Assad in the Ascendant?
Back in the glory days of the so-called “Arab Spring”, when Middle Eastern dictators were falling like ninepins, it seemed that the overthrow of Ben Ali of Tunisia, Mubarak of…
China Maneuverers Between Saudi Arabia and Iran
This week’s sanctioning of one of China’s largest telecom equipment manufacturers, ZTE, by the US Commerce Department, and an investigation of Huawei, ZTE’s foremost Chinese competitor, could not have come at a…
The state of Lebanon
Uniquely among the 50 Muslim-majority nations of the world, Lebanon has a Christian president. The inauguration of Michel Aoun on 1 November 2016 ended a 29-month power vacuum and a…
Traffic Laws in Saudi Arabia Between Infraction and Enforcement
Every year in Saudi Arabia, misery visits households across the land as the lives of approximately 7000 people are cut short as a result of traffic accidents. Some 39,000 more…
Saudi Celebrates Local Artists
The Kingdom has unveiled plans to showcase the arts and grow its media industry to counter negative stereotypes. The initiatives are part of the wide-ranging National Transformation Program 2020. “The intention…
What Happens When Arab Autocrats Left to Fend for Themselves?
It is a difficult task to explain everything about the Middle East in a short article. So what I am going to do is to present an important, yet sometimes provocative series of headlines…
Women Face Jail for Checking Husband’s Phone in Saudi Arabia
What about a man who beats his wife? What about a man who does not give his wife her rights? The law should do something about this too. Women in Saudi…
The Bin Ladens: A Saudi Bellwether
The layoffs followed last year’s collapse of a Bin Laden construction crane that killed 107 people and prompted the government to ban the brothers from travelling abroad as well as…
The Growing Breach in Muslim Unity: Causes & Effects (Part Two)
Winds of Regional Schism In mapping the Sunni-Shiite conflict we should differentiate between the Sunni-Shiite intra-state and inter-state conflicts. The first is focused in the Fertile Crescent even though it…
The Growing Breach in Muslim Unity: Causes & Effects (Part One)
Needless to say, the global Muslim community and its Weltanschauung stand at the Abyss, in which Muslims are steadily approaching threshold of unimaginable chaos. This poses a mammoth challenge of…