‘Reducing Middle East tensions potentially lessens sectarianism and opens doors for women
Two separate developments involving improved relations between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and women’s sporting rights demonstrate major shifts in how rivalry for leadership of the Muslim world and competition to define Islam in the 21st century is playing out in a world in which Middle Eastern states can no longer depend on the United States coming to their defence.’
James M Dorsey
9 October 2021

Amwaj Media:
Daily Briefing | Exclusive: Grand Imam of Al-Azhar set for historic meeting with top Shiite cleric in Iraq Amwaj.media has learned that the top Sunni scholar will meet with the Shiite supreme religious authority and pray at the holy shrine in Najaf.
See: <https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=c16528989a&u=bad46ac1df2d13e609949e861&id=5f37ed5e00>

‘Initial Taliban moves fail to convince Afghanistan’s neighbours and near-neighbours’
By James M. Dorsey
China-India Brief #188
August 28, 2021 – September 14, 2021

‘The Historical Roles of Jihād in Sunnī-Shīʿī Relations’
D. Stewart,
The Journal of the Middle East and Africa Volume 12, 2021 – Issue 2

‘”Indian Money”, Intra-Shīʿī Polemics, and the Bohra and Khoja Pilgrimage Infrastructure in Iraq’s Shrine Cities, 1897–1932’
M. O’Sullivan
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2021

‘US-funded media spreads bizarre conspiracy theory about Shi’a Muslims
The charges against the al-Khoe’i Foundation were so wild that the State Department had to step in and disavow the story.’

Responsible Statecraft, June 14, 2021

‘Legacies of Islamic Ecumenicism:
Taqrib, Shi’a-Sunni Relations, and Globalized Politics in the Middle East’
Weatherhead Center, 2021
M. Sagha, ed.
https://shiism.wcfia.harvard.edu/publications/legacies-islamic-ecumenicismtaqrib-shia-sunni-relations-and?

See also: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Pope Francis: A Meeting of the Minds in Najaf?