Blog archive all
10th November 2011
Under the headline "The future of tyranny", Mamoun Fandy asks some searching questions about the Arab Spring in an article for Asharq Alawsat.
"The talk about the future of tyranny, its manifestations, branches, and the extent of its longevity in various forms has not started yet in earnest," he… Read more
8th November 2011
How stable is Jordan? That is the question addressed in a new report from the Brookings Doha Centre. In common with many of its regional neighbours, Jordan has witnessed street protests since the Arab Spring began, but nothing on a dramatic scale, and King Abdullah has been trying to fend off… Read more
7th November 2011
In an outspoken column for Arab News, Saudi journalist Samar Fatany calls for a revival of ijtihad – the practice of independent interpretation of Islamic scripture. This may sound like ordinary common sense but in the Saudi context it's highly controversial and goes to the heart of the kingdom's… Read more
5th November 2011
It's not every day that the President's Office of the Bahrain Information Affairs Authority of goes to the trouble of sending me an email informing me that one of the kingdom's more elderly citizens has died of a heart attack – but it happened yesterday.
Ali Hassan Al-Daihi, aged 78, "had… Read more
5th November 2011
Largely unnoticed in the midst of other events, it was the turn of Syria to come up for scrutiny by the UN Human Rights Council last month, under the periodic review system.
As part of the review process each country has to submit a self-assessment report describing its efforts in the human rights… Read more
30th October 2011
The Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News has finally got around toreporting the arrest of a businessman in Britain, in connection with a $6m bribery case involving Bahrain's government-controlled aluminium company, Alba.
The Gulf Daily News says the alleged recipient of the bribes "cannot be named for… Read more
25th October 2011
The following is a statement issued on Tuesday by the London-based Iraqi LGBT organisation:
In Iraq, concern is growing of a renewed purge against the country’s gay community by government forces and hardline religious militia groups after the arrest of 25 men in Kalar, a small town north Baghdad… Read more
23rd October 2011
What on earth is going on at Huffington Post? Hot on the heels ofTom Squitieri's articles presenting a sympathetic view of Bahrain's repressive regime (September 21, October 2 and October 5), we now have Rob Sobhani scaremongering about Iranian designs on Bahrain.
"The end result of hesitation in… Read more
23rd October 2011
A man has been jailed in Egypt for "insulting Islam" on Facebook.
Ayman Youssef Mansur, who had been arrested in August, was sentenced to three years with hard labour by a civilian court on Saturday on charges of "exploitation of religion to promote extremist ideas with the intention of inciting… Read more
22nd October 2011
On Friday the UN security council unanimously approved a resolution on the situation in Yemen – its first such resolution since the uprising began.
As expected, the resolution (full text here) calls on President Saleh to accept the Gulf Cooperation Council's wretched "transition plan" and begin a… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
