Global Islamism Monitor No. 120

Related Categories: Economic Sanctions; Islamic Extremism; Military Innovation; Iran; Israel; Middle East; Russia

NEW SANCTIONS TARGET HAMAS FUNDRAISING
The Islamic Republic of Iran tops most lists of financial backers of Hamas. But new sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department have targeted another source of support for the Palestinian terror group: supporters in Europe. The new Treasury measures take aim at an international fundraising network implicated in providing financial assistance to the terror group's military activities. Among those targeted are a "sham charity" as well as a Gazan bank. "Hamas has exploited the suffering in Gaza to solicit funds through sham and front charities that falsely claim to help civilians in Gaza," the Treasury Department said. The group is estimated to have received as much as $10 million monthly in this fashion. (Reuters, October 7, 2024)

ISRAEL EYES A SOMALILAND BASE TO COUNTER THE HOUTHIS
Even as it forges ahead with its military campaigns against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Israel is also eyeing another theater of operations: the Red Sea. There, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have posed a significant - and persistent - threat to maritime shipping, ostensibly in solidarity with the Palestinians. Houthi hostilities, however, have also targeted the Jewish state directly, with sporadic drone attacks that have impacted Israeli population centers like Tel Aviv.

In response, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now working to establish a military base in Somaliland. According to the Middle East Monitor, the UAE is mediating negotiations on Jerusalem's behalf with the government in Hargeisa. The effort reportedly would entail an Israeli maritime presence in the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance to the Bab al-Mandaab, in exchange for diplomatic recognition of the largely-unrecognized state in the Horn of Africa. (Jerusalem Post, October 19, 2024)

RUSSIA PONDERS HOW TO DEAL WITH EXTREMISTS...
This spring, Islamist militants affiliated with the Islamic State’s southwest Asian franchise attacked the Crocus Music Hall, a popular concert venue in Moscow, killing over 130 and injuring hundreds more. In the aftermath of that attack, Russian officials have launched a crackdown on Islamic militancy within the country, while lawmakers have begun pondering new measures to cope with a reinvigorated extremist threat. Thus Ivan Sukharyov, a deputy in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, has called for the creation of Arctic penal colonies to house those convicted of terrorism. Proposed sites for the facilities include Novaya Zemlya, in Russia's extreme northeast, or - more controversially - on the Svalbard archipelago, which is claimed by Norway. Oslo, for its part, has rejected the suggestion, claiming that the move would violate the provisions of the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which provides Norway with sovereignty over the territory but allows Russia to retain economic rights there. (Window on Eurasia, September 4, 2024; Window on Eurasia, September 5, 2024)

...AMID FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE CAUCASUS
Meanwhile, Russian authorities are intensifying their crackdown on extremism in the North Caucasus. In late September, the FSB, Russia's federal security service, carried out a raid that resulted in the arrest of fifteen suspected radicals in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. According to a Russian government statement, the individuals were "involved in the public dissemination of a radical ideology based on the rejection of traditional Islamic norms and Russian laws." (The Moscow Times, September 23, 2024)

THE ISIS MARRIAGE TRADE
Kurdish-controlled detention camps for ISIS militants are reportedly operating smuggling networks through Idlib, Syria to match female inmates to radical suitors abroad. The largest such facility, Al-Hol, has held jihadi wives since 2019, when Coalition forces captured the last remnants of the ISIS "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria. Recent investigations into the camp have revealed that affiliates of the militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham have facilitated the smuggling of women out of Al-Hol, arranging fake passports for travel to Turkey and beyond. The operation underscores government corruption on both sides of the border, as well as the number of ISIS sympathizers that remain uncontrolled by the Turkish government.

The situation, moreover, has the potential to get significantly worse, as the U.S. is now negotiating a pullout from Iraq with that country's government. Experts worry that the withdrawal, which will be accomplished over the next two years, could allow ISIS to regain territory in Iraq as well as Syria, because the forces that will remain (likely in Iraqi Kurdistan) will be insufficient to adequately contain thousands of foreign fighter prisoners. (Al-Monitor, September 19, 2024)