Questions have been raised as to whether Saudi Arabia’s status as top oil-producing country and trusted ally of the U.S. have kept the U.S. from condemning the overwhelmingly anti-democratic principles of Gulf kingdom. According to Le Monde Diplomatique (English), within the last year Saudi has “crushed democratic protests” in Bahrain, executed 76 people in 2011 (“including a woman accused of ‘sorcery’), threated to execute a blogger who engaged in an ...

On Thursday, the Center for National Policy hosted a panel discussing choices facing the international community and the implications of an ever increasingly violent conflict in Syria. Among the panelists were Middle East Project Director Mona Yacoubian, Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Arabiyya Hisham Melham, and Professor Daniel Serwer from Johns Hopkins University. The event was moderated by Bloomberg News correspondent Indira Lakshmana. For full event notes, continue reading below or click ...

FRIDE released a report this month discussing the role religion will play in the ongoing transitions to democracy across the MENA region. The report discussed the emergence of Islamist parties into the political sphere, some new and some established, and the implications of the ideologies on their political decisions. Religion has always been " a major force of Arab Politics." According to the report, the success of Islamist parties can be attributed to their ...

Late Tuesday, a Sunni youth group organized a rally of 20,000 people in central Manama protesting the dialogue between the regime and opposition parties. "How can there be a dialogue at this time?" questioned Khalid Bloashi, one of the groups organizers. "The priority is deterring vandalism that aims to blackmail the nation from foreign agendas...we will never accept backroom dialogue, so for how long with the state ignore us?" he said. The ...

Across the Middle East and North Africa, countries that escaped the sweeping revolutions of the Arab Spring are becoming increasingly sensitive to speech on social media sites and have been limiting other internet mediums. Iran has begun blocking access to Gmail and other sites in an attempt to increase its control of the internet. Previously, Iranian bloggers were able to circumvent the firewalls, but that has recently changed as Iran ...

On Monday, the U.N. General Assembly prepared to vote on a resolution, proposed by Saudi Arabia, endorsing the Arab League plan introduced by the 22-member states this past Sunday in Cairo. The Arab League introduced this document in hopes of ending the ongoing violence in Syria and ouster President Bashar Al-Assad. The resolution echoes the resolution that was vetoed at the U.N. Security Council and details alleged human rights violations perpetrated ...

On Thursday, Project on Middle East Democracy, in coordination with the National Security Network and the Foreign Policy Initiative, held a panel event titled The Unfinished February 14 Uprising: What Next for Bahrain? The event began with opening remarks from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) then moved onto a panel discussion. Panelists included Joost Hiltermann, deputy program director at the International Crisis Group, Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies ...

The Kellogg Institute for International Studies in association with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies released a report, “Transitions to Democracy and the Arab Spring: Does Latin America Hold Lessons for the Middle East,” that examines how insights from Latin America’s democratization experience may be relevant for the Middle East today. The symposium was divided into two panels: the first explored the domestic challenges to democratization in Latin America ...

Thomas Lippman, reporting for the New York Times, said, "Saudi women shatter the lingerie ceiling." The Ministry of Labor enforced a Saudi royal decree, issued last summer, mandating sales personnel in women's apparel and cosmetic shops to be female. Saudi Labour Minister, Adel Faqih, declared, "this is an order from the King ... All preparations are under way to fully implement this decision." The Ministry of Labor reported that more than 28,000 women ...

On Sunday, the Arab League released a proposal to Syrian Authorities following the end of the Arab League's month long observation mission last Thursday. The proposal, outlined by Qatari Foreign Minister Hamid Bin Jassima Al-Thani, called for President Bashar Al-Assad to concede power to his vice president who would then be responsible for forming a "national unity government" before upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. The proposal called for "dialogue with the ...