It won’t come as a surprise to many to learn that the US presidential elections are a secondary and perhaps even a tertiary matter in the post uprising Arab world. For starters there’s a bloody civil war in Syria backed by Russia and Iran on one side and Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the other. The latter two states control and fund Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera respectively which dominate the Arab news airwaves and are busy actively marketing the agendas of the governments that fund them. But this does not mean the Arabs are uninterested in the outcome. Read more »
Open Democracy
The black swan of the Gulf
The military and security apparatuses of these Gulf states plays a role in keeping the peace, but the best way forward is to build a civil society that is bound by a unifying mechanism such as a functioning, representative, elected parliament. Read more »
Jassim Buhejji, a life for Bahrain
The Bahraini activist Jassim Buhejji was a quiet figure who nonetheless played a formative role in sustaining the best of his country’s political traditions. Jassim Buhejji’s passing comes at another time of trial for Bahrain. The island is today in need of such level-headed voices that identify themselves as members of an inclusive nation rather than according to sect. Read more »
After 9/11: a painful lesson
Osama bin Laden himself died at the hands of an elite US force in May 2011. But in a deeper way, the blow had already been inflicted by the inspiring protesters of Avenue Bourguiba in Tunis, Tahrir Square in Cairo, Taghyeer Square in Sana’a, and elsewhere in the Arab world in 2010-11. Not one of the brave Arabs who rallied against the status quo in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Libya and elsewhere sought a replacement inspired by the likes of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Their dignified and almost wholly non-violent struggle has at last brought hope of ending that self-sustaining cycle. Read more »
The Arab spring: protest, power, prospect
What is the “Arab spring” becoming? After three months of upheaval, repression and conflict, the democracy wave in the region, including Iran, is at a crucial stage. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi comments. Read more »
Egypt: from revolt to change
A single incident that took place in the Egyptian city of city of Alexandria on 6 June 2010 anticipates the wave of protest in the country that was to explode in January-February 2011. It involved the arrest of 28-year-old Khaled Saeed, who was detained on his way to visit an internet café in the Sidi Gaber district. Read more »