After over a month-long debate and discussion, the Sri Lankan cabinet, on April 27, 2021, imposed a ban on wearing Burqas (full-face veils in public used by Muslim women) and closing down madrasas (Islamic Seminaries) across the country. The government defended the decision by stating that these restrictions would improve national security and prevent radicalisation in society.
As India tries to stem the flow of citizens joining the self-proclaimed Islamic State, the state of Kerala, on the southern coast, has emerged as an area of special concern. According to government statistics, more citizens have been arrested for Islamic State ties in Kerala than in any other state.
The series of raids by Islamic State underlines how quickly its ideology has gained traction in Bangladesh.
How big a threat does the Islamic State (IS), also known as the Daesh, pose for India? One answer could be found in what Salman Mohiuddin, an active IS recruiter arrested in Hyderabad in January 2015, told his interrogators. Mohiuddin said that he was scheming to “proceed to Syria to join the IS and later return to wage war against India” (Indian Express, November 19 2015).
The so-called Islamic State (IS) has effectively replaced Al Qaeda and its affiliates at the vanguard of the global jihadist movement. Under the leadership of Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, the movement remains determined to build upon its powerbase in Iraq and Syria and unite the entire Muslim world under its version of the Islamic Caliphate. In his Ramadan address in October 2014, Baghdadi laid out plans for the expansion of IS networks into what it calls Khorasan – parts of the Indian subcontinent and its near-neighborhood.