Eye on Extremism: June 3, 2025

CEP Mentions

CapX: Ministers need to wake up to the threat in our prisons

Ian Acheson, CEP Senior Advisor writes: Robert Jenrick is continuing to annoy all the right people. This weekend he turned his focus to the appalling attacks on front line prison staff, including by terrorists, that have left dozens of wounded, maimed and traumatised officers struggling to contain the threat in our High Security prisons. Jenrick asked me to produce a rapid analysis of the current terror threat drawing on my experience as a former government reviewer of the UK threat and my work around the world on managing highly dangerous people. While this paper could not have access to the ongoing official review, I did think I had enough expertise to add to the debate. The criminal justice commentariat were apoplectic. Why?

ABC News: 'Unique' radicalisation of German market attacker

TV-interview with Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, CEP Senior Director: While the perpetrator of the German Christmas market attack had been uniquely radicalised, they have been becoming more common since COVID-19.

Analysis

CTC Sentinel: Somalia at a Crossroads: Resurgent Insurgents, Fragmented Politics, and the Uncertain Future of AUSSOM

Nearly three years after the Somali government launched its offensive against al-Shabaab, the security landscape remains precarious. Al-Shabaab has resurged, coordination between federal and Puntland forces is limited despite Islamic State-Somalia’s growing global remit, and the future of the African Union mission is uncertain. These trends are driven by political discord, a fragmented national landscape, donor fatigue, operational challenges, and al-Shabaab’s resilience. This article offers a comprehensive overview of current security efforts and evaluates the drivers shaping Somalia’s precarious trajectory, concluding that political compromise is essential to effectively counter the dual threats posed by al-Shabaab and Islamic State-Somalia.

CTC Sentinel: A View from the CT Foxhole: Christine Abizaid, Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center

Christine Abizaid served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from June 2021 to July 2024. She was the eighth Senate-confirmed Director and the first woman to lead NCTC, the primary U.S. intelligence organization that integrates, analyzes, and shares terrorism information. During the Obama administration, she was appointed by the Secretary of Defense as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia and served on the National Security Council as both Director for Counterterrorism and Senior Policy Advisor to President Obama’s Assistant for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.

The Atlantic: The Boulder Attack Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere

Terrorism doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It depends on the oxygen of rhetoric for sustenance and encouragement. Nearly two years after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, the cumulative effect of calls to “Globalize the intifada” and “End Zionists” perhaps inevitably led to the horrific attack yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, where a man yelled “Free Palestine” as he threw an incendiary device at a Jewish gathering in support of the hostages.

United States

New York Times: After Several Attacks, Heightened Anxiety Among American Jews

The attack on demonstrators in Boulder, Colo., marching in support of hostages being held in Gaza would have been disturbing to Jewish people across the country even if it were the only recent event of its kind. The suspect told investigators after his arrest that he had been planning the attack for a year, according to court documents. Eight people were hospitalized. For many, the connections to other recent outbursts of violence were impossible to miss. The attack in Boulder came less than two weeks after two Israeli Embassy employees were shot and killed as they left a reception at a Jewish museum in Washington. A month earlier, an arsonist set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on the first night of Passover while Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, slept upstairs with his family.

New York Times: Attack Suspect Appeared to Live a Low-Key Life in Colorado Springs

Before Sunday, Mr. Soliman appeared to have lived a prosaic life in Colorado Springs, where he drove for a ride share service and was raising five children with his wife in a worn stucco apartment amid the dry, windy suburban stretch east of town. He told the police he had assembled his dangerous arsenal of explosives from everyday household goods. But the assault resonated far beyond Boulder. It came roughly two weeks after another supporter of the Palestinian cause killed two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, D.C., sending fresh waves of fear through Jewish communities around the world whose members were left wondering if anywhere was safe for them as Israel’s war in Gaza grinded on.

NBC News: U.S. citizen who joined ISIS in Syria sentenced to 10 years in prison

A naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to receiving military training from the Islamic State group was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison. Lirim Sylejmani, 49, engaged in at least one battle against U.S.-led forces after he entered Syria in 2015, according to prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., imposed Sylejmani's prison sentence followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Sylejmani, who was born in Kosovo and moved to Chicago roughly 25 years ago, pleaded guilty last December to one count of receiving military training from a foreign terrorist organization.

