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Hot on the heels of the Human Rights Watch report aboutdiscrimination against Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia, I received this photo of a Shia Ismaili mosque in Khobar. Note the concrete blocks placed in front of the entrance.
According to my source, security forces stormed the building… Read more
The war between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels, as regular readers will have gathered, has multiple dimensions: local grievances, tribal/religious conflicts and international rivalries among them. One further dimension – which I haven't mentioned so far – is a struggle to succeed… Read more
After going off-line for several hours yesterday "for maintenance", the Menassat website is back – but without the announcement of staff sackings posted by earlier by "Robin Hood". There's one new article on the front page, about the presidential succession in Egypt.
A statement… Read more
Discrimination against Shia Muslims in the Sunni-dominated countries of the Middle East tends to attract less attention in the west than prejudice against Christians, Jews and Baha'is. Politics plays a part in that, of course, because of Shia Islam's associations with Iran.
I recently wrote… Read more
The case of a Lebanese financier who went bankrupt after investing hundreds of millions of other people’s money is sending shockwaves through Hizbullah and Lebanon’s Shia community.
Salah Ezzedine is thought to have lost more than $1 billion – which
is affecting “thousands of Lebanese… Read more
A strange announcement has appeared on the Beirut-based Menassat website under the by-line “Robin Hood of Arabia”. It seems that all nine editorial staff were sacked at less than 24 hours’ notice, pending the site’s closure.
Menassat was set up to promote free speech and improve the… Read more
The UN refugee agency issued a new warning yesterday about the situation around Saada city in northern Yemen where fighting between government forces and rebels has displaced more than 35,000 people during the last three weeks.
"The situation is deteriorating by the day," UNHCR spokesman… Read more
Following the imprisonment of an Egyptian poet for “insulting” President Mubarak (reported here in July), another Arab poet – this time in Jordan – is preparing himself for jail.
Islam Samhan was arrested last October and charged him with insulting the prophets because of Quranic references in… Read more
Naâma Asfari, a Western Sahara human rights activist, has been jailed for four months in Morocco following a row with a policeman about his keychain.
Asfari was stopped at a checkpoint outside Tantan on August 14. An officer noticed a flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic(… Read more
Today is the 40th anniversary of the revolution that brought the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamarihyya (officially abbreviated to the Great Splaj) into being – which makes Col Gadafy the longest-surviving Arab leader (a year longer than Sultan Qaboos in Oman).
On a visit to… 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
