Categories : News

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.

Opinion | Yemen’s Threatened Cultural Heritage

The heartbreakingly destructive civil war in Yemen has put some of the world’s most treasured Islamic manuscripts in peril.

PARLIAMENTARY EVENT: Commemorating Bahrain’s Martyr’s Day

20 December 2018 – On Monday 17 December, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) attended an event in Parliament chaired by Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, to commemorate Bahrain Martyrs’ Day. At the event, experts on Bahrain discussed the human rights violations perpetrated by the government against civilians and shared the stories of…

For BIRD Weekly 217, click here.

Bahrain: Drop Charges in Rights Defender’s Case

(Beirut) – The following statement was issued on December 18, 2018 by 57 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch: We the undersigned call on Bahrain to release Nabeel Rajab immediately, to repeal his convictions and sentences, and drop all charges against him.

SABS MSP Briefing at the Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society (SABS) organised a drop-in at the Scottish Parliament, sponsored by Bill Kidd MSP, for members of the Scottish Parliament to meet with SABS, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), the St Andrew’s Sporting Club (with British bantamweight boxing champion Kash Farooq, Ambassador for SABS’ Blood Donation Campaign), the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the Edinburgh City Football Club and the Scottish Ambulance Service on Wednesday 12th December.

Profiles in Persecution: Faten Ali Naser

Faten Ali Naser is a 41-year old mother of four and housewife from Bahrain. She is currently in Isa Town Women’s Prison, serving a five-year sentence for allegedly harboring a fugitive and now awaiting an appeal scheduled for 28 January 2019.

For ADHRB Weekly Newsletter 281, click here.