In a case that has drawn international condemnation, Bahrain's highest court today upheld prison sentences handed down to nine medics for weapons possession, incitement and taking part in illegal demonstrations last year. One of the doctors was...
Bahraini human rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja has been sentenced to two months in prison after she allegedly tore up a picture of the ruler of the Gulf kingdom. Al-Khawaja is the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the head of the Bahrain Center...
Alber Saber, a young Egyptian blogger and computer science graduate has been arrested and detained for allegedly posting a trailer for an anti-Islam film on Facebook. The trailer for the film "Innocence of Muslims" deemed insulting to Islam and the...
Prominent UAE blogger Ahmed Mansoor says that he was beaten by an unidentified man on 17 September. Mansoor was attacked as he was approaching his car at Ajman University of Science and Technology, where he studies law. The attacker knocked Mansoor...
As the Human Rights Council (HRC) prepares to release its final recommendations on Bahrain, Index joins over 100 NGOs in calling for the country to implement the recommendations.
Daisy Williams reports
An Iranian religious group has increased a reward offered for the murder of British author Salman Rushdie after blaming him for an anti-Islam film. As Rushdie recounts in his new autobiography, in 1989 Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah...
Yesterday Iran confirmed that its revolutionary guards corps (IRGC) forces are present in Syria helping Bashar al-Assad's government fight rebel forces. General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, issued a further warning...
Anti-Islam film: Padraig Reidy asks if this time is different from previous blasphemy rows
The protests against controversial film “Innocence of the Muslims” follow a pattern familiar since the days of the Satanic Verses fatwa, says James Kirchick. And so do the reactions of many western liberals
Response: Myriam Francois-Cerrah | Film protests about much more than religion
Reducing the reaction to “The Innocence of Muslims” to merely an issue of hysterical reaction to blasphemy ignores deep unease at the US’s role in the Arab world, says Myriam Francois-Cerrah