Skirmishes over culture strain alliance between Saudi rulers, clerics. The price for the Al Saud and for a powerful business class that supports modernization and a greater role for women has been tensions with traditionalist clerics upon whose support the ruling family relies for its legitimacy (Reuters)
In Senegal, Iran and Saudi Arabia vie for religious influence. There is a contest for influence in Senegal, and more widely in Africa, between Iran-backed Shi'ites and Saudi-funded Sunnis. It's one strand of a broad power struggle in which each side is spending millions of dollars to win converts. At stake is huge political influence, on a resource-rich continent that has often served as the theater for rivalries between world powers (Reuters)
Powerful Qom clergy fear loss of influence as Iran election nears. Clerics once adept at bringing out the vote struggle to rally support for hardliners (Financial Times)
Young Muslim Americans Need Leadership. For decades, US Muslims have been demanding religious leaders who understand what it's like to practice Islam in America. Will the turmoil of the Trump years finally make it happen? (BuzzFeed)
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