She was born in 1976, from a family of eight children. Born in the Belgian capital, third generation to hardworking immigrants from North Africa, and grew up in neighborhoods now considered off-limits for anyone not belonging to Islam. Back then, in the 1980s, it was different.

Fadila Maaroufi didn't leave the alleys of her childhood, even after they began changing their face. She studied, became a social worker, and spent 20 years in the increasingly radicalized neighborhoods trying to listen, calm, and understand their residents. The experience of this encounter troubles her peace to this day. "I saw there domestic violence, daily humiliations, girls dying of fear because of 'what will they say,' boys going crazy with shame over getting closer to the West and aspiring to atone for the 'sin' of their 'betrayal,'" she recounts. That's also when the attack that nearly cost her life occurred, and afterward, she could no longer remain silent.

"The awareness awakened gradually, starting from the end of my adolescence. The speeches of people from the 'Islamic Salvation Front' in Algeria, heard in some mosques and among families, heralded what was to come. It was clear that sooner or later, this violence would also erupt in the West. We were aware of it, but no one shared the warnings with non-Muslims. Such things weren't customary to share with them. Then, on September 11, 2001, everything became clear. When you come from a Muslim family, you pick up the codes, the hints. The young people who traveled to fight in Syria and Iraq only accelerated a movement that already existed, born from the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, it was a marginal phenomenon, but after 2001, everything changed. The giant collapsed before the eyes of the Muslim world. The attacks in Europe, our leaders' inaction, and especially the experts' inability to give a real explanation for the problem – all these made me understand we're facing big trouble. The peace we knew wouldn't hold. Since 2005, the attacks and assaults no longer surprised me – but the West's inaction actually did surprise."

Q: The Islamists actually acted – they threatened to murder you.

"They directly called to punish and kill me. The most frightening threat came with an ISIS video showing different execution methods – slaughter, burning alive in a cage, and beheading. It displayed real scenes, alongside wishes that I die a slow and painful death. It didn't stop there. They chased me, threatened to harm me physically, conducted a campaign of legal harassment against me. I lost my job, they no longer give me the right to speak in French-language media in Belgium. I can't work anymore."

Q: How did family members and friends react?

"My family has shunned me since I supported Israel, and over time it's gotten worse. Some of my friends are afraid to meet with me, others don't want to talk about these things, they prefer to live in denial. In the end, my real friends stayed and I built myself a different family, one I chose."

Willfully blind

Q: What do you think is the scope of radical Islamist influence today in Belgium, compared to the previous decade or two?

"The influence is absolute. In my view Belgium has fallen under Islamist control, especially that of the Muslim Brotherhood. And it will only get worse, because Hamas members and Hamas supporters have been welcome in Belgium since October 7, 2023. We literally brought here people who will turn Belgium into Lebanon. The danger already looms from within Belgium, while the state still sleeps, whether out of opportunism or cowardice. Ultimately this will affect all the West, because Belgium houses the European institutions and NATO."

Q: Haven't the authorities in Belgium internalized the severity of the problem?

"I think at first they really weren't aware of it. When they started to catch on, they thought they could control the Islamists to win Muslim votes. In the end, when they understood, it was already too late."

Q: In what forms does the radicalization express itself?

"The Islamists advance quietly in every sector and every area of society – in schools, children and parents pressure teachers and administration on issues like wearing hijab and supplying halal meals. At universities, student organizations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood movements invite lectures by terrorists, or extreme figures like Francesca Albanese and Rima Hassan. Islamist influence reaches everywhere – political parties, associations, mosques, transportation, security services, social networks, the justice system and other arenas."

Q: What role does foreign funding from Qatar or Turkey play in spreading Islamism in Europe?

"Very large sums, which fueled the process, indeed arrived from abroad. Now there's slightly more supervision of this matter, but the Islamists receive funding for non-profit projects also through European institutions and from Belgian authorities. And we mustn't forget the phenomenon of dual citizenship, which allows transferring money to Belgium from the country of origin without declaring it."

The deterioration Maaroufi describes could have been prevented if Europe hadn't been blind to what was happening. In her view, this is willful blindness. Those charged with protecting Europe from the Islamist plague refuse to admit its existence and silence the watchmen at the gate. "It's a tyranny of political correctness," Maaroufi said. "They even forbid using terms that define the problem, with claims of 'Islamophobia.' Increasingly, people are preventing themselves from thinking and speaking. There's real self-censorship – as if not to offend Muslims, or simply out of fear they'll slap you with an extreme right label or murder you. Since the assassinations of Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard, people are very frightened. European elites hesitate to speak openly about Islamist extremism, because they're already infected by Islamists who did the work from within – carried out a value inversion, where victims become the convicted and the convicted become victims."

Maaroufi's battle against Islamization is inseparable from her feminist views. For her, these are two faces of the same aspiration for freedom. "To be feminist is to demand for women full autonomy over their bodies, thoughts, and destinies," she explained. "Feminism fights a hierarchy based on gender affiliation; Islamism sanctifies it. It accepts male rule as a moral obligation, turns women's bodies into a religious and social issue, and confines women to the role of guardians of the group's honor. The hijab, according to this logic, isn't a simple clothing item – it's the flag of the Islamism project. It marks that the woman doesn't completely belong to herself – she becomes symbolic territory that must be protected from the 'impurities' of the modern world.