Free Beacon: Congress Nears Move To Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

Momentum has built for the U.S. government to formally designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in the weeks since President Donald Trump’s Middle East trip, lawmakers and other sources familiar with the effort tell the Washington Free Beacon. While the parties involved iron out the final details, sources working on the effort said that lawmakers have multiple avenues to financially cripple the Muslim Brotherhood, a global Islamist organization that preaches terrorism against Israel, the United States, and Western governments.

France

The Free Press: How the Muslim Brotherhood Is Capturing Europe

France didn’t plan to blow the whistle on the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempt to take over Europe. But that’s exactly what it did a couple of weeks ago, when a classified report from the Ministry of the Interior leaked to the newspaper Le Figaro. The 73-page document, marked confidentiel-défense, was meant for top officials only. Based on intelligence files, field investigations, and dozens of interviews, it lays out a stark diagnosis: The Muslim Brotherhood has built an extensive ideological infrastructure in France—not through violence, but through schools, charities, mosques, and soft power. It states: “The Brotherhood’s strategy is to install a form of ideological hegemony by infiltrating civil society under the guise of religious and educational activities.”

The Guardian: France opens terror case after Tunisian hairdresser shot dead in ‘racist act’

French prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation after a man in the south of France, who they say posted racist videos online, allegedly shot dead his Tunisian neighbour. Hichem Miraoui, 45, a Tunisian hairdresser who lived in the village of Puget-sur-Argents, near the Mediterranean town of Fréjus, was shot five times near his home late on Saturday and died at the scene.

Germany

Deutsche Welle: AfD and radical Christians: An alliance of convenience?

Most of the AfD's references to Christian values are made in their attacks on Islam, which they associate with immigration. Ever since hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East began arriving in Germany in 2015, the party has been warning of the downfall of Western civilization and what they call "population replacement." The AfD often claims that other political parties are deliberately flooding Germany with Muslims in order to destroy their own culture. Around 83 million people live in Germany, 25% of whom have some immigrant background. However, the percentage of Muslims remains much lower. According to official figures from 2020, there are approximately 5.5 million Muslims in Germany, only 6.6% of the population.

Deutsche Welle: German court rules turning away asylum-seekers unlawful

The Berlin Administrative Court on Monday ruled that the rejection of asylum-seekers at border controls is unlawful unless carried out under the EU's Dublin procedure. The urgent decision is a blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has pledged to crack down on migration. Shortly after taking office last month, Chancellor Merz's government advised police that they could turn back irregular migrants at the border, even if they applied for asylum. The ruling came in the case of three Somali nationals who were turned back to Poland on May 9 under the new German regulation. The court said such rejections bypass the necessary legal steps and violate asylum rights.

Israel

Jerusalem Post: Coming days 'critical' for Gaza deal progress, Qatar, Egypt hold significant weight

Increased involvement by Qatar and Egypt amid a deadlock in hostage deal negotiations could help narrow gaps between the sides, with the coming days considered critical for progress, senior Israeli officials told Walla Monday. This was previously achieved during proximity talks and negotiations for the previous hostage deal held in Doha. A security source emphasized that a distinction should be made between the “Qatargate” affair and the suspicions against Israeli citizens, and separating this from Qatar's role as a hostage deal mediator. “This is an internal Israeli matter that must be separated from Qatar’s role as a mediator, alongside the Egyptian mediator,” the source said. He stressed that the coming days are critical for the prospects of progress and that the mediators have an important role to play.

Reuters: Three Israeli soldiers killed in combat in northern Gaza, army says

Three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday. The soldiers' deaths were announced hours after Hamas' armed wing said on Monday its fighters were engaging in "fierce clashes" with Israeli forces in the north of the territory.

Iran

Reuters: Iran poised to dismiss US nuclear proposal, Iranian diplomat says

Iran is poised to reject a U.S. proposal to end a decades-old nuclear dispute, an Iranian diplomat said on Monday, dismissing it as a "non-starter" that fails to address Tehran's interests or soften Washington's stance on uranium enrichment. "Iran is drafting a negative response to the U.S. proposal, which could be interpreted as a rejection of the U.S. offer," the senior diplomat, who is close to Iran's negotiating team, told Reuters. The U.S. proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who was on a short visit to Tehran and has been mediating talks between Tehran and Washington. After five rounds of discussions between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, several obstacles remain.

