Radical Movements Archive

Mohammed Merah, the 23-year-old who killed seven people in southwestern France over the past two weeks, was shot dead Thursday at his Toulouse apartment after a 30-hour standoff with police. The French national of Algerian descent, who said the killings of three Jewish children, a rabbi and three French paratroopers over the past two weeks were to avenge the killings of Palestinian children in Gaza, was a self-proclaimed jihadist who had visited the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area twice over the past two years. He represents the growing threat of homegrown extremists who identify with al-Qaida but operate on their own. And […]

Washington’s successful efforts to kill top al-Qaida leaders, combined with the emergence of strong pro-democracy movements in the Muslim world, have led many to conclude that al-Qaida is fizzling out. But while the conventional wisdom increasingly portrays the group as becoming gradually but steadily a spent and irrelevant force, there is evidence that this optimistic conclusion is grossly premature. Judging by the mayhem and death toll the group is inflicting in several countries — including hundreds killed by its militants in just the past few days — al-Qaida appears to be catching a second wind. The dramatic Navy Seal operation […]

As the ground continues to shift in the Middle East, the cracks that have long existed inside the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas are coming to the surface. The growing divisions could split the organization, but they have wider implications. Hamas’ alliance with Tehran is becoming increasingly untenable. Long a fixture of the modern Middle East, the four-member bloc comprised of Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah is slowly coming apart. The strains of adapting to the changing regional landscape are showing in Hamas’ two-tier leadership, divided between those in exile and those who remain in the Palestinian territories. In recent months, […]