Michael Hirsh, Newsweek, January 14: A day after George W. Bush gave his big democracy speech and declared the opening of “a great new era ”¦ founded on the equality of all people”—a line he delivered at the astonishingly opulent Emirates Palace hotel, where most of the $2,450-a-night suites are reserved for visiting royals—the president…
Showing all posts tagged Saudi Arabia
Freedom one step at a time
The Independent editorial, January 14: It is hardly a secret that the authoritarian regime of Saudi Arabia detains political prisoners. But the first arrest of a blogger in the kingdom has drawn an unusual amount of international attention. The Saudi government has even attracted some criticism from its long-standing ally, the United States. Fouad al-Farhan,…
A future without Israel?
A new documentary on PBS suggests that many young Americans Jews are turning away from Israel and obsessing over the Holocaust. Jonathan D. Sarna, Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, explains: Whatever the future portends, it seems clear that two of the grand themes that defined American Jewish identity in the late twentieth…
Why we blog
The ongoing imprisonment in Saudi Arabia of blogger Fouad al-Farhan continues to generate international headlines. My memories of him from 2007 remain positive. We demand his immediate release. Fellow Saudi blogger Saudi Jeans recalls the reasons why Fouad returned to blogging last year after some months away from the keyboard: Why Do We Blog? 1.…
Trampling on Saudi rights
During my recent trip to Saudi Arabia – to research information for my upcoming book on the internet in repressive regimes – I spent time with blogger and activist Fouad Al Farhan, a generous, critical and warm man. He’s now allegedly been arrested for daring to challenge the Washington-backed dictatorship: Saudi blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan was…
The private becomes the public
A fascinating insight into life in Saudi Arabia, as a Saudi wife shows us around her home:
Private time in Jeddah
Getting kinky in Saudi Arabia. Believe it. One blogger writes: Saudi for the most part has an image of being ultra conservative, an image that is rightly deserved in some areas. But when you actually live here and know what is going on, in secret and in open, you find out that people living in…
Honouring a tyrant
The Guardian, October 30: Diplomacy often calls for pretence and evasion to further the needs of nations but rarely in such public fashion as this week. The state visit to Britain by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is an expression of base politics and supposed mutual advantage, lacking the honour and glory that ought to…