Today, 8 November 2017, a Bahraini court pushed the final hearing for leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab’s appeal trial to 22 November, refusing to hear the defense’s arguments and rejecting his petition for bail. Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), has been arbitrarily detained since 13 June 2016 on charges related solely to free expression.
Over the years, the Shiite pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq – bigger than the hajj – has been a frequent target of Sunni militants, including ISIS. But the faithful keep coming, and ISIS is in retreat.