Arjun Singh Sethi | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Education | B.S. Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University J.D. New York University School of Law |
Alma mater | New York University Georgetown University |
Occupation(s) | Civil Rights Writer Human Rights Lawyer Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center |
Arjun Singh Sethi [1] is an American civil and political rights writer, human rights lawyer, [2] and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and Vanderbilt University Law School. [3] [4]
Sethi grew up in Virginia. His parents are Sikhs originally from India. His family was one of the founding Sikh families in Virginia. [5]
Sethi received his B.S. from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 2003 [1] and his J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 2008. [1] Sethi previously worked as an attorney with the international law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington D.C., [6] [7] and as the legislative counsel/policy advisor with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), also in Washington, D.C. [8] He has represented victims of domestic violence, asylum seekers, national security detainees, and criminal defendants on death row. [9]
Sethi is, according to CNN, "a frequent commentator on civil rights and social justice-related issues." [10] The New York Times reports that he specializes in "counterterrorism and law enforcement," and he has been invited by the government to preview and assess numerous intelligence and law enforcement programs prior to launch. [4] [11] He is considered a subject-matter expert on racial and religious profiling. [12] His essays on these subjects have appeared in The Washington Post, [13] [14] the Los Angeles Times , [15] Politico Magazine , [16] and in CNN. [17] The Center for American Progress has recognized his work on these issues, noting that in "debates on national security, he has called out actions that stigmatize innocent groups, fan the flames of Islamophobia, and harm Muslim, Arab, and Sikh Americans." [9]
His articles have appeared in Al Jazeera , [18] [19] [20] Al Jazeera America, [21] [22] The Christian Science Monitor , [23] [24] [25] CNN, [17] [26] [27] [28] The Guardian , [29] [30] [31] [32] The Huffington Post, [33] [34] the Los Angeles Times, [15] Politico Magazine, [16] USA Today , [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] and The Washington Post. [13] [14]
On September 6, 2019, Sethi co-authored an op-ed, "The Gates Foundation Shouldn't Give An Award to Narendra Modi." [40] The article was later cited by outlets across the world in connection with a global campaign calling upon The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to rescind its award to Prime Minister Modi. [41] [42] [43] [44]
In the wake of the 2016 US presidential election, Sethi traveled the country and documented the stories of people targeted by hate violence. [45] NPR, [46] Salon, [47] Teen Vogue, [48] Crooked Media, [49] Center for Investigative Reporting, [50] and other outlets interviewed him about the book. American Hate: Survivors Speak Out was named a 2018 Best Book of the Year by NPR & The Progressive. [51] [52] According to a review by Publishers Weekly , "This angry yet hopeful work is an important document of what the United States looks like to "the most vulnerable" among its people in 2018." [53] Kirkus Reviews described it as a "useful book for those aiming to combat latter-day bigotry, with its many targets and manifestations." [54]
On December 3, 2015, Al Jazeera America published Sethi's article, "Saudi Arabia Uses Terrorism As An Excuse For Human Rights Abuses." [55] On December 18, 2015, The Intercept reported that the corporate headquarters of Al Jazeera had blocked access to the article, noting that the network had "told local press that it did not intend to offend Saudi Arabia or any other state ally, and would remove the piece." [56] The Intercept republished Sethi's article in full. [57] The censorship was covered by The Independent , The Times of India , Gawker , Jadaliyya , and other media outlets. [2] [58] [59] [60]
Quran desecration is the treatment of the Quran in a way that might be considered insulting.
The Saudi Arabian textbook controversy refers to criticism of the content of school textbooks in Saudi Arabia following the September 11 attacks.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, abbreviated as AQAP, also known as Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen, is a Sunni Islamist insurgent extremist group, which is part of the al-Qaeda network and primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It is considered the most active of al-Qaeda's branches that emerged after the weakening of central leadership.
Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia is a legal punishment, with most executions in the country being carried out by decapitation (beheading) – Saudi Arabia being the only country in the world to still use the method. In 2022, recorded executions in Saudi Arabia reached 196, the highest number recorded in the country for any year over the last three decades.
Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia.
beIN Sports is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef Obaidly.
