Eye on Extremism: October 26, 2026
Top Stories
Reuters: Saudi defence pact countries hold talks in Iran as Houthis launch more attacks
Top officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday in a bid to de-escalate the Middle East conflict, as Yemen’s Houthis launched new attacks on Saudi Arabia and Egypt approved defence support for the Gulf kingdom.
The Times: Iran ‘plotting against US officials abroad’ as diplomats withdrawn
Iran has increased its efforts to target American officials abroad, with some plots reaching “advanced stages,” it has been reported. US diplomats and their families were withdrawn from posts across the Middle East this week as Tehran threatened to attack American bases in the region.
Analysis
Small Wars Journal: Accelerationism and Algorithms of Violence: Mind that Beef
Accelerationism is a nihilistic belief that the contemporary social and political structures in Western society must be destroyed, and that violence should instrumentalize this collapse by aggravating social tensions. Rooted in Marxist and cultural underground thought and currently associated with militant extremism in neo-Nazi communities, accelerationism has also been linked to recent cases of children who have committed mass shootings and to nihilistic violent extremism (NVE) communities with several child-aged violent perpetrators known to have forced their victims to degrade themselves for community entertainment.
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung: At Guinea’s doorstep: JNIM’s entrenchment in southwestern Mali
The expansion of jihadist groups in West Africa also affects border areas that have received comparatively little research attention. Southwestern Mali and neighbouring areas of Guinea are becoming increasingly important to regional security.
The Atlantic: AI Terrorism Is Just Terrorism
The War on Terror coincided with the rise of the internet, when freshly concerning digital attacks became known as cyberterrorism. Now a new threat has appeared: AI terrorism.
United States
President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.
New York Times: In Islamophobic Rant, Trump Seeks to Stir Republican Base in Michigan
President Trump turned to Islamophobic stereotypes to motivate Michigan Republicans on Sunday, claiming at a rally that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee, if elected, would bring a wave of jihadists to the United States.
JNS: Ad for El-Sayed blaming rising grocery costs on Israel a ‘case study’ in Jew-hatred
A new advertisement that supports Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan and a former Detroit health director, is yet “another example of scapegoating the Jewish state,” according to Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
JTA: Trump says Jews who support El-Sayed should be ‘ashamed’ of themselves
President Donald Trump disparaged Jewish voters who support Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, at a rally in Port Huron on Sunday. “Any Jewish person that supports this guy should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump told some 4,000 supporters in the city north of Detroit, where he stumped for Republican nominee Mike Rogers. “You should never speak to them again.”
More than 220 liberal and progressive rabbis from 34 states signed an open letter to Democratic US Senate nominee Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, endorsing the campaign demands of Nonnegotiable Michigan.
CNN: Woman charged with hate crimes in attack on two Jewish men in NYC
A woman accused of assaulting two men in allegedly antisemitic attacks in New York City was charged with hate crimes connected to those incidents, according to police and court records.
New York Post: Orthodox Jews flee NY for Florida amid rising antisemitism
More than 100 Orthodox Jewish families, fed up with rising antisemitism and political dysfunction in New York, are planning to join the 60 who already fled the state for a new community in Florida — only for far-right influencers to descend on their community and spew vicious Jew-hating rhetoric.
Huffington Post: Atlanta Falcons Quietly Swap Out Logo That People Compared To Nazi Symbol
The Atlanta Falcons have quietly swapped out a new logo posted on social media Wednesday, thanks to a bunch of Nazi jokes the NFL team apparently did not see coming. The logo posted Wednesday showed a stylized black falcon superimposed over red, gold, black, and cream-colored vertical stripes.
El Paso Times: Possible teens in KKK robes spark outrage from Escobar, NAACP in El Paso
A group of possibly teenagers costumed in Ku Klux Klan robes at what appears to be a Halloween gathering in El Paso has drawn the condemnation of the U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar and the El Paso branch of the NAACP.
JNS: Woman charged with hate crimes in attacks on Jewish men in Manhattan
Anna Mochalova, the Brooklyn woman arrested following two assaults on visibly Jewish men in Midtown Manhattan last week, was arraigned on hate-crime charges, the Manhattan district attorney’s office told JNS on Monday.
