Gilles Kepel, is a French political scientist and Arabist, specialized in the contemporary Middle East and Muslims in the West. He was Professor at Sciences Po Paris, the Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) and director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Program at PSL, based at Ecole Normale Supérieure. His latest english-translated book, Away from Chaos. The Middle East and the Challenge to the West was reviewed by The New York Times as “an excellent primer for anyone wanting to get up to speed on the region”. His last essay, le Prophète et la Pandémie / du Moyen-Orient au jihadisme d'atmosphère, just released in French, has topped the best-seller lists and is currently being translated into English and a half-dozen languages. The excerpt The Murder of Samuel Paty is presently released in the Issue 3 of Liberties JournalArchived 2021-04-07 at the Wayback Machine.
Deeyah Khan is a Norwegian documentary film director and human rights activist of Punjabi/Pashtun descent. Deeyah is a two-time Emmy Award winner, two time Peabody Award winner, a BAFTA winner and has received the Royal Television Society award for Best Factual Director. She has made seven documentaries to date, all have been shown on ITV in the UK as part of its Exposure series.
Jihadism is a neologism for militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West. It is a form of religious violence and has been applied to various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideologies are based on the Islamic notion of lesser jihad from the classical interpretation of Islam. It has also been applied to various Islamic empires in history, such as the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates of the early Muslim conquests, and the Ottoman Empire.
Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism or radical Islam refers a set of extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideology within Islam. These terms remain contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations to the notion that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior. Furthermore, these terms may extend to encompass other sects of Islam that do not share such extremist views.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and an unrecognised quasi-state. Its origins were in the Jai'sh al-Taifa al-Mansurah organization founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, which fought alongside Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn during the Iraqi insurgency. The group gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. It is well known for its massive human rights violations and war crimes. It engaged in the persecution of Christians, Mandaeans, Shia Muslims, and Sufi Sunnis, published videos of beheadings and executions against journalists and aid workers. By the end of 2015, it was internationally considered to be one of the biggest terrorist organizations of all time and it ruled an area with an estimated population of 12 million people, where it enforced its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.
Pakistani Norwegians are Norwegians of Pakistani descent, 65.23% of Pakistanis in Norway live in the capital Oslo. First-generation Pakistani Norwegians, who migrate from Pakistan, are distinguished from the mainstream in several demographic aspects, while second-generation Pakistani Norwegians, who are born in Norway, are well established in Norway and have gone on to become professionals and politicians.
Salafi jihadism, also known as revolutionary Salafism or jihadist Salafism, is a religious-political Sunni Islamist ideology that seeks to establish a global caliphate, characterized by the advocacy of "physical" (military) jihadist attacks on non-Muslim targets. The Salafist interpretation of sacred Islamic texts is "in their most literal, traditional sense", which adherents claim will bring about the return to "true Islam".
Islamic extremism in the United States comprises all forms of Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is an adherence to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the U.S. government and a focus of many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially, the focus of concern was on foreign Islamic terrorist organizations, particularly al-Qaeda, but in the course of the years since the September 11 terror attacks, the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremist radicalized individuals and jihadist networks within the United States.
Fuuse is an independent music, arts and film production company founded by Norwegian artist, Deeyah Khan. Fuuse is an Emmy and Peabody award winning company based in Norway and specialises in creating music and film projects rooted in art, culture and activism to encourage dialogue around social and political issues.
While many Islamist jihadists view hip-hop negatively due to its Western origins, there have also been examples of hip-hop songs with pro-jihadist lyrics, and of jihadists embracing hip-hop and gangsta culture as a way of attracting Westerners to join their organizations. The phenomenon is sometimes known as "Jihad Cool" and includes music, clothing, magazine, videos and other media.
The ideology of the Islamic State has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, the Islamic State defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) is a British Sunni Muslim organisation founded in 1997. MAB has been well known for its participation in the protests opposing the Iraq War. More recently, it has been known for promoting Muslim participation in Britain.
Dame Sara Khan is a British human rights activist and the chief executive officer of Inspire, an independent non-governmental organisation working to counter extremism and gender inequality. Khan is a contributor to The Guardian and The Independent newspapers, as well as The Huffington Post and has made appearances on British television and radio. She has been interviewed for the BBC's HARDtalk and Desert Island Discs.
Islam's Non-Believers is a 2016 documentary produced by Fuuse Films, and filmed and directed by Deeyah Khan. The film documents the lives and experiences of ex-Muslims: people who have left Islam to become atheists, and who often face discrimination, harassment, ostracism and violence for leaving Islam, both in the UK and abroad. The documentary was first shown on the ITV's current affairs series Exposure.
Uran Toktonazarovich Botobekov is a Kyrgyz scholar, journalist, diplomat and publicist. He was an opposition activist until 2016 when he emigrated. He is also the author of more than 60 scientific and analytical articles on politics, religion, and economy of the post-Soviet Central Asian states. His scientific works were published in magazines in several countries.
Yahya al-Bahrumi was an American jihadist, Islamic scholar, and supporter of the Islamic State (ISIL). Having converted to Islam, he studied to the point of developing "a staggering mastery of Islamic law and classical Arabic language and literature". He was close to Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the ISIL spokesman, chief strategist, and director of foreign terror operations.
"White Right: Meeting the Enemy" is a 2017 documentary that aired as an episode of British current affairs TV series Exposure. The documentary was directed by Deeyah Khan and produced by Deeyah's production company Fuuse.
Muslim In Trump’s America is a 2020 current affairs documentary film produced for ITV's Exposure strand. The film had its British premiere on 1 November 2020, and Norwegian Premier on NRK 2 on 2 November.
Sohail Ahmed is an English social activist of Pakistani and Kashmiri descent, former Islamist and Muslim extremist who was at one point considering carrying out an Islamic terrorist attack in his home city of London. Following his coming out as a gay man, he now works in the fields of counter-extremism, counter-terrorism, and social integration. He has featured in the media and has written for a number of publications exploring his personal journey, LGBT rights in the Muslim world, and Islamic extremism. He has also exposed the prevalence of extremism and jihadism in British universities.
Tania Joya is a British-American former jihadi and current counter-extremism activist who fled Syria after traveling there with husband John Georgelas to join the Islamic State, and asserted that she had an extramarital romantic relationship with US Representative Van Taylor, who subsequently acknowledged having a relationship and dropped out of a 2022 Texas runoff election.