"I refuse to have them explain to girls born in Europe that they must hide themselves to 'respect' themselves. I refuse to have them learn that their freedom is a provocation, or that their liberation endangers community morality. My feminism isn't a slogan – it stems from personal experience. For more than 20 years, as a social worker, I saw the real effects of Islamization in working-class neighborhoods – regression in women's freedoms, pressure on the female body, insults over jeans considered too tight, refusal to meet with others, and fear of shame. I saw girls erasing themselves so stigmas won't be cast on them, women giving up work, recreation, and laughter. Feminism, for me, is refusing this erasure."

Q: Here again, you're headed for an unavoidable collision with Belgian elites, who are strong in talking about feminism but surrender immediately when the harm to women comes from the direction of Islamism.

"The hardest challenge is really the blindness of the left and non-Muslims, who gave up on the idea of helping liberate Muslim women. In effect, they're telling us to stay in our place, stay imprisoned. I think they made me a deterring example. Many people see the prices I was required to pay, understand the risks are enormous, including mortal danger, and don't dare express themselves openly."

Q: What's your opinion on bans on wearing hijab and niqab, a subject discussed more and more throughout Europe?

"I think they should be banned in schools, universities, and among minors. This is a norm that draws separation between devout believers and non-believers, and also between men and women. This norm is imposed as an obligation, and when someone decides to remove the covering, she must expect trouble, pressure, attacks, and harassment."

Q: Do Muslim girls in Europe feel torn between Islam and modernity?

"Not necessarily. Many of them simply fear rejection by family and community if they choose to be themselves. Becoming free sometimes means risking everything – family status, relationships, social security. Personally, I've never felt as good as I do now that I've freed myself from the pressure and lies my community taught me from childhood. The last three generations of Muslim women in the West underwent Islamist brainwashing, and it worked – the first and second generations of women aspired to freedom, while the current young generation is confused. The women in it allow others to influence them, and get dragged into believing they want to become slaves by choice."

"Democracy for us, not for Jews"

Although two years have passed since the October 7 massacre, Maaroufi doesn't forget how the Muslim communities reacted to the horrors the Gazans committed in the Gaza border communities. The initial reaction was silence, and immediately after, hostility toward Jews and Israel erupted. "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always served as glue for uniting the Muslim community," Maaroufi noted. "There's no longer room for any thinking, and whoever raises doubt about the justification for the attacks becomes an enemy of the Islamic nation."

Unlike most Muslims in Belgium, Maaroufi expressed solidarity with the victims of the Israeli massacre. "I was deeply horrified by the horrific acts the terrorists committed – the lives of children, babies, women, and men, cut down horrifyingly. If we support humanism, we can't ignore the massacre victims. I salute in my heart all the victims of the October 7 massacre, their family members, and the IDF soldiers who fell. Israel defended its people, but in my view, also the stability of our entire Western democracy. On October 7, the monster was released. I fear this isn't an isolated incident – as long as we don't fight Islamic antisemitism firmly, we'll remain vulnerable."

Q: What image does Israel have in the Belgian public, and how much does Islamist propaganda influence it?

"Many Belgians support Israel and Jews, but fear is felt – people who aren't Jewish tell me, in secret, that they support Israel but suffer verbal or physical attacks when they express it publicly. In practice, only support for Palestinians can be expressed without risk. As long as political leaders don't adopt clear discourse, and as long as part of the media funded by our tax money continues spreading narratives that favor Hamas and Islamists, the dark ideologies will strengthen."

Q: Have you faced backlash in Belgium for your support of Israel?

"Yes, and it only intensified since October 7. Since 2023, the pressure and propaganda against me have pushed me to increase appearances and conferences, to explain the situation and mobilize support for the Jewish community, which often falls victim to attacks. To illustrate, consider the following recent case. Last month, I participated in a rally for the hostages and against antisemitism. After we marched, a group of about 15 rally participants entered a cafe in Albertine Square. When we wanted to leave, two people approached us shouting, 'We'll beat you, we'll beat the Israelis and Jews.' A very tense atmosphere developed, and we were forced to escape inside. I called the police. The place manager helped some people hide behind the bar, and friends intervened to protect the most vulnerable. One attacker, apparently the leader, shouted at those trying to calm down, 'Democracy is for us, not for Jews.' Police finally intervened, and two people were arrested thanks to a photo taken by a witness of the incident. They finally escorted us to a safe place, but the harassment continued even there, when one car honked, aiming to frighten us. We submitted all the material to the police, including photos, but to this day, no real legal action has been taken."

Q: What message would you like to convey to the Israeli public, which also lives under the threat of radical Islamism?

