Al Qaeda’s Al-Zawahiri Pledges Allegiance to New Taliban Chief

Al-Qaeda’s Ayman Al-Zawahiri has pledged allegiance to the new head of the Afghan Taliban in an audio on-line message. The move is seen politically to enhance the status of the new leader, (Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour), after the death of the Group’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, some two years ago. Al-Zawahiri stated, “We pledge our allegiance … (to the) commander of the faithful, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour, may God protect him.” The move is seen as a way of shoring up the waning support for Al-Qaeda, a group which has largely lost traction and support to groups such as ISIS and local splinter extremist groups in countries across the Maghreb to the Middle East. The move is also meant to try and hold the group together as it started to splinter after the reported death of Mullah Omar.

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Remember this next time you buy your Kebab (from a Turk), say Britain First Facebook posters

The precarious situation in the Middle East has come to the forefront, with the bombing of ISIS positions by the Turkish Air Force. Having taken the decision to militarily degrade ISIS, it seems that Britain First and its supporters have decided to vent their fury at Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish bigotry

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How Twitter users are ridiculing ISIS with cartoon memes

Individuals are using manga to drown out ISIS propaganda. The birth of ISIS-chan (Japanese: ISISちゃん, Aishisu Chan) took place in January to damage ISIS’ image SEO. ISIS-chan’s popularity increased after hacktivist group Anonymous targeted and exposed sympathetic ISIS Twitter accounts. The use of ISIS-chan comes with its own set of rules: do not insult Islam, avoid Islamic iconography and avoid naming Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Alongside a strict no-gore, no-porn policy. At the turn of 2015, an alleged ISIS account attempted to spread propaganda on unrelated Japanese hashtags. Examples included ‘Daikan’ (a term to describe the coldest day of the year) and ‘Zuwaigani‘ (queen crab). A hashtag dedicated to Hitoshi Saito, the two-time judo Olympic gold medalist, who died on January 20, after a battle with cancer, became a target. The propaganda depicted the impeding peril of hostages Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. Some created the hashtag #ISISクソコラグランプリ (ISIS kusokora guranpuri or ISIS crappy collage grand prix) to invert fear and ridicule the terror group. #ISISクソコラグランプリ pic.twitter.com/PR3BwpJevL — temmo kun (@temmo5) January 20, 2015 ISIS had threatened to murder both men unless Japan paid a $200m ransom – the same amount President Shinzo Abe donated to countries fighting the [...]

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David Cameron’s Speech Should Be Welcomed With a Small Note of Caution

A Prime Minister Who Laid Out A Heartfelt Vision To Tackle Extremism We welcome the speech of the Prime Minister and the need to tackle both non-violent and violent extremism. The Prime Minister’s approach to identifying the problem and putting in measures where grievances are both addressed and tackled was delivered in a heartfelt and […]

Prime Minister’s Speech on Extremism Will Set the Scene for 5 Years

Tomorrow the Prime Minister is to make a key note speech on extremism and ISIS and is set to outline how the group uses men and women, boys and girls, to promote it’s nihilism through death and destruction. Yet the Prime Minister’s speech will also be notable for one other element which the Government has […]

Interfaith Workshop in Gujranwala – Pakistan

On Sunday, the 6th of January, 2013, Faith Matters organized its third interfaith training workshop as part of their Project Musawaat (Equality) which aims to promote freedom of religion and belief in Pakistan and is focussed on working with Christian and Muslim communities in the Punjab region. 75 participants from 18 grass-roots level youth based […]

Debate with Christina Patterson (The Independent): are faith communities moving towards building cohesive societies in a modern and diverse Britain?

Debate with Christina Patterson (The Independent): are faith communities moving towards building cohesive societies in a modern and diverse Britain? This event has now passed.

Adab Research Report

A PERSPECTIVE OF SIKH & MUSLIM RELATIONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM & CAUSES OF TENSIONS & MISTRUST BETWEEN THE TWO COMMUNITIES Click to view report The Adab (Respect) research report builds on the work that Faith Matters undertook in Corrymeela in 2008 where a group of Sikhs and Muslims took part in facilitated discussions sessions […]

Prevent Peers Programme

Prevent Peers Programme – Training on Prevent Work with 8 Local Authorities in the West Midlands Area in England Faith leaders, elected members and officers in eight local authorities in the West Midlands were provided with support on what the Prevent strategy entailed, Al Qaeda social narratives that were used to pull in young disaffected people […]