World Organization for Resource Development & Education
WORDE Specialists are academics, theologians, development experts, and policy analysts develop effective, long-term solutions in the key areas of educational reform, resource development, and international security. They regularly contribute commentary articles to national newspapers, academic journals, think tank publications and special conferences.
A new RAND report entitled, “Promoting Online Voices for Countering Violent Extremism” by Todd C. Helmus, Erin York, and Peter Chalk was an extensive study on the effects of social media and other online resources to counter violent narratives. The authors of the report describe how al -Qa’ida and its followers have used the Internet [...]
April 22, 2013 | KCRW, To the Point
The suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction, a charge which can carry the death penalty. We hear about his condition and how he’s being treated by federal authorities.
April 19, 2013 | National Journal
by Michael Hirsh
Based on what we know so far, the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings were likely self-motivated terrorists who were probably not part of a larger al Qaida plot, but may well have been inspired and perhaps prepared in part by ideology and training from the global jihadist network. Based on police reports and witness testimony, the older brother, 26-year-old Tamarlan Tsarnaev…
April 18, 2013 | National Journal
by Micahel Hirsh
Until this week, Americans had been living in something of a bubble. Nothing like the Boston Marathon bombing had happened to us for a very long time—since around Sept. 11, 2001, in fact. Despite repeated waves of overseas terrorism from Europe to the Middle East, the United States had avoided the epidemic of IEDs.
November 2012 | Pakistan
In November, 2012, the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) hosted WORDE Specialist Ziad Alahdad for a launch of the monograph, “Pakistan Energy Sector: From Crisis to Crisis-Breaking the Chain” (published by PIDE, and available for purchase in Pakistan.)
November 13, 2012 Common Ground News Service, Mehreen Farooq Washington, DC – Less than two years after the Pakistani military drew down its counter-insurgency operations in the picturesque Swat valley, Pakistan’s frontier region is once again being rocked by suicide attacks and targeted killings. While the country may appear to be locked in an entrenched [...]
September 26, 2012 by Waleed Ziad, Mehreen Farooq Rising extremism in Pakistan has drawn attention to the need for engagement with moderate Muslim networks and civil society organizations that can effectively counter radical narratives and decrease the pool of recruits for militant organizations. In this ForeignPolicy.com photo essay, WORDE researchers travel across 35 cities and [...]
September 13, 2012
By Husain Haqqani
The attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions this week—beginning in Egypt and Libya, and moving to Yemen and other Muslim countries—came under cover of riots against an obscure online video insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. But the mob violence and assaults should be seen for what they really are: an effort by Islamists to garner support and mobilize their base by exacerbating anti-Western sentiments.
February 29, 2012
By Specialists Mehreen Farooq and Waleed Ziad
To stem youth radicalization in Pakistan, both secular schools and moderate madrassas have had to seek innovative solutions. In July 2009, a youth NGO called Barghad hosted the “All Pakistan Student Leaders Conference” to address how students can openly challenge extremist influence on college campuses. Remarkably, even in the frontier provinces, the epicenter of the conflict, students are turning out in high numbers to promote peace.
Salafist Movements Threaten World Cultural Heritage
November 15, 2012 | Al-Monitor by Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi The face of radical Islamism has rocked headlines in recent months, demonstrating to the world the threat it poses to Islam’s own cultural heritage. Many were shocked when spiritual leader Said Efandi al-Chirkawi was killed in a suicide bombing in the tiny Russian Republic of Dagestan by a [...]