"Don't give up. Here too, in Belgium, we're fighting for you and for our society. We share the same enemies, so we must learn from our shared experiences and cooperate. We aspire to protect our children and ensure a future of peace. We must fight to prevent violence and Islamist ideology from taking over."

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Fadi Abu Shahidam, who shot dead one Israeli and wounded four others in the Old City of Jerusalem on Nov. 21 before being shot and killed by Israeli security forces, was a well-known Hamas preacher in east Jerusalem.

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In 2020, Abu Shahidam delivered a Friday sermon in which he railed against "the Jewish and Christian masters of heresy," calling them "the leaders of injustice in our days."

"One of the fiercest forms of injustice are the repeated attacks against the Shariah [Islamic law], the opposition to the rule of the Shariah and replacing it with man-made [legal] systems," he said.

In the 2020 sermon, Abu Shahidam said "evil atheism" and "spiteful communism" were behind these so-called attacks, along with "the Jewish and Christian masters of heresy" and their "despicable followers," who he said were "the tyrannical sultans and the evil ulama [scholars], those who sold their conscience."

Abu Shahidam also claimed that women had declared war on Shariah, in particular those who had "abandoned modesty, chastity and honor and jumped on the bandwagon of CEDAW [the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women]."

All of these, he said, were "the masters and leaders of injustice in our days."

"They are led by the devil, and they are funded by filthy money from those Bedouins in the United Arab Emirates," he said.

"Zionism devises sins for them, and they get their instructions from the prostitute Arab regimes and rulers," he added.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The release of the Israeli couple from Turkish custody shouldn't placate us. The Turkish hostility is inherent, and a gesture won't eradicate it. This hostility is different from that of Nasser's Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s, or that of Iran since 1979 – there are diplomatic relations and civilian trade relations have been largely unaffected. Still, Turkey's basic policy declares a struggle against Israel.

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Turkey has traded its failed aspiration of integrating into Europe with a kind of impulsive desire for hegemony over the entire world around us. This is a change that puts it into a basic conflict with Israel, because the latter is a regional superpower (if anyone has missed it), that essentially limits the Turks' ability to take over.

Our place at the eye of the regional storm and the fact that we are a Jewish state, an exception in a mainly Muslim region, repeatedly place us in a state of conflict with those who want to seize control of the Fertile Crescent. Even though Israel, in its first few decades, was much weaker, it was seen as an obstacle for any leader seeking regional hegemony, like then-Egyptian President Nasser, or fascist parties like the Baath in Syria and Iraq. Much more so today. We are very impressed by Shiite Iran's Islamic ideology, and now by that of Sunni Turkey, and think that it's the main reason for their hostility toward Israel. But in both cases, Islam is an ideological language for Iran and Turkey's simple imperialism. And it's a language that fits them, because Islam is a political religion that is fundamentally controlling, one that served as the basis for more than a few empires.

An effective way of understanding Israel's geopolitical standing is the comparison – huge differences notwithstanding – to Britain's position on foreign policy on Europe for hundreds of years. European powers like Spain, France, and finally Germany were Britain's enemies because of their very strength and aspiration for superiority on the continent. By the same reasoning, former enemies that have weakened, like France, became allies as a new force, like Germany, arose. Israel is not a large island or a maritime power. It's characteristics of power have also changed. Power that is the result of an information economy, for example, is something without precedent.

But there is an inherent similarity: like Britain's dealings with Europe, anyone who currently seeks dominance in the region – if they have the power to achieve it – will become our enemy.

The wheel of history is constantly turning. Turkey and Iran used to be Israel's hidden allies against the pan-Arab subversion to regional superiority. Now the Arab states, including the biggest one – Egypt – are much weaker. Their process of nation-building has failed completely. They are breaking apart and sinking, not through slow atrophy, but in a rapid and dangerous crash. Iran and Turkey are therefore being pulled into the chaotic space around us on the Arabian Peninsula, the Fertile Crescent, and North Africa, in an attempt to control it. So they are our enemies. Not because of radical Islam. The rogue Islam in Saudi Arabia, despite all recent reforms, is more oppressive than the Shiite Islam in Iran, and much more than Turkish Islam. Still, Saudi is being pushed into the UAE's lane of an alliance with Israel.

All this should make our strategic outlook clearer. Iran and Turkey aren't exactly outstanding modern countries, especially not when it comes to their dark political regimes. But they are strong in the region in light of the immense weakness of Arab societies, so they are gradually approaching our northern border.

Power is a relative term, as we know. This situation has certain advantages for us – a smart Israeli leadership that is aware that our relative power, and not just our weaknesses, could use that power to ensure its vital interests in our relations with the Arab residents of Israel. But in general, the vacuum invites hostile forces to come closer and demands a realistic foreign policy. It's not impossible that a conflict could develop between Israel and Turkey similar to the one that exists with Iran, for similar reasons.

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In Pakistan's rugged tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan, a quiet and persistent warning is circulating: The Taliban are returning.

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Pakistan's own Taliban movement, which had in years past waged a violent campaign against the Islamabad government, has been emboldened by the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

They seem to be preparing to retake control of the tribal regions that they lost nearly seven years ago in a major operation by Pakistan's military. Pakistani Taliban are already increasing their influence. Local contractors report Taliban-imposed surcharges on every contract and the killing of those who defy them.

