesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-374
Author(s):  
Dorra Ben Alaya
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Islamist Terrorism ◽  
Familiar Objects ◽  
Theory Of Social Representations

The Jihadi-salafist doctrine which is at the Islamist terrorism origin that affects several countries since the emergence of Al Qaeda in the late 80's, gave birth to the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham/Levant (ISIS/ISIL) established as a Caliphate in 2014. Despite the ISIS official military defeat in 2019, the Jihadi-Salafist current - whose history goes back a long way, is currently behind a number of attacks whether collective or individual, claimed by known organizations or committed in isolation. In our perspective, we try to apprehend the attraction power of the Jihadi narrative issue taking the Theory of Social Representations as a paradigmatic framework. This implies that we dont consider the Jihadi current membership as the manifestation of a deviation from normality or optimal rationality, but as the expression of a certain common sense resonance. More precisely, and taking the case of the Tunisian context, the success of the Jihadi narrative is explained by its effectiveness as an interpretive grid and as a guide for action, making it possible to re-anchor a reality lacking in meaning. This hypothesis of a re-anchoring implies that anchoring as described by Moscovici as one of the two processes at the origin of the social representations formation (with the objectification process), could be not only as a familiarization of the strange by inserting it in an already known pre-existing frame, but by substituting to the frame itself, a new one, in order to be able to insert familiar objects which would have lost their sense precisely because of the old frame itself. This hypothesis could offer a theoretical and heuristic perspective allowing the anchoring process to be conceived as a circular and non-definitive process.

scholarly journals Turkish State Family Law: History Reform, Legislation, and Legal Materials

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
Doli Witro ◽  
Ali Hamzah ◽  
Ike Yulisa ◽  
Mhd Rasidin ◽  
Syamsarina Syamsarina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Law ◽  
Muslim Country ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
Reform Legislation ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Islamic Family Law ◽  
Turkish State

Historically, efforts to reform Family Law in parts of the Islamic world began to be realized in the late 19th century AD. The reality of Islamic legal reforms carried out in Islamic countries in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia gave rise to unprecedented changes in the last century. These changes occur both in the justice system and in the system applied. Changes to family law were first carried out by Turkey, then followed by Lebanon in 1919, Jordan in 1951, and Syria in 1953. Muslim countries in the world, in their context with the renewal of family law, are divided into three categories. First, an Islamic state that does not carry out any renewal and still enforces family law as stipulated in the books of fiqh. Secondly, an Islamic state that has completely abandoned Islamic family law and adopted European civil law. Third, countries that are trying to enforce Islamic family law but after making reforms here and there. This paper tries to discuss one of the reforms carried out by one Muslim country, namely Turkey, which is related to the reformation (reform) of family law that starts from the history of reform, legislation, renewal, and legal material. The author chose Turkey because it is the first Muslim country to make changes to family law.

Culture, conflict and armed non-state actors: cultural heritage protection in a changing operating environment

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Dunkley
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Operating Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Protection Of Cultural Heritage

PurposeThis paper examines the implications, for States Parties, of the 1954 Convention safeguarding regime in the context of contemporary non-international armed conflict and ANSAs, with a general focus on the Middle East and in situ cultural property.Design/methodology/approachAs the nature of conflict changes and armed forces become further engaged in supporting peacekeeping operations and deliver training to host nation security forces, and human security becomes an increasingly important function of military operations, the protection of cultural heritage (as an expression of a people's identity) becomes a significant contribution to individual operations.FindingsInternational obligations to States Parties for the in situ protection of cultural heritage, under both International Humanitarian Law and HC54, become an ever increasing important responsibility for armed forces to help deliver.Research limitations/implicationsWhile NATO is increasingly focussed on the defence of western states parties from threats posed by the Russian Federation, and observing a commercially and military assertive China, a recent report issued by the Pentagon noted that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is regrouping in Iraq faster than in Syria and could regain territory in six to twelve months in the absence of sustained military pressure.Practical implicationsPreservation in situ is used by heritage professionals to refer to the protection of a cultural heritage asset in its original location while the in situ protection of cultural property is a cornerstone topic of the 1954 Hague Convention Special Protection category. The Convention was drafted with international armed conflict in mind but the initial signatories to the Convention had sufficient foresight to consider non-international armed conflict and its potential effect on in situ cultural property by parties to the conflict, including Armed Non-State Actors (ANSA)Social implicationsUN Security Council Resolution 2449 (December 2018) recognized the negative impact of the presence, violent extremist ideology and actions on stability in Syria and the region of both Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Al-Nusrah Front (ANF). This includes not only the devastating humanitarian impact on civilian populations but also the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage.Originality/valueANSAs comprise individuals and groups that are wholly or partly independent of State governments and which threaten or use violence to achieve their goals, such as Islamic State. As such, the military operating environment has changed since 1954.

