Sadly, over the past few decades, much of the heritage of the Arab world has come under threat or has been destroyed. During the 1990-1991 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, the National Museum was ransacked and looted. Even today, hundreds of treasures remain lost, possibly forever. Read more »
Al Monitor
Correcting misconceptions of the Gulf’s modern art movement
On Oct. 25, after a brief visit to the region, a Wall Street Journal writer declared, “The Arabic-speaking part of the Gulf has essentially no indigenous tradition of visual or plastic arts.” It isn’t the first time that the modern art movement in the Gulf was dismissed by those who don’t know better. In fact, modern art as defined in the West stretches back several decades across the Gulf with multiple generations of artists. Read more »
Thriving Gulf Cities Emerge as New Centers of Arab World
An old Arab saying goes, “Cairo writes, Beirut publishes and Baghdad reads.” These three capitals, along with Damascus, were long the hubs of culture and education in the Arab world. However, over the past few years, as these traditional Arab capitals became more embroiled in civil strife, a new set of cities started to emerge in the Gulf, establishing themselves as the new centers of the Arab world. Abu Dhabi, its sister emirates of Dubai and Sharjah and the Qatari capital, Doha, have developed as the nerve center of the contemporary Arab world. Read more »
Abu Dhabi’s Foreign Assistance Steals Spotlight
Although lost in the spotlight on Abu Dhabi’s foreign financial aid, historically the emirate has also been tremendously generous in its own backyard, where it counts the most. While attention is to be focused on Abu Dhabi’s aid to other states, its generosity to the other emirates of the federation is even larger and more noteworthy. Read more »
Gulf States Embrace Post-Brotherhood Egypt
The ousted Muslim Brotherhood’s mismanagement of Egypt extended into various fields, from the social to the political, but perhaps the area that concerns Egyptians the most is its bungling of the Egyptian economy. Prior to being elected, the Brotherhood repeatedly touted its so-called Renaissance Project for the development of Egypt. The plan, the result of years of studies Egyptians were told, was to be implemented in President Mohammed Morsi’s first 100 days. The plan, however, turned out to be nothing but electioneering rhetoric, with Morsi having “fulfilled only four of his 64 campaign promises,” according to one monitoring group. Read more »
Qatar’s Brotherhood Ties Alienate Fellow Gulf States
The Arab Gulf States may not admit it publicly, but a schism is slowly emerging between these countries in the wake of the rise of Islamist powers in the region. Qatar, on the one hand, has wholeheartedly endorsed the new Islamist powers of the Arab world in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood, while the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have been skeptical at best. Although disagreements concerning external relations have previously emerged within the Gulf Cooperation Council states — for instance, some states have stronger ties with Iran than others would like to see — this is the first time that a member state has allied itself closely with a party that another member state accuses of undermining its system of government. Read more »