Tag Archives: Charlie Hebdo

Islamic State Terrorism Returns to France and Belgium

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 November 2023

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Al-Qaeda and Global Terrorism: What is the Current Threat?

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 23 February 2023

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Al-Qaeda Claimed It Was Behind the 2015 ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Attack. But Was It?

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 19 December 2022

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Britain’s Latest Surrender to its Unspoken Islamic Blasphemy Law

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 13 June 2022

Muslim protesters outside the Cineworld in Birmingham demand ‘The Lady of Heaven’ film is banned, 5 June 2022 [image source]

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Islamic State Celebrates the Murder of French Schoolteacher

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 24 October 2020

Al-Naba 257, page 3

The 257th edition of Al-Naba, the weekly newsletter of the Islamic State (IS), was released on 22 October. Al-Naba 257 contains an article praising the 16 October murder of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist who accused him of blasphemy for showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Islam’s prophet Muhammad during a class on free speech, but the article does not claim that the Chechen refugee who carried out the assassination, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was an IS operative. Among other things, this is a reminder that IS’s claims of responsibility are not indiscriminate, even if it is believed there have been a couple of incidents of high-profile deception. Continue reading

Al-Qaeda and Global Terror

This article was originally published at European Eye on Radicalisation

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 April 2019

Ahmad al-Shara (Abu Muhammad al-Jolani) [image source]

Several years ago, Al-Qaeda made a strategic decision to refrain from foreign terrorist operations, refocusing away from these global spectaculars towards integrating more closely into local conflicts. The 2014 rampage across Iraq and Syria by Al-Qaeda’s rebellious former Iraqi branch, the Islamic State (ISIS), provided both the opportunity and additional incentive for a long-mediated rebranding effort. However, there have recently been signs of a shift back towards external terror operations, just as ISIS undergoes a setback and Al-Qaeda has a chance to reassert its dominance over the jihadi scene. Continue reading