CEP WEEKLY ROUNDUP

News and Updates from the Counter Extremism Project

CEP Policy and Program Updates

Analysis Report Explores ISIS’s Persecution of Gay People
CEP’s analysis report, ISIS’s Persecution of the Gay Community, documents the brutal and sadistic execution of gay men in ISIS-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria. ISIS-appointed courts have declared homosexuality a capital offense and order brutal punishments, the most common being throwing individuals off of high buildings. Human rights observers estimated in December 2015 that ISIS had executed at least 36 suspected gay men within its territory. In a single day in September 2015, ISIS executed 10 suspected gay men, including a 15-year-old boy. Those who have escaped ISIS’s persecution, a number of whom are profiled in the report, remain fearful, even while living outside ISIS-held territory.
European Responses to Terror Examines Europe’s Policies on Extremist Violence
A new CEP report, European Responses to Terror, is a detailed examination of European government policy responses to acts of political and religious violence from the end of World War II to the present. The analysis report found that too often, weak, ad hoc strategies in response to extremist violence failed to deter future attacks or dismantle terrorist networks in Europe. The report’s case studies document lapses in effective counterterrorism policy that contributed to tragic attacks, as well as successes in overcoming dangerous extremist groups. Case studies include: The Munich Massacre of 1972; Iranian Assassinations in Austria and Germany; 7/7 al-Qaeda Bombings in the U.K.; ISIS’s 2015 Paris Attacks; and ISIS’s 2016 Brussels Bombings.
CEP Featured on National Television News Programs
CEP Spokesperson and Senior Policy Advisor Tara Maller has been a frequent contributor to television news shows, discussing ISIS battlefield and terror tactics, as well as the tragic crash of EgyptAir Flight 804. Tara appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on May 19; Fox News on May 31 and May 18; and CBSN on May 19.
New and Updated CEP Reports on al-Shabab and Kata’ib Hezbollah Leaders

Mohamed Duyadayn, the al-Shabab military leader believed to be the mastermind of the 2015 massacre of 148 people at Kenya’s Garissa University. Duyadayn was reportedly killed with four others in a raid carried out by Somali Special Forces with U.S. support.
Abdullahi Haji Da’ud, an al-Shabab leader killed by U.S. forces on May 27. Da’ud had reportedly coordinated al-Shabab’s attacks in Somalia, Uganda, and Kenya, and had previously served as head of the al-Shabab’s security and intelligence service.
Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, the leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), an Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia operating primarily in Iraq. In addition, Ibrahimi serves as Iraq’s deputy national security advisor and the deputy commander of the umbrella group of anti-ISIS Shiite militias also called Iraq’s popular mobilization forces.

CEP Research and Analysis

Get Your Daily Dose Each Morning
CEP’s new resource, the “Daily Dose – Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions,” highlights extremists’ own words to reveal the violent and dangerous nature of their beliefs, goals, and strategies. Each day, CEP posts on its homepage a quote, fact, or tweet from an extremist group or leader. The Daily Dose is part of CEP's continuing effort to combat extremist ideology and rhetoric by exposing its true and often grisly nature and raising awareness about its growing threat.
CounterPoint Blog: Iraq’s Downward Spiral -- A Boon to ISIS
Since ISIS captured Mosul in June 2014, political and military leaders in Iraq and the U.S. have regarded its liberation as one key to rolling back the caliphate. In this blog, CEP Research Analyst Brian Stewart explains the complex political and sectarian environment that has repeatedly postponed the military operation.
CounterPoint Blog: ISIS’s Counter-Counter Narrative
Rather than celebrating the attacks in Brussels, ISIS dedicated more space in the 14th installment of its English-language magazine, Dabiq, in an attempt to undermine international counter-narratives. CEP Research Director Julie Shain explains in this blog why ISIS named, disparaged, and issued a hit list on well-known Western Muslim scholars and personalities and what the action says about the current thinking of the group’s leaders.
CounterPoint Blog: Pakistan Must do More Than Count the Dead
In this blog, CEP Research Analyst Supna Zaidi Peery recalls the panic of not being able to contact her relatives who were in Lahore, Pakistan for a wedding the day a splinter group from the Pakistani Taliban killed 73 men, women, and children in an attack in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park. Peery explains the origins of the attack and argues that a lot more must be done by Pakistani authorities to shut down extremist channels for recruitment and raising money.

CEP Europe

Policy Dialogue: “The Geostrategic Aspects of Radicalisation”
CEP Brussels hosted a policy dialogue on May 25 in cooperation with the European Policy Centre (EPC). Jihadist terror networks have attained a truly global reach, from the Middle East and North Africa to Central and Southeastern Asia. Discussions focused on the geopolitical dimension of the European Union’s counterterrorism policies as well as the EU’s cooperation with other impacted states around the globe.
Policy Briefing: Shari’a Courts in Europe – The Case of the UK: A Legal Lifeline for Communities or a Convenient Tool in Creating Parallel Societies?
On May 25, CEP Brussels organized a close-door briefing featuring CEP European Advisory Board Member Elham Manea, associate professor of Middle East Studies at Zurich University. Manea has published academic and non-fiction books in English, German, and Arabic as well as two novels in Arabic. Her latest book is Women and Shari’a Law: The Impact of Legal Pluralism in the UK.
Policy Briefing: Radicalisation as an International Phenomenon: What Role Does the Ideology Play in Radicalising Vulnerable Young Europeans?
CEP Brussels hosted a public briefing on May 26 with guest speaker Ed Husain, a senior advisor and director of strategy at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Author of the book The Islamist: Why I Became an Islamic Fundamentalist, What I Saw, and Why I Left, Husain writes and speaks extensively on international threats from radicalization and terrorism and founded the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam in 2008.

Tweet of the Week

CEP extensively monitors Twitter and other social media sites and frequently features a tweet in the Weekly Roundup emblematic of messaging from pro-ISIS followers. Today’s tweet is a veiled threat against London residents from U.N.-sanctioned ISIS propagandist Sally Jones.