South Asia

Pakistan: jihadis step up attacks on Sufis

Gunmen attacked a Sufi religious gathering in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, leaving eight dead—the latest in a wave of such attacks by Deobandi fundamentalist militants.

Iran

Iran: protest conviction of Sufi activists

Human Rights Watch called upon Iran’s judiciary to drop charges and quash the verdicts against 11 members of a Sufi order convicted in what the rights group called unfair trials.

Iraq

Ba’ath-Sufi convergence in Iraq insurgency?

The most senior member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle still on the run, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is said to be leading a band of insurgents from the Naqshbandi Sufi order.

North Africa

General strike rocks Tunisia

Thousands massed in Tunis for the funeral of slain opposition leader Chokri Belaid, with the city shut down in a general strike called by the main union federation, the UGTT. 

Afghanistan

Pakistan: Sufi leads anti-corruption protests

Thousands of Pakistanis chanitng “we want change” filled the streets of Islamabad in a massive anti-corruption protest led by Sufi cleric Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.

North Africa

Mali: regime, rebels both divided

As Mali’s prime minister is removed by the junta, Ansar Dine rebels are embraced in peace talks—while the MUJAO rebels are sanctioned by the UN as an al-Qaeda front.

North Africa

The left and the jihad: love-hate relationship?

"Leftists" in the West are waxing paranoid about how the Syrian revolutionaries are a bunch of jihadists. But if the West intervenes in Mali, they will likely be rooting for jihadists—again.

North Africa

Sufi shrines destroyed in Libya —again

Salafist militants  bulldozed a mosque containing Sufi graves in the center of Tripoli in broad daylight, with no interference from authorities. A similar attack was reported in Zlitan.

The Caucasus

Eid terror in Ingushetia

A deadly suicide attack on the funeral of a police officer killed the previous day in a firefight with militants may signal a new advance of the Chechen insurgency into the Ingush Republic.