Asia

“A historical anomaly” is the starting point for analysing Thai history of the last two centuries: that is, unlike other Southeast Asian nations, Thailand has never been colonised. This is the theory of Yale University historian Eugene Ford.

On Oct. 17, 2017, Philippines' President Roderigo Duterte declared the city of Marawi "liberated", after a 4-months long siege that ended in the death of at least 1,200 people, with dozens of civilians killed.

Throughout much of their recent history, Indonesia and Malaysia have been celebrated by regional and global audiences alike as thriving examples of peaceful coexistence between different religions and backgrounds, thanks to the consolidation of a moderate, pluralistic, and generally accommodative Islam that proved de facto compatible with democratic principles and practices.

Since March 2017, the autonomous region of Xinjiang has gained, once again, media coverage because of the continuous clashes between the local Uyghur population and the Chinese government forces.

On July 1, 2016, Bangladesh was rocked to the core as a group of young militants stormed Holey Artisan Bakery, a posh café in a highly secured diplomatic zone in Dhaka, killing 20 hostages – 17 of whom were of foreign nationals. A week later, another attack in Sholakia, which was hosting the largest Eid prayer of the country, killed 3 more people, including 2 police officers. ISIS had finally announced its arrival in the country through its local wing “Neo-JMB”.

Despite the several conflicts that were taking place in and around India, Tamil Nadu in South India has been distantly associated with the threat of jihadism and the global threat of terrorism emanating from contemporary jihadist groups. This has changed over the last twenty-four months or so. The attraction that the on-going civil war in Syria holds for foreign fighters has altered this landscape of relative peace.

Between Afghanistan and Pakistan there are probably a record number of organizations dedicated to terrorist activities, some hundreds if even the smallest ones are counted. In practice, the 'terrorists' of Afghanistan and Pakistan can be grouped into five groups: 

• The Afghan Taliban, involved in terrorist activities mainly through the Haqqani network, which operate against Western presence in Afghanistan and against the Afghans accused of collaborating with them;

Today the so-called foreign fighters seem to pose a serious threat to the security of countries across the world, including many in Asia.

In July 29, 2018, four Western cyclists were killed in Tajikistan's Danghara district by a group of five men who hit them with a car before stabbing them to death. In a video released after the attack, the five men appear to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State, while sitting under a tree in front of the Islamic State flag.