The Berkeley Unified School District, which has about 9,400 students in 20 schools, erred when it found that anti-Israel materials at a school-sponsored event were not discriminatory, the California Department of Education said last week.
JTA: Israeli-Arab influencer behind ‘Nas Daily’: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism
Israeli-Arab social media entrepreneur Nuseir Yassin, of the viral vlog “Nas Daily,” said he believes “anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism” and stressed his commitment to overturning “misguided hate” against Jews, at a conference devoted to the subject this week.
Canada
Gordon Botaitis, of London, Ontario, was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly used a pressure washer to make a symbol like a Nazi swastika in the gravel of a parking lot where he was doing construction work, the London Police Service stated.
Argentina
JNS: Jewish group slams renewed antisemitic slur in Argentine soccer match
The umbrella organization of Argentina’s Jewish community on Saturday condemned an antisemitic slur shouted during a youth soccer match in Buenos Aires, in the second such incident in a week.
Brazil
The New Republic: Brazil’s Far-Right Leader Rejects Election After Petition Backfires
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s decisive victory in Brazil’s presidential election Sunday was already being disputed by his far-right challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro, as results were coming in.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made history on Sunday, setting a record for Brazil and the rest of Latin America by becoming the first president to win a fourth term – and he did so days before turning 81, an age when many other leaders decide to leave politics behind.
France
AFP: Police find Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ in home of suspect in deadly shooting near Paris
Police found a copy of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” at the home of the man suspected of a gun attack in the Paris suburbs that killed one person and wounded five, a source close to the investigation told AFP on Saturday.
A suspected terrorist attack near Paris Friday added to tensions across France as the nation prepares for more potential violence Saturday. Seventy thousand law enforcement officers, along with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons, will be deployed across France as President Emmanuel Macron’s government tries to ward off another weekend of violent protests.
The latest Global Antisemitism Report highlights 129 new incidents of antisemitism monitored worldwide by the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) by CAM during the past week.
Germany
JNS: Jewish man beaten in Berlin in suspected antisemitic attack
An unidentified suspect assaulted a 60-year-old Jewish man in a Berlin park on Saturday, the city’s police department said on Sunday, describing the incident as a suspected antisemitic attack.
Telegraph: AfD’s plan to destroy the EU
The surging Alternative for Germany (AfD) wants to destroy the EU if Alice Weidel, its leader, replaces the deeply unpopular Friedrich Merz as chancellor. Ms Weidel has demanded the bloc be turned into a loose federation of “sovereign nations,” or face a Brexit-style “Dexit” referendum if she wrests power from the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Deutsche Welle: Hamburg court jails 2 over plots against Jewish, German-Israeli groups
On Thursday, a Hamburg court sentenced two men accused of plotting to target Jewish and German-Israeli group leaders in Germany on behalf of Iran’s secret service to multiple years in prison. Both were found guilty of espionage and attempted murder. One defendant was given a four-and-a-half year sentence, while the other received an eight-and-a-half year sentence as the mastermind of the planned attacks.
Deutsche Welle: German national facing trial for alleged attempt to join IS
Germany's prosecutor's office said that a German national has been placed in pre-trial detention for allegedly attempting to join the so-called “Islamic State” terror group, while abroad, German news agency dpa reported.
Reuters: Germany’s Merz rejects talk of working with far-right AfD
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz restated his opposition on Saturday to any change in the “firewall” policy of isolating the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after a number of calls in his party to try to seek ways of working together.
Politico: Leaked emails show AfD co-leader’s U-turn on ‘explosive’ nationalist colleague
As she was climbing the ranks of far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) a decade ago, Alice Weidel privately denounced one of her party’s most influential figures for using racist arguments and Nazi-era language, and sought to have him expelled.
Greece
eKathimerini: Behind a knife attack, a network of far-right extremism
The walls in the streets of Elefsina, northwest of Athens, are covered with the words “Antinazi,” and “Crush the fascists.” Most are fresh, painted during a recent demonstration to protest the serious knife attack allegedly committed by two young men with far right political links on a 32-year-old man known for his involvement in antifascist groups.