scholarly journals Determinants of capital structure for firms in an Islamic equity index: comparing developed and developing countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-191
Author(s):  
Evrim Hilal Kahya ◽  
Hüseyin Yiğit Ersen ◽  
Cumhur Ekinci ◽  
Oktay Taş ◽  
Koray D. Simsek
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Capital Structure ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Muslim Country ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Equity Index

PurposeThe paper aims to identify the differences between developed and developing country firms with respect to firm-specific and country-level determinants of their capital structure. For this purpose, all constituent firms in one of the oldest Islamic equity indices, Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index (DJIM), are considered and the Muslim-majority status of each firm's domicile country is recognized.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs Hausman–Taylor random effects regression with endogenous covariates to explain the debt ratios of firms in DJIM by separating them into developed and developing country subsamples in an unbalanced panel data setting. Developing country subsample is further split into two based on the Muslim-majority status of each firm's domicile country.FindingsConsistent with the previous literature, this study finds that firm-specific characteristics are the main determinants of their capital structure. Additionally, the paper shows that country-level characteristics have an impact on the debt ratio, however, the types of factors vary across developed and developing countries. Debt ratios in developing country firms are lower than those in developed country firms, largely due to the significantly smaller leverage ratios of firms in Muslim-majority countries. Although the debt ratios of DJIM firms are higher in “non-Muslim” countries, the set of firm-level capital structure determinants are not statistically explained by operating in a “Muslim” country. The study also documents that, before the global financial crisis of 2008, companies in developing countries have gradually become less leveraged worldwide.Originality/valueThis paper provides a new perspective into the differences between developed and developing country firms' capital structures by focusing on a relatively homogeneous data set restricted by leverage screening rules of an Islamic equity index and recognizing the Muslim-majority status of each firm's domicile country.

Islamic Political Ideologies

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaelle L. Browers
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
Civil State ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The 1950S

This chapter traces the development of an ideological understanding of Islam in the modern period as an alternative to secular ideologies; the conceptualization of a revolutionary project in the 1950s and 1960s, which politicized Islamic notions of struggle (jihad) aimed at replacing what they saw as corrupt regimes with an Islamic state; the emergence in the late 1970s and early 1980s of a transnational Islamism, galvanized by Iran’s Islamic revolution and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, alongside a growing moderate Islamism aimed at competing in the limited elections taking place in a number of Muslim majority countries. The chapter concludes with a discussion of current debates over what some scholars have identified as ‘post-Islamism’—a shift from Islamism aimed at establishing an Islamic state to the notion of a civil state with an Islamic referent—and an examination of the recent, so-called ‘Arab Spring’, which has opened up space for Islamists to gain political power through elections.

Returning foreign fighters: The case of Denmark

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (907-909) ◽  
pp. 315-336
Author(s):  
Helene Højfeldt Jakobsen
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Direct Part ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Legal Regimes ◽  
Foreign Fighters

AbstractThis article considers which legal regimes apply in cases where a Danish citizen and/or resident returns from Syria or Iraq after having taken part in the armed conflict on behalf of the group known as Islamic State, and continues his/her affiliation with the armed group. The article argues that international humanitarian law currently applies to the Danish territory and that a Danish foreign fighter may continue to be considered as taking a direct part in hostilities after having returned from Iraq or Syria. The article then considers the application of Danish criminal law to returned foreign fighters and argues that Danish counterterrorism laws do not apply to members of the armed forces of an armed group that is party to an armed conflict with Denmark.

The Obama Administration and Targeting “War-Sustaining” Objects in Noninternational Armed Conflict

2016 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 663-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Goodman
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
Economic Infrastructure ◽  
Significant Attention

Since September 11, 2001, legal experts have focused significant attention on the lethal targeting of individuals by both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. An equally significant legacy of the post-9/11 administrations, however, may be the decisions to target specific kinds of objects. Those decisions greatly affect the success of U.S. efforts to win ongoing conflicts, such as the conflict with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). These decisions may also become precedents for military attacks that states consider lawful, whether carried out by cyber or kinetic means, in future armed conflicts.To achieve the goal of destroying ISIL, President Obama embraced what many in the international law community long regarded as off-limits: targeting war-sustaining capabilities, such as the economic infrastructure used to generate revenue for an enemy's armed forces. Although the weight of scholarly opinion has for years maintained that such objects are not legitimate military targets, the existing literature on this topic is highly deficient. Academic discussion has yet to grapple with some of the strongest and clearest evidence in support of the U.S. view on the legality of such targeting decisions. Indeed, intellectual resources may be better spent not on the question of whether such objects are legitimate military targets under the law of armed conflict, but on second-order questions, such as how to apply proportionality analysis and how to identify limiting principles to guard against unintentional slippery slopes. In this article, I discuss the legal pedigree for war-sustaining targeting. I then turn to identify some of the most significant second-order questions and how we might begin to address them.

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