In early September, for example, a contractor named Noor Islam Dawar built a small canal not far from the town of Mir Ali near the Afghan border. It wasn't worth more than $5,000. Still, the Taliban came calling, demanding their share of $1,100. Dawar had nothing to give and pleaded for their understanding, according to relatives and local activists. A week later he was dead, shot by unknown gunmen. His family blames the Taliban.

Pakistan's Taliban, known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban or TTP, is a separate organization from Afghanistan's Taliban, though they share much of the same hardline ideology and are allied. The TTP arose in the early 2000s and launched a campaign of bombings and other attacks, vowing to bring down the Pakistani government and seizing control in many tribal areas. The military crackdown of the 2010s managed to repress it.

But the TTP was reorganizing in safe havens in Afghanistan even before the Afghan Taliban took over Kabul on Aug. 15.

"The Afghan Taliban's stunning success in defeating the American superpower has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban...They now seem to believe they too can wage a successful jihad against the Pakistani 'infidel' state and have returned to insurgency mode," said Brian Glyn Williams, Islamic history professor at the University of Massachusetts, who has written extensively on jihad movements.

The TTP has ramped up attacks in recent months. More than 300 Pakistanis have been killed in terrorist attacks since January, including 144 military personnel, according to the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

The events in Afghanistan have also energized the scores of radical religious parties in Pakistan, said Amir Rana, executive director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.

These parties openly revile minority Shiite Muslims as heretics and on occasion bring thousands on to the street to defend their hardline interpretation of Islam. One party, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, has a single agenda: to protect a controversial blasphemy law. The law has been used against minorities and opponents and can incite mobs to kill simply over an accusation of insulting Islam.

Already buffeted by a growing religiosity, Pakistani society is at risk of transforming into one similar to Taliban-run Afghanistan, Rana warned.

A Gallup Pakistan poll released last week found 55% of Pakistanis would support an "Islamic government" like the one advocated by Afghanistan's Taliban. Gallup surveyed 2,170 Pakistanis soon after the Taliban takeover in Kabul.

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Pakistan has shied away from offering unilateral recognition to the all-Taliban government in Afghanistan, but has been pushing for the world to engage with the new rulers. It has urged the United States to release funds to the Afghan government, while urging the Taliban to open their ranks to minorities and non-Taliban.

Pakistan's relationship with the Afghan Taliban is a constant source of angst in America, where Republican senators have introduced a law that would sanction Islamabad for allegedly working against the US to bring the Taliban to power. The charge has angered Pakistan, whose leaders say it was asked and delivered the Taliban to the negotiation table with the US, which eventually led to an agreement paving the way for America's final withdrawal.

Pakistan's ties to many of the Afghan Taliban go back to the 1980s when Pakistan was the staging arena for a US-backed fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. In particular, the Haqqani group, possibly Afghanistan's most powerful Taliban faction, has a long relationship with Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI.

Pakistan has turned to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister in Afghanistan's new Taliban government, for help in starting talks with the Pakistani Taliban, said Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the US Institute of Peace.

Some TTP figures in North Waziristan – a rugged area the group once controlled – are ready to negotiate. But the most violent factions, led by Noor Wali Mehsud, are not interested in talks. Mehsud's Taliban want control of South Waziristan, said Mir.

It's not clear whether Haqqani will be able to get Mehsud to the table or whether Afghanistan's new rulers are ready to break their close ties with Pakistan's Taliban.

In the attempts to put together negotiations with Islamabad, the TTP is demanding control over parts of the tribal regions and rule by its strict interpretation of Islamic Shariah law in those areas, as well as the right to keep their weapons, according to two Pakistani figures familiar with the demands.

Bill Roggio of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a US-based think tank, said Pakistan is opening talks with the Taliban to stop the increasing attacks on its military, but he warned that "the government is opening Pandora's box."

"The TTP will not be satisfied with ruling a small portion of Pakistan, it will inevitably want more than what it is given," Roggio said. "Like the Afghan Taliban wanted to rule Afghanistan, the TTP wants to rule Pakistan."

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A bow-and-arrow attack in which a Danish convert to Islam is suspected of killing five people in a Norwegian town appears to have been an "act of terror," police said on Thursday.

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Investigators named the suspect as Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old living in the Kongsberg municipality where the attacks were perpetrated Wednesday evening.

A police attorney told Reuters that Braathen had acknowledged killing the victims. His lawyer confirmed only that Braathen was cooperating with police and giving a detailed statement.

Police had been concerned about signs of radicalization in the suspect before the attacks, carried out with a bow and arrow and other weapons, a senior officer said.

Flags flew at half-mast across Kongsberg after the deaths of four women and a man, all aged between 50 and 70. Three others, including an off-duty police officer, were wounded.

"The events at Kongsberg appear at the moment to be an act of terror," the PST security police said in a statement, adding the investigation would determine the motive.

