Radical Islam faces an internal split
Key to the future of radical Islam is a growing competition between armed Islamist jihadists and activists tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a just released paper by the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a new Washington think tank.
The conflict is seen by intelligence services "as both dangerous and offering potential openings to exploit frictions and divisions," says the report, written by Douglas Farah, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent now working as a terrorism investigator and analyst. The two groups are squaring off over "recruits, cash, and ideological and theological predominance," but they agree on basic goals: the eventual conversion of the world to Islam and establishment of a global caliphate to rule over it.
Their tactics often differ sharply, with al Qaeda-tied insurgents and terrorists generally engaging in violent attacks, and Muslim Brotherhood activists tending to work through political organizing and elections. Hamas, which recently won elections in the Palestinian territories, is a branch of the Brotherhood, which includes loose affiliates in more than 70 countries. Founded in 1928, the Brotherhood brings a long-standing financial infrastructure, but the jihadists are gaining recruits and attention through their attacks in Iraq and elsewhere, says the paper, which also notes that the Brotherhood is better understood by intelligence services in Europe than in the United States.
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