Opinion | Saudi Arabia’s repression shouldn’t be rewarded with a World Cup

May 15 at 11:24 AM Minky Worden is director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch and oversees the organization’s work on human rights and sports. In 2010, when FIFA announced that the 2022 World Cup would be held in Qatar, there was an outcry over that country’s human rights record.

Saudi state media: Eight ‘terrorist suspects’ killed in Qatif

Eight members of what Saudi authorities call a terrorist cell were killed on Saturday in a police raid in Saudi Arabia’s eastern Qatif region, a Shia minority stronghold, state media has reported. The recently-formed cell was preparing to carry out “terrorist activities” against the security of the country, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing a state security spokesperson.

Two bodies pinned to a pole in Saudi Arabia as 37 people killed in ‘chilling’ mass execution

Saudi Arabia executed 37 people for terror offences on Tuesday, the country’s interior minister said, in one of the largest mass executions in recent years. Human Rights Watch described the punishment as “grotesque,” and said the news represented a “day we have feared.”

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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 …

Special issue of Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (19/1, April, 2019) on the ‘Nexus between Sectarianism and Regime Formation in a New Middle East’.

Edited by Morten Valbjørn and Raymond Hinnebusch

This special issue of Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (vol 19,1) explores the nexus between sectarianism and regime formation in a ‘new Middle East.’

More specifically, it examines a) how sectarianism impacts on the trajectories of different types of regime over time (with the main – but not exclusive – focus being on their location along the authoritarian/democratic continuum), b) whether different kinds of regime dilute or inflame sectarian identities and animosities, c) whether the study of regime formation in a sectarian context requires distinct analytical tools, or whether we can stick to the already existing approaches from the (post)democratization tradition.

All articles of the special issues examine how sectarianism and regime formation/type might be inter-related, though in different ways: they cover different regime types (authoritarian republics, monarchies, and semi-democracies), both Shia- and Sunni-majority countries, countries with and without a Shia/Sunni schism at home, and geographical areas ranging from the Gulf to the Levant, and in addition to these intra-regional comparisons the Middle East is moreover compared with other regions. The studies also differ in their methodology, ranging from a large-N study to comparative snapshots of similar dynamics in several country cases in order to test and demonstrate issues such as the relative power of sectarianism, and longitudinal case studies showing the interaction of sectarian configurations and regime change over time.

The special issue is linked to the interdisciplinary research project SWAR: Sectarianism in the Wake of the Arab Revolts at Aarhus University (www.ps.au.dk/swar).

Morten Valbjørn and Raymond Hinnebusch Exploring the Nexus between Sectarianism and Regime Formation in a New Middle East: Theoretical Points of Departure

Lasse Lykke Rørbæk Religion, Political Power, and the ‘Sectarian Surge’: Middle Eastern Identity Politics in Comparative Perspective

Raymond Hinnebusch Sectarianism and Governance in Syria

Adham Saouli Sectarianism and Political Order in Iraq and Lebanon

Courtney Freer The Symbiosis of Sectarianism, Authoritarianism, and Rentierism in the Saudi State

Hasan Hafidh and Thomas Fibiger Civic Space and Sectarianism in the Gulf States: The Dynamics of Informal Civil Society in Kuwait and Bahrain beyond State Institutions

Morten Valbjørn What’s so Sectarian about Sectarian Politics? Identity Politics and Authoritarianism in a New Middle East

Balochistan: A powder keg at a geopolitical crossroads

Balochistan should be oozing with optimism as Chinese and Saudi investment pours into the troubled Pakistani province. It is not. Instead, Balochistan, a key node in China’s Belt and Road initiative that borders Iran, is gripped by anger, fear and uncertainty.

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.

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.

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.