Regional police chief Ole Bredrup Saeverud said the suspect had converted to Islam.

"Police have previously been in contact with the man in relation to trouble connected to radicalization. We haven't registered anything in regards to him in 2021, but previously," Saeverud told a news conference.

The head of Norway's PST security police, Hans Sverre Sjoevold, said Braathen had a history of being "in and out" of health institutions.

Determining whether the attack was an act of terrorism or the result of a psychiatric issue "will be a vital, important part of the investigation", he told Reuters.

The method of the attack, said Sjoevold, was similar to many politically motivated attacks carried out in Europe in recent years.

"The use of knives, public places... The police are not present, so they can carry out the ... attack. That's quite typical for these operandi," he told Reuters.

Braathen was in custody and was believed to have acted alone, police said. A court will decide on Friday how long police can keep him in custody.

Police attorney Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen told Reuters: "He has told us that he has killed them and he has explained himself in detail about what happened... He admits to the facts of the case but we haven't asked him yet about the question of guilt."

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She said police wanted a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is fit to stand trial, and that those killed "appear to be random victims."

A relative of the suspect, speaking on condition of anonymity to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, described him as mentally ill and said the family had suffered threats for several years.

The death toll was the worst of any attack in Norway since 2011, when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them teenagers at a youth camp.

The attacks were carried out over "a large area" of Kongsberg, a municipality of about 28,000 people in southeastern Norway, 68 km (42 miles) from the capital, Oslo.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, on his first day in office after winning an election last month, said his thoughts were with the people of Kongsberg, the victims and "those who live with the shock."

He told a news conference the attack highlighted shortcomings in Norway's psychiatric care, with "one in four or one in five" people who are referred for treatment being turned down.

King Harald wrote a letter of condolence to the town's mayor, saying: "The rest of the nation stand with you."

Those laying flowers and candles in tribute spoke of their shock in a country where mass killings are rare.

"I want to show my sympathy and empathy to all those affected here in town and across Norway actually because it affects all of us, regardless of who we are – young and old," Kongsberg resident Line Leirmo said.

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The Israeli NGO IsraAID coordinated the evacuation of 125 people from Afghanistan via Albania earlier this month, the Jerusalem Post reported.

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The organization helped evacuate several individuals at risk under Taliban rule.

Judges, professional cyclists, journalists, television presenters, human rights activists, relatives of Afghan diplomats, artists, and others vulnerable to targeting by the Taliban were assisted in leaving Afghanistan.

In September, IsraAID also helped evacuate 42 Afghan women and girls to the United Arab Emirates.

The Taliban overthrew the Afghan government in August, sparking large-scale flight from the nation, and putting many women and girls at risk.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres was reportedly "horrified" after hearing reports of the situation facing Afghanistan's women, and decried the Taliban's "severe restrictions on human rights in the areas they control."

The Taliban said that girls will be allowed to receive an education, but only if they are in separate classrooms.

Meanwhile, the Taliban government warned American and European envoys on Wednesday that attempts to exert pressure in the form of sanctions could trigger a wave of economic refugees.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price reported on Tuesday that he held "productive discussions" with Taliban officials regarding humanitarian aid initiatives.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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With the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, there's a new enemy ascending.

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The Islamic State group threatens to usher in another violent phase. Except this time the former insurgents, the Taliban, play the role of the state, now that the US troops and their allied Afghan government are gone.

The Taliban promised the United States to keep the extremist group in check during successive rounds of peace talks. Under the 2020 US-Taliban accord, the Taliban guaranteed that Afghanistan would not become a haven for terrorist groups threatening the US or its allies.

But it is unclear if they can keep their pledge, with a sudden uptick in ISIS attacks since the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15.

A deadly bombing Friday in the northern province of Kunduz killed 46 worshippers inside a mosque frequented by Shiites. Other deadly IS attacks have struck in the capital, Kabul, and provinces to the east and north, while smaller-scale attacks target Taliban fighters almost daily.

"Historically, the majority of IS attacks have targeted the state ... Now that the US and the international presence is mostly gone, they need to go after the state – and the state is the Taliban," said Andrew Mines, research fellow at Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

Long rivalry

Both the Taliban and ISIS advocate rule by their radical interpretations of Islamic law. But there are key ideological differences that fuel their hatred of each other.

The Taliban say they are creating an Islamic state in Afghanistan, within the borders of that country.

ISIS says it is THE Islamic State, a global caliphate that it insists all Muslims must support. It is contemptuous of the Taliban's nationalist goals and doesn't recognize them as a pure Islamic movement. For similar reasons, ISIS has long been a staunch enemy of al-Qaida.

Both the Taliban and ISIS advocate particularly harsh versions of Islamic Shariah law and have used tactics like suicide bombers. But when it ruled territory in Syria and Iraq, ISIS was even more brutal and carried out more horrific punishments than the Taliban did.

ISIS emerged in Afghanistan in 2015 with the name Islamic State in Khorasan Province, at a time when the group was at its peak, controlling much of Iraq and Syria. It drew members from Afghan and Pakistani militants, including a wave of Taliban defectors.

