Category: Middle East/North Africa

Bahraini activist’s family targeted

     

Bahraini authorities are apparently targeting the family members of a prominent Bahraini activist in retribution for his human rights work, Human Rights Watch said today: Since March 2, 2017, authorities… Read more »

Saudis ‘redefining’ Indonesia’s civic Islam

     

When Saudi Arabia’s King Salman landed in Indonesia on Wednesday, he became the first Saudi monarch to visit the world’s largest Muslim-majority country since 1970. Officials in Jakarta hoped the… Read more »

Erdogan sews up Turkey’s ‘second revolution’?

     

When Turkey’s children returned to school in September, there was something new on the curriculum: a week-by-week syllabus, mandated by the minister of education, celebrating what many call Turkey’s “second… Read more »

A critical moment for Syria’s Democratic Forces

     

A film about The White Helmets, Syria’s “largest civil society organization operating in areas outside of government control,” last night won an Oscar for best documentary short. The award coincides… Read more »

Politics, not theology, at the root of Islamist ideology

     

New national security adviser H.R. McMaster is setting a strikingly different tone to discussions on countering violent extremism by saying the term “radical Islamic terrorism” isn’t helpful for US goals, CNN… Read more »

Counter-ISIS plus vs. jihadists’ ‘war of attrition’?

     

Al Qaeda and the Islamic State could reconcile their differences to present a different but persistent security challenge to the United States for the foreseeable future, experts in counterterrorism told… Read more »

Rights groups anxious as Saudi activist summoned for interrogation

     

Saudi women’s rights activist Samar Badawi has been summoned for interrogation, according to reports: In January 2016, Badawi faced charges of “incit[ing] public opinion against the state” for speaking out… Read more »

Cyber spies target Egyptian rights activists

     

American-Egyptian author Mona Eltahawy is one of many activists and human rights advocates targeted in a sweeping cyber-espionage campaign blamed on Egypt’s government, The Associated Press has found: A booby-trapped… Read more »