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.

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.

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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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.

A mysterious Shia group has Nigeria worried

THE STREETS are quiet and the tear gas has dissipated, but no one knows for sure how many protesters were killed in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, at the end of October. The army claims six people died when soldiers stopped demonstrators from overrunning a checkpoint.

Imamia Medics International (IMI) Northern and Southern California Chapters will be hosting IMI’s 2018 North American Conference in Orange County, California. The conference combines IMI’s commitment to enhancing health, education, capacity building and the integration of community and faith based approaches to health. The theme for this conference is an exploration of the two public health emergencies across North America: Opioids and Obesity. In addition we will overview all aspects of health and medical sciences from clinical, basic and population perspectives. The conference will also incorporate full parallel programming for young leaders with skills development as well as conversations centered around the overall conference theme exploring healthy physical and mental lifestyles.

For tickets click here.

For the Conference Schedule, click here.