The group initially found support among Afghanistan's small Salafist movement in eastern Kunar and Nangarhar provinces. The Salafis had largely been marginalized by the Taliban, and by connecting with the rising ISIS, the Salafist movement found a means to establish military strength.

But ISIS's brutal ways have since led some Salafi clerics to voice opposition. In the years after its emergence, ISIS was badly hurt by military setbacks at the hands of the Taliban and by US airstrikes, before surging again the past year.

The Taliban downplay ISIS' capabilities and dismiss them as a fringe group with no mainstream appeal.

"They have no roots here," influential Taliban figure Sheikh Abdul-Hameed Hamasi told The Associated Press.

End game

Still, the potency of the ISIS threat is undeniable.

Two deadly bombings have hit Kabul, including one outside the airport at the height of evacuations before the US exit that killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members. Smaller scale attacks are also on the rise.

"The intensity and breadth of attacks … show the capacity and level of national reach which has caught the Taliban by surprise," said Ibraheem Bahiss, a consultant with the International Crisis Group. ISIS "is no short-term threat."

It could be a while until IS has the capability to hold territory again. Its immediate aim is to destabilize the Taliban and shatter the group's image as a guardian of security.

For now, its strategy is slow and methodical. It is reaching out to tribes and other groups to recruit from their ranks while stamping out dissent among moderate Salafis and carrying out jailbreaks, assassinations, and attacks on Taliban personnel.

"Package all of that together, that is an entire method of insurgency the Taliban is not equipped to handle," said Mines.

Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal, produced by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank, offered a different view, saying he believes the Taliban can uproot IS on their own, even without the backup of US airstrikes that nearly eliminated ISIS.

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Roggio said the Taliban have shown themselves capable of rooting out some ISIS cells, using their vast local intelligence-gathering networks. He noted that ISIS – unlike the Taliban during their insurgency – doesn't have access to safe havens in Pakistan and Iran.

The Taliban have rejected cooperating with the US against ISIS, ahead of the two sides' direct talks last weekend.

ISIS' future trajectory in Afghanistan will depend largely on its ability to recruit more members and win over large segments of the population.

Since their inception, they have been poaching Taliban members. In 2015, a former Taliban commander, Abdul Rauf Khadim, was appointed deputy of ISIS in Afghanistan and reportedly offered financial incentives to other Taliban fighters to join the group.

In 2020, when ISIS re-emerged in Afghanistan, it was under a new leader drawn from the Haqqani Network, currently a faction of the Taliban.

Hard-line members of the Taliban could join ISIS as the Taliban leadership, now in power, has to make compromises whether at home or abroad. The Taliban have promised a more inclusive government, though the temporary administration they set up is entirely made up of Taliban members.

The more the Taliban cooperate with international states, the more they run against the image of the mujahedeen resistance fighter. "That is a key identity the Taliban will lose," Mines said.

Treatment of minorities

As the Taliban shift from insurgency to governance, one key test will be whether they act to protect minority groups that their fighters once tyrannized, such as the Shiite Hazaras.

The Hazaras have endured multiple campaigns of persecution and displacement throughout Afghanistan's history. When the Taliban were first in power in the 1990s, they carried out massacres against the community, in some cases in retaliation for massacres of ethnic Pashtuns.

ISIS has targeted Hazaras because most are Shiite Muslims, killing hundreds in brutal attacks targeting their places of worship in what it calls a war on heretics.

Friday's mosque attack in Kunduz was an opportunity for the Taliban to project a new image as a state power. The Taliban acted swiftly: Special forces swept the scene, investigations were launched, the provincial police chief made lofty promises to protect minority "brothers."

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Israeli police clashed with Palestinian protesters at the Temple Mount compound Monday, the latest in a series of confrontations that is pushing the contested city to the brink of eruption.

Despite a calm that set in around noon, the riots continued around 4:30 p.m. as hundreds of teens celebrated Jerusalem Day with the traditional Flag Dance that included a march throughout the city. As a result, the Israel Police cleared the Damascus Gate area, where many of the riots were taking place.

Around 2 p.m., shortly after the clashes subsided on the compound itself when rocks were hurled on a bus carrying yeshiva students on their way to the Tower of David. The bus was damaged, but the passengers suffered only minor wounds due to glass shards. This, as the main prayer service at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, ended without incident and with 5,000 Muslim worshippers taking part.

The heightened tensions have led to speculation that the traditional "flag dance" to celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War might be canceled, but the Israel Police later said it would continue as planned despite fears that its route might stir more clashes, but in a last-minute change it ordered that it won't pass through the Damascus Gate in the Muslim Quarter as this might stir more controversy and lead to bloodshed. The event took off around 3:30 p.m. with beefed-up security, as the clashes intensified.

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Palestinian medics said at least 300 Palestinians were hurt in the violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, including at least 80 who were hospitalized. Rioters threw fireworks and rocks at police, who responded with riot control measures, including tear gas, stun grenades, and warning shots.