The modern history of Saudi Arabia begins with the declaration of the unification of Saudi Arabia in a single kingdom in 1932. This period of time in Saudi Arabia's history includes the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia and many events. It goes on to encompass Saudi Arabia's brief involvement in World War II in 1945. Afterwards, it includes Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Western Bloc and the Cold War. It also includes Saudi Arabia's proxy conflict with Iran, the Arab Spring, and the ongoing Arab Winter.
Middle East Eye (MEE) is a UK-based news website founded in 2014 that covers the Middle East and North Africa. It is reportedly funded by the government of Qatar.
On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, launched an intervention in Yemen at the request of Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had been ousted from the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 by Houthi insurgents during the Yemeni Civil War. Efforts by the United Nations to facilitate a power sharing arrangement under a new transitional government collapsed, leading to escalating conflict between government forces, Houthi rebels, and other armed groups, which culminated in Hadi fleeing to Saudi Arabia shortly before it began military operations in the country.
Qatar has been accused of allowing terror financiers to operate within its borders, which has been one of the justifications for the Qatar diplomatic crisis that started in 2017 and ended in 2021. In 2014, David S. Cohen, then United States Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, accused Qatari authorities of allowing financiers who were on international blacklists to live freely in the country: "There are U.S.- and UN-designated terrorist financiers in Qatar that have not been acted against under Qatari law." Accusations come from a wide variety of sources including intelligence reports, government officials, and journalists.
Al Jazeera Arabic is a Qatari state-owned Arabic-language news television network. It is based in Doha and operated by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which also operates Al Jazeera English. It is the largest news network in the Middle East and North Africa region. It was founded in 1996 by the then Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
On May 20, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed a series of letters of intent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to purchase arms from the United States totaling US$110 billion immediately, and $350 billion over 10 years. The intended purchases include tanks, combat ships, missile defense systems, as well as radar, communications and cybersecurity technology. The transfer was widely seen as a counterbalance against the influence of Iran in the region and a "significant" and "historic" expansion of United States relations with Saudi Arabia.
The Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict refers to the ongoing struggle for regional influence between Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), both of which are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It is sometimes called the New Arab Cold War. Bilateral relations have been especially strained since the beginning of the Arab Spring, that left a power vacuum both states sought to fill, with Qatar being supportive of the revolutionary wave and Saudi Arabia opposing it. Both states are allies of the United States, and have avoided direct conflict with one another.
The blockade of Yemen refers to a sea, land and air blockade on Yemen which started with the positioning of Saudi Arabian warships in Yemeni waters in 2015 with the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. In November 2017, after a Houthi missile heading towards King Khalid International Airport was intercepted, the Saudi-led military coalition stated it would close all sea land and air ports to Yemen, but shortly began reopening them after criticism from the United Nations and over 20 aid groups and some humanitarian supplies were allowed into the country. In March 2021, Saudi Arabia denied the blockade continued, however, UN authorized ships continued to be delayed by Saudi warships.
The Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee is a pro-Saudi Arabia public relations and lobbying group based in Washington D.C. with the aim of improving the image of Saudi foreign policy in the United States and strengthening relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States. SAPRAC was founded in March 2016 by Salman Al-Ansari, a Saudi writer and political commentator and is headquartered at 1101 30th St NW in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C.. The group gets its funding from online subscriptions and corporate funding and seeks to influence policymakers more than the general public according to political observers.
Feminism in Saudi Arabia dates back to the ancient, pre-Roman Nabataean Kingdom in which women were independent legal persons. Twenty-first century feminist movements in Saudi Arabia include the women to drive movement and the anti male-guardianship campaign. Madawi al-Rasheed argued in 2019 that the Saudi feminist movement was "the most organised and articulate civil society" in Saudi Arabia.
This article overviews the 2010s in Middle Eastern political history
On 12 March 2022, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia carried out the mass execution of 81 men, including 7 Yemenis, 1 Syrian and 37 Saudi nationals on terrorism related charges and for holding deviant beliefs. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights understood that 41 were minority Shia Muslims who had participated in anti-government demonstrations calling for greater political participation in 2011–2012. Rights groups accused the government of adopting restrictive regulations against religious expression and political beliefs, as well as criticising its use of the death sentence, even for children arrested, and citing the execution as a violation of human rights.