United Kingdom
Times of London: Terrorist linked to Isis ‘smuggled himself into UK on back of lorry’
A senior member of an Isis-affiliated terror cell involved in plots to kidnap diplomats and recruit jihadists smuggled himself to Britain in the back of a lorry. Zana Abdul Rahman Rahim, 43, was jailed for seven and a half years in Italy for his role as spokesman and strategist for a terror network that planned attacks on British and Norwegian ambassadors and discussed bringing missiles and other weapons into Europe.
Times of Israel: Top UK Jewish group declares Green Party racist after it rules Zionism is racism
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has voted overwhelmingly to declare the Green Party of England and Wales a racist party, following the party’s approval of a resolution describing Zionism as racism and calling for Israel to be replaced with a Palestinian state.
A life-size bronze statue of Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah official serving five life sentences in Israel for his involvement in the murder of five people in terrorist attacks, has been placed atop a building on High Holborn in the Camden borough of central London, alongside a giant Palestinian flag hanging from the building.
Telegraph: Revealed: BBC’s £400k payout after anti-Semitism claims
The BBC has agreed a £400,000 payout to a Jewish documentary-maker who says she was the victim of anti-Semitism and was bullied out of the broadcaster.
Russia
Meduza: Moscow mother of eight charged with financing terrorism over payment to ISIS
Maria Davydova, a 31-year-old Moscow mother of eight, has been arrested on charges of financing terrorism. The case was opened in July under Russia’s criminal statute against financing terrorism, and a court authorized her arrest. Davydova was added to Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists.
Afghanistan
Pakistan urged Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Saturday to take verifiable action against militants it says operate from Afghan territory, dismissing Kabul’s assertion that Islamabad was shifting blame for its own security failures.
8AM Media: Afghanistan Freedom Front: Two Taliban Members Killed in Kabul
The Afghanistan Freedom Front has reported that two Taliban members were killed and another was wounded in an attack by its forces in Kabul. The front announced on Monday, October 26, that the incident occurred when its fighters attacked a vehicle carrying Taliban members in the Qara Bagh area of Kabul.
AmuTV: Exclusive: Haqqani allies replace 15 National Police Academy instructors
Close aides to Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani have replaced 15 experienced instructors who were dismissed from Afghanistan’s National Police Academy last week, two sources inside the academy told Amu TV. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of the dismissed instructors had more than 30 years of military and teaching experience.
Middle East
Naharnet: Report: Hezbollah ‘has not given guarantees’ it won't intervene in war
It is “not true” that Hezbollah gave guarantees that it would not enter the war if a confrontation broke out between Iran and the United States and Israel, a senior Hezbollah official has been quoted as saying.
Naharnet: Report: Hezbollah tells Berri it won’t intervene if war is waged on Iran
Hezbollah has once again informed Speaker Nabih Berri that it will not intervene this time in support of Iran if war breaks out, which Berri has conveyed to President Joseph Aoun, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported. Furthermore, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh was “candid” with a group of MPs from the Shiite Duo during his recent visit to Beirut.
Naharnet: Fadlallah says Iran hasn't asked Hezbollah to support it if war erupts
MP Hassan Fadlallah announced Monday that Iran has not asked Hezbollah to intervene militarily if a new war is waged on the Islamic republic. “The Islamic Republic of Iran did not ask us in the past, nor today, to support it in confronting the American-Israeli aggression,” Fadlallah said.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they had attacked Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport, as rising hostilities choke oil supplies and threaten to erupt into a larger conflict.
Reuters: Egypt approves military support for Saudi Arabia after Houthi attacks escalate
Parliament authorised Egypt’s military on Monday to provide support to help defend Saudi Arabia, parliamentarians said and local media reported, a move that could push Cairo directly into the regional conflict that has expanded with intensified attacks by Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis on the Gulf kingdom.