Police said protesters hurled stones at officers and onto an adjoining roadway near the Western Wall, where thousands of Israeli Jews had gathered to pray.

In a statement, police alleged extremists were behind the violence and said it would "not allow extremists to harm the safety and security of the public."

The latest clashes in the sacred compound came after days of mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israeli authorities in the Old City of Jerusalem, the emotional ground zero of the conflict. Hundreds of Palestinians and about two dozen police officers have been hurt over the past few days.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 80 people injured in the skirmishes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound required hospitalization. One was in serious condition. Amateur video footage posted on social media showed police stun grenades and tear gas inside the mosque during skirmishes between officers and Palestinian protesters.

On Monday morning, officers fired tear gas and stun grenades and protesters hurled stones and other objects at police. Police said protesters threw stones from the mosque compound onto an adjoining roadway near the Western Wall, where thousands of Israeli Jews had gathered to pray. Palestinians said police fired stun grenades into the compound.

Palestinians at the scene reported that dozens of people had been wounded, and that police were attacking journalists.

The IDF's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, issued a warning to the Palestinians: "Israel will not tolerate attacks on its security or law and order, or the violation of stability. It's a shame that violence and terrorist activity hijack the agenda from people's welfare and the economy."

The rioting began after Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai decided, following a round of consultations with the chief of the Jerusalem District Police and other security officials, that Jews will not be permitted to visit the Temple Mount on Monday (Jerusalem Day) due to the spiraling violence in Jerusalem.

Starting early Monday, thousands of police officers and Border Police personnel were patrolling Jerusalem as a whole and the Old City in particular after another night of clashes in east Jerusalem.

Video: Israel Police Spokesperson

The Israel Police announced that freedom of worship would remain in place on the Temple Mount, but that rioting would not be accepted.

Right-wing NGO Im Tirzu denounced the police for the decision to ban Jews from the Temple Mount on the day that marks the reunification of the city, calling it a "capitulation to terrorism and threats by Arab rioters."

"A government that doesn't know how to defend law-abiding citizens, and gives prizes to attackers paves the way for continued violence. It's sad to see how the Israeli government is forgoing sovereignty on the Temple Mount, even on Jerusalem Day."

#Jerusalem: An Israeli driver and a passenger were attacked following a car accident Monday morning near the Old City pic.twitter.com/sGQnlYp913

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) May 10, 2021

Yamina MK Amichai Shikli voiced his outrage over Shabtai's decision, calling it "a capitulation to Palestinian violence and terrorism. This isn't how we win."

MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit, was also furious, and said, "Violence and barbarism have won. The heads of the security establishment, whose policy of accepting every attack on Jews, which in the past day have become pogroms, are at fault. But more than they, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Amir Ohana [are], for allowing the police to fold. Whoever folds when it comes to the Temple Mount, folds when it comes to the Land of Israel as a whole."

On Sunday, Attorney-General Avichai Mendelblit secured a deferment on Sunday of a court hearing on planned evictions of Palestinians in Jerusalem due to the escalating violence of recent weeks.

The Supreme Court had been due on Monday to hear appeals against the planned evictions of several Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

A lower court had found in favor of Jewish settlers' claim to the land on which the Palestinians' homes are located.

But in a last-minute legal move, the appellants asked the court to seek a legal opinion from Mendelblit, opening the way for Monday's session to be postponed and the possibility he could argue against the evictions.

A spokesman for Mendelblit said the court agreed to receive a future submission from the attorney general and that a new session would be scheduled within 30 days.

"I'm very optimistic because of the court's decision," said Nabil al-Kurd, 77, one of the Palestinians facing eviction. "We are sitting here in our country, in our land. We will not give up."

After the iftar meal that breaks the Ramadan daily fast, he and a group of elders sat and watched as young Palestinian protesters sang and chanted slogans at settlers across the road, shouting "Freedom, freedom" and "Palestine is Arab."

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The Israelis did likewise, singing and dancing, with police in riot gear and on horseback keeping them apart. At the settlers' house across the street, Yaakov, 42, said the court postponement was "a disgrace."

"They should have made a stand and shown that anyone who commits violent acts in Israel is immediately punished and is not rewarded for their bad behavior," he said, declining to identify himself further.

Elsewhere on Sunday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday expressed "serious concerns" to his Israeli counterpart about the violent clashes in Jerusalem.

In a phone call with National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, Sullivan "encouraged the Israeli government to pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm during Jerusalem Day commemorations."

Ben-Shabbat informed Sullivan that Israel was handling the events in Jerusalem from a position of "sovereignty, responsibility, and consideration, despite the provocations."

According to an Israeli official, Ben-Shabbat stressed that "International intervention is a prize for the rioters and their handlers, who hoped to have pressure applied to Israel," and told Sullivan that it would be helpful if international attention were to address the sources of the incitement.

Ariel Kahana contributed to this report. 

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A female Palestinian reporter said Thursday that a member of the Hamas-run border patrol in Gaza beat her with a tree branch for not wearing a hijab last month, an incident that sparked a public outcry.

