BOOK REVIEW Dr. Davidson’s brilliant and brave “After the Sheikhs” provides Middle East studies with a valuable overview of the gathering crisis in the region, and is a valuable counter-narrative to the “nothing to see, move on now” narrative being promoted by vested interests and an academe that ought to know better. After Bahrain, the … Continue reading »
Tagged with FCO in Bahrain …
Open Letter to UK FCO Minister Lord Howell on Bahrain and the “Arab Spring”
Saturday, 18th August 2012 Dear Lord Howell, In the light of last week’s jailing of Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, and last nights killing of 16 year-old protester Hussam Al Haddad, I write to you to request clarification of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office position on Bahrain the “Arab Spring”. In particular, I request … Continue reading »
John Yates: policing Arab apartheid
After a Bahraini Kristallnacht: is outside intervention the only solution?
Mahmood Al Yousif reports worsening civil strife in his blog: http://mahmood.tv/2012/04/11/hmmm-i-smell-even-worse-civil-strife-coming-up/ Last night baying sectarian mobs of so-called “loyalists” damaged Shia-owned cars and shops, chanting sectarian slogans while the police stand by: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrC8K5z79w&feature=player_embedded These slogans include calling the Shia “rawafi9′” (refusers), ibna2 l-muta3a” (children of pleasure-marriage). Later, Shia-owned shops were ransacked: I see disturbing echoes of … Continue reading »
Open Letter to King Hamad: Al Khawaja’s death would be a stain on Bahrain; please add your signature!
An open letter to King Hamad signed by Lord Avebury, British MPs, human rights organisations, and academics with expertise in the Middle East, including myself. This will be handed in to the Bahrain embassy in London at the end of the working day on Tuesday 10th April. Anyone wishing to add a signature can do … Continue reading »
Hard Lessons in Bahrain: Mike Diboll in the Chronicle of Higher Education
My article on my experiences in Bahrain education reform, culminating with the events of 13th March 2011, has just been published on line and in print in the Review section of the Washington DC-based Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle is the world’s leading news medium for higher education. Utne described the award-winning Chronicle Review as ”a fearless, free-thinking section … Continue reading »
A General Amnesty for 13th March 2011: a way forward for Bahrain higher education?
Monday 19th March 2012 sees the resumption of the retrial of the University of Bahrain students sentenced to prison terms of up to 15 years for alleged crimes in relation to the 13th March 2011 incident. These young men must be freed if meaningful higher education has a future in Bahrain. This post suggests a … Continue reading »
A Return to the Dichotomous East-West Worldviews of the Cold War?: Russian perspective on Bahrain
With all it implies for access to accurate information, are we seeing a new Cold War, with on one side the (English-speaking) West and their proxies in the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere, on the other side Russia, China, and the other emerging powers of Asia, Africa and Latin America? Just as the Western media … Continue reading »
Bahrain’s internal coup, Iain Lindsay out of his depth
Two items from today’s English language propaganda sheet the Gulf Daily News. The first is today’s front page story, about spending cuts in Bahrain: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=324292 Unelected Khalifa Al Khalifa, at 41 years in office the world’s longest-serving prime minister, apparently “issued directives to downsize official delegations for events which do not require high-level participation”. The high-level meeting … Continue reading »
Hamad in Spiegel: floundering, out of his depth, in denial.
Today’s interview with Bahrain’s King Hamad Al Khalifa in German magazine Speigel reveals a man floundering out of his depth. A bit of a PR disaster, really: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,814915,00.html On the eve of the first anniversary of Bahrain’s Revolution of Dignity, Hamad’s statement ‘there is no “opposition” in Bahrain’ show a man deeply in denia. One … Continue reading »