Reuters: How Houthi attacks have grounded flights across Saudi Arabia
Attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have nearly emptied the skies over Riyadh this month, aviation data showed on Monday, with cancellations grounding almost nine out of every 10 scheduled flights at the Saudi capital's airport. About 86% of scheduled flights at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, or 4,071 out of 4,736, were cancelled between October 8 and October 25, according to the latest data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Gaza Strip/West Bank
Hamas reportedly told a UN official earlier this month that it was prepared to carry out an October 7-style attack in Israel, the West Bank or abroad, following the IDF’s expansion past the Gaza ceasefire line and the Palestinian Authority’s cancellation of legislative elections in November.
The IDF announced on Monday that it had discovered a concealed underground shaft near the home of one of the Hamas terrorists who killed two IDF soldiers in an attack on Friday.
JNS: IDF arrests five Hamas, Islamic Jihad affiliates in Samaria raids
Israeli paratroopers arrested five terrorists affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad during an operation in Qabatiya, northern Samaria, last week, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Iran
Reuters: Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas, Tasnim reports
Iran’s air defence systems shot down a US LUCAS drone over the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, the Iranian army said on Sunday, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Israel
Billionaire American investor Bill Ackman on Sunday said that Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich should not serve in Israel’s next government, saying the two far-right politicians had caused enormous damage to the country’s reputation.
Polling ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election projects that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party will win between seven and ten seats in the 120-member Knesset, potentially making any future government led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party contingent on his support and positioning him to secure senior ministerial portfolios.
Jordan
New York Times: Jordan Arrests 3 in Connection With Church Attack, State Media Reports
Jordanian security forces arrested three men early Monday accused of carrying out an attack last week during a funeral at a church in southern Jordan that killed nine people, according to state media.
Fox News: Death toll rises to 9 in church attack; officials blame ‘extremist’ Islamist ideology
A group of gunmen stormed a Christian church in Jordan during a funeral Friday, killing nine people and injuring more than two dozen, according to authorities. The shooting took place at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, about 55 miles south of the capital, Amman.
Arab News: Jordanians reject attempts to sow division in society
Thousands of Jordanians gathered in the southern governorate of Karak on Sunday to bury the victims of the terrorist attack on St. George Greek Orthodox Church, in a solemn display of solidarity as the country vowed to confront extremism.
Lebanon
Naharnet: Jumblat wants dialogue with Hezbollah, Iran; warns against civil war, Israeli plans
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has called for dialogue among Lebanese parties, including Hezbollah and right-wing parties, stressing that it is not possible to annihilate the Shiites who are also Lebanese. “You cannot annihilate them or tell them to go away,” he told his interviewer on Sunday. “Maybe they (Hezbollah) have got weaker but they’re still there. Dialogue is the only solution,” he said.
Iran International: Hezbollah rearming with Iranian funds for possible war with Israel – Reuters
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has spent three months preparing for a possible resumption of fighting with Israel after receiving tens of millions of dollars from Iran to rebuild its military capabilities, Reuters reported Monday, citing Lebanese security personnel briefed on the group's activities.
Yemen
Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights on Monday warned of a deepening drinking water crisis in the city of Taiz, accusing the Houthi movement of continuing to block water supplies from the Al-Dabab basin and exposing water transport routes to shelling, a situation it said threatens to worsen the city's humanitarian and public health conditions.
Pakistan
Pakistan's Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, said Islamabad would act to end what he called terrorism originating from Afghanistan and reserved the right to take any necessary action if Afghan territory was used against Pakistan.
Dawn: Pakistan rejects Afghan Taliban’s claims of civilian casualties in counterterrorism operations
The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday rejected allegations made by the Afghan Taliban government regarding civilian casualties in Islamabad’s counterterrorism campaign in the neighbouring country, maintaining that Pakistan’s conduct always “reflected restraint” and the response was “proportionate to the level of threat.”
Niger
Reuters: Algeria to send troops to Niger in first foreign deployment since 1973
Algeria’s parliament approved a resolution on Sunday authorising the deployment of army units to Niger, a parliamentary statement said, in what would mark Algeria's first foreign troop deployment since it sent forces to support Egypt in the 1973 war.
Australia
A Yazidi woman has urged Canberra to bring her alleged Australian ISIS wife tormentor to trial as a critical deadline looms over the suspect’s return to Australia.
Stay up to date on our latest news.
Get the latest news on extremism and counter-extremism delivered to your inbox.