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Hamas has promised an apology and said it would punish the man. The incident highlighted Hamas' occasionally heavy-handed treatment of both reporters and women in Gaza, where it seized power in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority.

Rewaa Mershid, a 26-year-old reporter for a local radio station, was with colleagues filming at a privately owned farm near the heavily guarded Gaza frontier on April 25 when two members of a Hamas-run border patrol approached and asked them to identify themselves.

"The discussion took another turn, focusing on my way of dressing and why I'm not wearing a hijab," Mershid said, referring to the scarf that many devout Muslim women use to cover their hair in public.

The Hamas members called a female police unit, but then an argument broke out and one of them cut a branch off a lemon tree and struck her three times, she said. She shared a medical report saying she had "bruises in the lower back and the lower part."

The Palestinian journalists' union issued a statement condemning the attack, sparking a debate on social media in which some took her side while others condemned her behavior.

Mershid had filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry, which oversees security services, on the day of the incident, but it said it was not directly responsible for the patrolmen. The lines between Hamas' armed wing and the security services in Gaza are often blurred.

After the incident was widely publicized, the ministry said it carried out an investigation and concluded that the militant "violated instructions for dealing with citizens and beat Mershid with a tree branch." The ministry said it would "present an apology" to Mershid and punish the militant with "imprisonment,' without providing further details.

A spokesman for the ministry could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The ministry's report said Mershid was on a personal photo shoot and did not have permission to film in the area. In Gaza, journalists must get permission to film in a growing number of locations -- not just the border area, but also beaches, hospitals and even some markets.

An Associated Press cameraman was recently barred from interviewing people breaking their daily fast on a beach during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The International Federation of Journalists reported 76 cases of media rights violations by Gaza security forces and 42 by PA security forces in the West Bank in 2020. The violations included arrests and barring coverage at some events, such as demonstrations.

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Since seizing power in Gaza, Hamas has occasionally taken steps to impose Islamic values on an already conservative society, often backing off after facing public criticism.

It requires most female high school students, as well as female lawyers trying cases in court, to wear the hijab. It barred women from participating in a marathon organized by a UN agency in 2013, prompting the organizers to cancel it.

Earlier this year, a Hamas-run religious court ruled that unaccompanied women could only travel with the permission of a male relative, but the ruling was suspended days later after an outcry from human rights groups.

Mershid said she was moved by the supportive messages she received on social media, saying it "encourages other women and men, not necessarily journalists, not to stay silent."

But she said she no longer feels safe in Gaza.

"I'm looking for any opportunity outside Gaza," she said. "I'm a journalist and love journalism, but Gaza isn't the place for me to continue."

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Ifa Hanifah Misbach was 19 when her father died – and  her family told her he would not go to heaven because she refused to wear the hijab, a Muslim head covering.

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 Misbach now works as a psychologist in Bandung, West Java, where she has counselled dozens of Indonesian girls who have been ostracized, bullied and threatened with expulsion from school because they too declined to wear the veil.

"The impact of religious pressures, especially to wear the jilbab, when you're young, makes it feel like you have no breathing room," Misbach said, using the word for hijab more commonly used in Indonesia, in a report by Human Rights Watch. "I wanted to run away."

The 45-year-old's experience is one of many shared by women and girls in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, including cases of girls being expelled from school.

Indonesia's ideology enshrines religious diversity and the country has significant Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and other minorities, but religious conservatism and growing intolerance of beliefs other than Islam has been rising over the past two decades.

Women and girls across the country can face "intense and constant" pressure to wear the hijab, said Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono, which the rights body described as an assault on basic rights to freedom of religion, expression and privacy.

"Wearing a jilbab should be a choice, it should not be a mandatory regulation," Harsono told Reuters. "There is a growing belief all over Indonesia that if you are a Muslim woman and you don't wear the hijab you are less pious; you are morally less."

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Human Rights Watch identified more than 60 discriminatory local, provincial bylaws issued since 2001 to enforce female dress codes. A 2014 national government regulation has been widely interpreted as requiring all female Muslim students in the country of around 270 million people to wear a jilbab at school.

"Indonesian state schools use a combination of psychological pressure, public humiliation, and sanctions to persuade girls to wear the hijab," said the report.

One Muslim highschooler, who asked to remain anonymous, recalled being told at age 12 by two of her classmates that she should wear the hijab as "one strand of hair that is shown is equal to one step closer towards hell."

There has been some pushback. The case of a Christian schoolgirl in West Sumatra who was forced to wear the hijab sparked a national outcry last month, leading the education and religious affairs ministry to issue a decree banning public schools from making religious attire mandatory.

Indonesia's main rights body, Komnas HAM, said the decree supported the right to religious choice, but it remains unclear how strictly it will be enforced.

Human Rights Watch found the problems extended well beyond school, reporting cases of female civil servants and lecturers who resigned from their jobs due to pressure to wear the hijab, and others who were unable to access government services because they chose not to veil.

A spokesman for the Education Ministry did not respond specifically to questions about the report, referring Reuters to its recent decree. The religious affairs ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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