Islamist Extremism
Governor DeSantis Ousts CAIR
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will be removing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a partner in the governor’s Faith and Community Initiative.
- CAIR has been identified by the Justice Department as an “entity” of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.
- CAIR’s Florida chapter is in particular turmoil; two former leaders have been accused of sexual harassment and abuse. Additionally, CAIR-Florida co-sponsored a pro-Hamas rally in 2014, at which participants yelled, “We are Hamas.” Read More
Interim Report Released Assessing the Aghanistan Withdrawal
- House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul has published an interim report assessing the administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal one year ago.
- The 115-page report examines the Biden administration’s decisions and actions and the key mistakes that led to disastrous consequences for our Afghan allies and for the U.S. citizens left behind. Read More
Alt-Right & Alt-Left Extremism
Goyim Defense League Leader Arrested in Poland
- The founder of The Goyim Defense League (GDL), Jon Minadeo of Petaluma, Calif., an active Holocaust denier, was arrested while protesting against Jews outside of Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination and concentration camp in Poland.
- Polish authorities arrested Minadeo for violating the country’s hate speech laws after he and another man illegally entered the site and took pictures of themselves holding antisemitic banners for social media.
- The GDL frequently engages in antisemitic stunts to troll and harass Jews, including showing up at Jewish events in a van marked with swastikas and shouting profanities. Read More
Serial Antifa Rioter Arrested in Child Sex Sting
- Aubrey Ryan Quinn-Ward, 25, of Portland, Ore. was arrested following an investigation into online pedophiles.
- Quinn-Ward has been charged with multiple felonies, including luring a minor and first-degree online sexual corruption of a child.
- Quinn-Ward had multiple arrests in 2020 at the height of the nightly BLM-Antifa riots in Portland. He was charged with felony rioting and various other misdemeanors, but was quickly released and bail was waived. Read More
More News From the Alt-Right
- Members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front marched through downtown Indianapolis, Ind. shouting “reclaim America.” Read More
More News From the Alt-Left
- A new lawsuit alleges the leader of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Shalomyah Bowers, stole over $10 million from the organization. Read More
Hate Crime
Muslim Cab Driver Convicted of Attack on Jewish Man
- Farrukh Afzal, 41, was convicted for a 2018 unprovoked attack against three Chassidic Jewish men in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.
- Surveillance video shows Afzal attempting to hit one of the victims with his car and then later chasing him down into an intersection and assaulting him. Read More
Orbeez Attack Perpetrator Charged With Hate Crime
- Police in Chico, Calif. arrested Joaquin Morton on hate crime and battery charges after he entered a business, made derogatory statements regarding the sexual orientation of the people inside, and shot the workers with Orbeez. Read More
Hostile Foreign Influence Operations
Google Shuts Off Ads on Russian Disinformation Sites
- Google says it took additional steps in the past week so that brands would no longer see their ads on Russian state-owned websites that are a regular source of Ukraine war propaganda.
- The move came after a software developer tweeted screenshots of ads from major Western companies placed through Google’s display network alongside headlines spreading disinformation about the war.
- The tweeted screenshots provoked outrage over the advertising revenue that Google and the propaganda sites were making from these ads. Read More
US-Pacific Island Summit Targets China
- President Joe Biden will host leaders of Pacific Island nations in Washington in an effort to step up ties with the region.
- The move comes in the wake of the recently signed agreement between China and the Solomonic Islands that served as a wake-up call to China’s growing influence in the region. Read More
Research & Trends in Extremism
Five Trends Driving Future of Terrorism
- An expert with The Soufan Group recently reported on the five major trends driving the future of terrorism.
- The report claims terrorist ideologies have become more diverse in recent decades, attacks have become more decentralized, terrorism itself has been democratized by new technologies, disinformation has been used to fuel hate, and terrorists have acquired the means to make attacks much deadlier. Read More
How a Swedish Agency Stopped Funding the Muslim Brotherhood
- A report by European Eye on Radicalization details the process leading to the decision to withhold state funding to Sweden’s Young Muslims (Sveriges Unga Muslimer, SUM), a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization. The process was eventually settled in the Swedish court system.
- SUM, which dissolved in 2020, was a national Swedish youth organization with 40 umbrella organizations across the country, claiming to have approximately 5,000 members.
- SUM eventually dissolved due to losing the last court case against them. Read More