CounterPoint Brief: The Fear of Blasphemy Laws in Britain

Last week, British Labour MP Tahir Ali asked Prime Minister Keir Starmer if the government would “commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions.” Starmer did not...

"Hayat Tahrir al Sham, a terror group linked to al-Qaida, overran Syria’s second largest city this week. Counterterrorism experts indicate it’s the strongest signal in the last few years that the terror group and its allies are rapidly gaining...

"Moscow is absorbed by the war in Ukraine and Tehran by an explosive regional situation that has weakened its allies, first and foremost Hezbollah in Lebanon, after two months of war with Israel. The rebels have chosen the "ideal" moment to launch...

"Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the think tank the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), said now was the ideal time for the rebels to attack. "The Assad regime is truly not very strong," he told AFP."

"Hans-Jakob Schindler, the director of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), said this was justified. “If you have to ask for permission before you break ties with al-Qaeda, from the leadership of al-Qaeda, the sincerity of the ideological...

"A bit like the Taliban, the de facto rulers of Afghanistan since the summer of 2021, who are not yet recognised as such by the international community, HTS may have difficulty getting off Western lists of terrorist organisations. A position that...

"Hans-Jakob Schindler, the director of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), said this was justified. "If you have to ask for permission before you break ties with al-Qaeda, from the leadership of Al-Qaeda, the sincerity of the ideological...

"According to CEP (Counter Extremism Project) and scholars at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a new wave of Islamic extremism began to take hold in Cabo Delgado as early as 2014 and 2015 when radical preachers from nearby...

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Violent extremism has the power to disfigure society and rob people of their personal security. We can address this problem but only if we equip our prisons to be places with the time, space and tools to...