17th Annual UMAA Conference

UMAA2019 will take place at Tysons Corner Sheraton in Tysons, Virginia from July 5th-July 8th. Room Information Rooms can be booked directly with the Tyson’s Sheraton at (703) 448-1234 under the UMAA room block. $99/night including Breakfast Saturday and Sunday morning.

Dr. Hossein Kamaly to Fill Imam Ali Chair for Shi’i Studies | Hartford Seminary

President Joel N. Lohr and Hartford Seminary are pleased to announce that, as of July 1, Dr. Hossein Kamaly will hold the Imam Ali Chair for Shi’i Studies and Dialogue among Islamic Legal Schools. He will also be Associate Professor of Islamic Studies.

Untold Stories, The Suffering of Shia Muslims – Shia Rights Watch

Annual report of Anti-Shiism around the Globe This report reflects investigative work Shia Rights Watch staff undertook in 2018 Shia Rights Watch 2018 Annual Report_2 Size: 1.37 mb Format : PDF Preview Introduction Parallel to the rise of coverage of the Shia identity came to an increased need for recognition for the dynamics of …

NCHR Occasional Paper Series #11 2019 – Norwegian Centre for Human Rights

This paper, Blurring the Line between Countering Terrorism and Countering Dissent: The Case of Saudi Arabia, is written by Dr Norman Cigar, a Research Fellow at the Marine Corps University, Quantico, VA, from which he retired recently as Director of Regional Studies and the Minerva Research Chair.

See also: Foreign Policy
Los Angeles Times

US State Department 2018 Report on Human Rights is ‘All Words and No Action’ when it Comes to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

On 13 March 2019, the United States (US) Department of State released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) is deeply concerned that, while the report continues to detail a range of US human rights concerns in Bahrain and …

For ADHRB Weekly 291, click here.

Bahrain sentences 167 people to prison in crackdown on dissent

A Bahraini court sentenced 167 people arrested at a sit-in outside the home of Bahrain’s leading Shi’ite Muslim cleric in 2017 to between six months and 10 years in prison at a trial in late February, court documents and lawyers said.

The Middle East’s Great Divide Is Not Sectarianism

The spectre of sectarianism haunts the Middle East. It is blamed for chaos, conflict, and extremism. It defines what is seen as the region’s principal fault line: Sunni versus Shiite. It has the power and elegance of a grand theory that seemingly explains all.

Bahrain court upholds jail sentence against relatives of prominent…

The top court in Western-allied Bahrain upheld three-year jail terms against three relatives of a prominent political activist, a rights group said on Monday, in a case the United Nations says is an unlawful act of reprisal over family connections.

See also ADHRB Weekly #289.
See also BIRD Weekly #226.

South Asian Geopolitics: Saudi Arabia: 1 Iran: 0?

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi seemed to fine tune the officer’s statement by not mentioning Yemen in his remarks to the Saudi paper and limiting Pakistan’s commitment to the kingdom itself. “If anyone would create chaos in or attack the Kingdom, Pakistan would stand by its brethren Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Qureishi said.

Geopolitics, the black swan in Saudi-Indian relations – Firstpost

When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week, the elephant in the room is likely to be what weighs more: the issues the two men agree on or the ones that divide them.