Shiite and Sunni institutions in Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to denounce and condemn extremists, deeming their acts to be in direct conflict with Islam.

Sitting at the heart of the Caucasus region - a relatively small region of the world sandwiched in between Eastern Europe and Western Asia - Azerbaijan has been the unfortunate subject of much foreign attention over the decades due to its coveted geo-strategic position and vast natural resources.

The first thing I noticed when I visited al-Awamiya, a Shiite town in oil-rich eastern Saudi Arabia, was its utter isolation and stark poverty. Ringed by date groves, it is a tableau of drab buildings, car-repair shops, and restless young men that stands in sharp contrast to the gleaming wealth that most people imagine when they think of Saudi Arabia. It wasn’t easy to get there. My Shiite hosts threaded a twisting, unpaved road through the date groves and past police checkpoints. Once inside the town, I was met with a massive security presence: turreted ramparts, armored vehicles, and fatigue-clad soldiers.

The slow simmering Palestinian/Israel tension have been lately escalated to a boiling level at many fronts; social, political and religious. This tension has led to many violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli armed security forces, and between Palestinians and armed Israeli mobs. The epicenter of these violent confrontations is Al-Quds/Jerusalem and radiates to all the major Palestinian towns in the West Bank, and to all the 1948 occupied Palestinian towns. These confrontations would ignite a Palestinian Intifada (uprising) that would be different in nature and intensity than the previous Intifadas; 6 years long first Intifada (1978) and the 5 years long second Intifada (2000) known as Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn, the Fourth Shia Holy Imam famous as Zayn al-Abidin and Sayyid-i Sajjad was martyred by poisoning on 25th Moharram in the year 95 A.H. at Madinah city and is buried at Baqi cemetery near his uncle Imam Hasan (A.S.). On this tragic and sad occasion we extend our Heartfelt Condolences to the millions strong Islamic Ummah and all the lovers of Holy Ahlul Bayt(A.S.) in the world.

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Eid-ul Zuha is on October 6. Attribute it to their black humour, but Arab diplomats not in the Saudi camp, have been floating a story: Abu Bakr al Baghdadi may like to celebrate Eid in Mecca. A Caliphate cannot be a Caliphate without Mecca.

Before we went back into the Iraq war, we were told ISIS had 15,000 fighters. Now there are estimates of 30,000.

A couple weeks ago Saudi Arabia was warning against U.S. action against ISIL (ISIS, Islamic State) arguing that it would be perceived as a pro-Shiite intervention in a Sunni-Shiite conflict.

Significant blame lies with the ideological foundation of such groups - which comes in the form of the conservative belief of Wahhabism - the official state doctrine of Saudi Arabia.

Turkish authorities and pro-government academics have been busy in recent days, visiting world capitals in an effort to convince them that Turkey has not provided assistance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces. This has been a nice effort, but it is far from convincing major foreign powers. Such efforts are nothing but a reflection of a state that was caught helping a brutal terror organization.

Speaker of Ahlul Bayt's (A.S.) Virtues Fatima was the daughter of the seventh Imam, Musa Al-Kazim (A.S.). She was born on the 1st of Dhilqa'da, 173 A.H..

The History of Imam Sadiq’s Martyrdom