Kuwaiti Islamists organised a meeting in past two days to lobby support for the Syria protest movement. It involved Kuwaiti Islamists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Salafi trend, all Sunni. The background in Kuwait’s context is that Shi’ites are seen as […]
Wikileaks are still publishing US diplomatic cables, often under the radar, as it were, because media have moved on to the Arab uprisings after the initial impact of the Wikileaks material. I’d like to draw some more attention to those concerning Saudi Arabia. This is […]
So, the currently in vogue phrase is “Gulf monarchies”, and although some of their leaders are emir, one is sultan, a few are sheikh, and only two are “king”, I guess it works as a way of grouping the dynasties together. They […]
This is a publicly available file of the hardback reference book I wrote several years back. The paperback was a different, shorter narrative. I’ll be working on an update to it in coming months, since it’s kind of necessary, given recent events… http://www.scribd.com/doc/17865809/Pop-Culture-Arab-World Tweet
DUBAI, July 28 (Reuters) – Bahrain’s king approved parliamentary reforms on Thursday after the suppression of pro-democracy protests, granting more powers of scrutiny for the elected lower house but preserving the dominance of an upper house appointed by the royal elite. King […]
The Bahrain National Dialogue document has been published in summary and a copy of it is below. They say the Arabic version is to be published on Friday. The king is to meet the Dialogue members today; Wefaq say they will not go, […]
A group of Islamists tried to set up a political party in February. They are one of many small groups of activists on the scene right now but were obviously sticking their heads out further than most. Seven were arrested and of […]
I wasn’t so keen on writing this when I was asked to look into it – it’s highly speculative and who can know. It’s also tough to get anything concrete from Iranians inside Iran. I can see the value in going over […]
Bahraini former army officer Mohammed Al-Buflasa was released today after he was detained for several months for making a speech at Pearl Roundabout about Sunni-Shi’ite unity in their demand for a democratic Bahrain. This is the speech. He was arrested immediately after […]
It’s summer in Saudi and that means one thing: Saudi ‘foreign policy’, such as it is, is on hold. The Saudi foreign ministry amounts to the minister, Saud al-Faisal and … well, that’s about it. Except that the king appointed this week […]