Times of Israel: Palestinian arrested for plotting terror attack on behalf of Iranian agent

Police and Shin Bet agents arrested a Palestinian man on suspicion of plotting a terror attack in central Israel at the behest of an Iranian handler, a police spokesman said Tuesday. The suspect, a man in his 30s residing in East Jerusalem’s Issawiya neighborhood, had been in contact online with an Iranian agent who asked him to carry out various “missions” against the State of Israel. The agent reportedly asked his recruit to stage a terror attack in central Israel, but the suspect was arrested before he could set the plan into motion.

Congo

Reuters: Rwanda-backed rebels in Congo executed civilians, Human Rights Watch says

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo executed at least 21 civilians over two days in February in the eastern city of Goma, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Tuesday. The report covers incidents on February 22-23 in a Goma neighborhood, offering a snapshot of the violence during the latest escalation of the decades-long conflict. “Commanders and combatants who directly ordered or carried out abuses should be held criminally accountable,” Human Rights Watch said in the report. M23 rebels have seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, in an offensive that began in January. The unprecedented advance has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee. The 21 slain civilians included six men and one woman shot in the head near Katindo military camp in Goma on February 22. HRW said M23 were responsible, citing a witness.

Mali

BBC: Al-Qaeda linked group says it carried out huge attack on Mali's army

An al-Qaeda linked group says it carried out a major attack on the Malian town of Boulikessi and the seizure of an army base there. More than 30 soldiers were killed in Sunday's attack, according to sources quoted by the news agency Reuters, however that figure has not been confirmed by the authorities. On Monday the same group, Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), said it targeted the military in the historic city of Timbuktu, with residents reporting hearing gunfire and explosions.

Somalia

Task & Purpose: US airstrikes surge in Somalia, surpassing 2024 numbers

The U.S. military has carried out more than two dozen airstrikes on targets in Somalia in the first five months of this year, double the total number of strikes in 2024. The escalation of the air war comes as the United States is “actively pursuing and eliminating jihadists” in the country, at the request of Somalia’s government, Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, said in a May 30 briefing. The air campaign has targeted ISIS militants and fighters with the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which continues to fight for territory against the federal Somali government.

Uganda

BBC: Suicide bomber killed in Uganda on Christian holy day, army says

Two people who the Ugandan army describe as "armed terrorists" have been killed in the capital, Kampala, as the country marks Martyrs Day - a Christian celebration to commemorate the faithful who died in the 19th Century. A counter-terrorism unit "intercepted and neutralized" the two, one of whom was a suicide bomber, in the upmarket suburb of Munyonyo, army spokesperson Chris Magezi said in a post on X.

Australia

News.com.au: White supremacists gather outside Melbourne shopping centre

A group of white supremacists have gathered outside a busy shopping centre in Melbourne. The incident took place in the early hours of Sunday morning at Northland Shopping Centre, only a week after a violent brawl broke out between rival gangs at the complex. Model and diversity advocate Jeff Kissubi posted an image of the shocking scene to Instagram, saying it highlighted “Australia’s racism problem”.

Bangladesh

Bloomberg: Bangladesh Islamist Party Set For Comeback as Court Removes Ban

Bangladesh’s top court has reinstated the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami, paving the way for the country’s largest Islamist party to participate in the next election. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court nullified a 2013 verdict that had revoked Jamaat’s registration, Mohammad Shishir Manir, a lawyer representing Jamaat-e-Islami, told reporters in Dhaka on Sunday.

Technology

HackRead: Europol Targets Over 2,000 Extremist Links Exploiting Minors Online

The internet can be a dangerous place, especially for vulnerable individuals like minors and underage children. According to data from the United Kingdom’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), half of all grooming cases in the country happen online, with Snapchat being a major platform where this takes place. But another growing danger is extremism, with online extremists exploiting minors not just as victims but also as active participants in spreading violent ideologies. To tackle this issue, Europol coordinated a Referral Action Day on May 27, targeting more than 2,000 online links connected to right-wing extremist and jihadist propaganda aimed at minors.