Categories : News

Najaf Shiites launch solidarity initiative with Sunni areas

Clerics and other religious figures from Najaf’s Hawza Illmiya, a prominent Shiite seminary, have launched the Dialogue for Social Cohesion in Iraq, a community cooperation initiative reaching out to western and northern Sunni governorates recently liberated from the Islamic State (IS). In the first phase of the initiative, a delegation from Najaf visited Anbar University Jan.

Countering Sectarianism in the Middle East

What factors make a community resilient to sectarianism? How can communities recover from sectarianism and associated violence? How can the international community promote resilience to sectarianism? Sectarianism has become a destructive feature of the modern Middle East.

Secretary Pompeo Fails to Publicly Address Human Rights Issues During Bahrain Visit

15 January 2019 – On 8 January 2019, United States (US) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked on a week-long trip to the Middle East and Arab Gulf, where he met with various leaders and high-level officials to discuss critical regional issues.

For ADHRB Weekly 285, click here.
See also Human Rights Watch here.
See also BIRD Weekly 220.

Look Who’s Talking: Sectarianism, between Iraq and Saudi Arabia

Contact: Christopher Denbow T:202-466-9500 Wednesday, 2 July 2014 Washington, DC – The Institute for Gulf Affairs released a comparative analysis on sectarianism and marginalization in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This 20-page analysis takes into consideration the recent allegations of sectarianism and marginalization against the Iraqi government made by the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud AlFaisal, ironically, one of the most sectarian Saudi officials.

Managing minefields: Saudi/UAE aid puts Pakistan-Iran relations on the spot

Pakistan is traversing minefields as it concludes agreements on investment, balance of payments support and delayed payment oil deliveries with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth USD$13 billion that are likely to fawn growing distrust in its relations with neighbouring Iran.

Saudi security operation kills two in Shi’ite town: TV

DUBAI (Reuters) – Two people were killed and others arrested in a “preemptive” security operation in Saudi Arabia’s eastern Qatif province, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Tuesday. Violence in the area has become more rare since security forces largely flushed out Shi’ite Muslim gunmen in a 2017 campaign that left much of the town’s old quarter flattened.

Indian Muslims: A rich hunting ground for Middle Eastern rivals

By James M. Dorsey

When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently declared that Turkey was “the only country that can lead the Muslim world ” he probably wasn’t only thinking of Middle Eastern and other Islamic states such as Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Increasingly, there is evidence that Indian Muslims, the Islamic world’s fourth largest community after Indonesia and the South Asian states, is on Mr. Erdogan’s radar.

Mr. Erdogan’s interest in Indian Muslims highlights the flip side of a shared Turkish and Indian experience: the rise of religious parties and leaders with a tendency towards authoritarianism in non-Western democracies that, according to Turkey and India scholar Sumantra Bose, calls into question their commitment to secularism.

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BAHRAIN: Unfair Conviction of Leading Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab Upheld

31 December 2018 – Today, Bahrain’s Court of Cassation upheld the five-year sentence issued against leading human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab, for his critical comments on social media. Rajab has now exhausted all legal remedies. The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) condemns today’s decision in the strongest term and urges the Bahraini authorities…

For BIRD Weekly 218 click here.
See also Amnesty International.
See also ADHRB Weekly 283.

Christmas in Lebanon: ‘Jesus Isn’t Only for the Christians’

Lebanon Dispatch BEIRUT – The Iranian cultural attaché stepped up to the microphone on a stage flanked by banners bearing the faces of Iran’s two foremost religious authorities: Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, and Ayatollah Khamenei, the current supreme leader.

SABS Christmas Visitations 2018

At this time, Christians across the world remember the birth of the Messiah Jesus Christ, may Peace and Blessings be upon him; one who was strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Muslims too recount the sacred teachings of this exalted Prophet.