In Senegal, Iran and Saudi Arabia vie for religious influence

In an upmarket suburb of Senegal’s seaside capital, a branch of Iran’s Al-Mustafa University teaches Senegalese students Shi’ite Muslim theology, among other subjects. The branch director is Iranian and a portrait of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hangs on his office wall.

Rex Tillerson to Lift Human Rights Conditions on Arms Sale to Bahrain

The State Department on Wednesday notified Congress of its intent to proceed with the sale without the conditions, according to Micah Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Congress now has two review periods to examine the sale and raise any objections.

The Legacy of Muhammad Sorour, Key Figure in Rise of Sunni Extremism – Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington

See his website.
His wikipedia entry is here.

Arab Gulf States: Attempts to Silence 140 Characters

Who Is a Sunni?: Chechnya Islamic Conference Opens Window on Intra-Faith Rivalry – Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington

See also James Dorsey’s Fighting for the Soul of Islam:A Battle of the Paymasters
See also Robert Fisk’s ‘For the first time, Saudi Arabia is being attacked by both Sunni and Shia leaders’
and Brian Whitaker’s ‘Robert Fisk and the Russian war on salafism’

Stealth Sectarianism

The Political Economy of Sectarianism in the Gulf

‘…Gulf governments can frighten their populations into accepting the political status quo.’

إسقاط الجنسية عن الشيخ عيسى قاسم: السعودية تهدد بإشعال البحرين

See also al-Quds al-Arabi

‘Sunni-Shi’i Rapprochement:
Internal Contradictions’

Hamid Mavani

Abstract
Ecumenical initiatives to promote Sunni-Shi’i reconciliation and
mutual respect have failed to take root because they do not tackle
the incendiary issues that prompt each branch to view the other with
disdain, if not as outright apostates or unbelievers. I argue that this
will not change until the main fault lines in their worldviews, communal
self-understanding, sacred narratives, history, theology, and
philosophy are confronted head-on.

If this cannot be done, then all proclamations of Muslim unity and
brotherhood/sisterhood under one ummah will remain hollow and
lack substance, because each side’s internal discourse would remain
unchanged. Any type of mutual tolerance and coexistence prompted
by expediency and power dynamics cannot be expected to be deeprooted
and long-lasting. The United States, along with such other
local and foreign players as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, and
Syria, have instrumentalized Sunni-Shi’i sectarianism to promote
their own myopic vested interests. The result is clear for all to see:
an exponential increase in Sunni-Shi’i antagonism.

The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 33:1 (2016), 133-47

Gulf Lobbyist Fails to Disclose Ties to Qatar in Media Appearances