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UPDATE 2/12/12 03:09ET: Hamza Kashgari has been deported to Saudi Arabia by Malaysian authorities, several news agencies reported . Malaysian human rights lawyers say they had a judge order to stop the deportation, but by the time they reached the airport the plane already took off. Hamza Kashgari , a young Saudi writer, caused a firestorm when he posted a series of tweets on the birthday of Prophet Mohammad last week. In his tweets, Kashgari imagined a conversation with the Prophet in which he said they are equal, and that although he admires many of the Prophet’s characteristics there are also others that he disliked. Saudi users on Twitter erupted with outrage, posting nearly 30,000 tweets on the topic in less than 24 hours.
Saudi Jeans
Marc Lynch
I am delighted to announce the official publication of my book The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East (PublicAffairs). The seeds of the book can be found in my very first response to the Tunisian protests, written on January 5, 2011 , which rooted them in the "wages of Arab decay" and predicted far more unrest to come . The Arab Uprising offers a necessarily preliminary but hopefully stimulating interpretation of the meaning of the uprisings, what they have accomplished, how they have reshaped power politics and political norms in the Middle East, and their implications for American foreign policy.
يتم تداول ملف الإصلاح السياسي في السعودية باستحياء منذ عقود في بعض صحفنا المحلية عبر أعمدة بعض الكتّاب، ويطرح بشكل صريح في الانترنت عبر المدونات والشبكات الاجتماعية كالفيسبوك وتويتر ويوتيوب، فضلاً عن مجالس المواطنين وملتقياتهم. أما غربياً، فلا يكاد يمر أسبوع إلّا ونجد بعض وسائل الإعلام الدولية ومراكز الدراسات والفكر تتطرق لهذا الموضوع. من الواضح أن توقعات بعض المحللين الغربيين والمحليين خلال الشهرين الماضية والتي كانت تقول بأن هناك قرارات إصلاحات سياسية قادمة، قد جانبت الصواب. بالنسبة لي كمواطن، لا أرى أي بوادر أو معالم في الأفق تدل على أننا سنشهد إصلاحات سياسية سعودية في الزمن القريب. بل أرى العكس هو الصحيح تماماً.
Al Farhan
Hala
This is a translated letter from the mother of the prisoner “Fahad Al-Saeed” to his royal highness, The Prince… I wondered once about the meaning of a homeland, about its mercy, its compassion for its children, Is it possible for a country to torture its children, to squash them, to steal the flower of their youth? Can a true country throw its children in the prison with indifference?!Prison, lashings and Interior Ministry phone threats, fines and pledges drove the women driving movement underground again. This time around though, unlike in 1990, it was only for a few months before Saudi rights activists geared up again to call for this basic right of no gender discriminations in who gets to drive their cars. A couple of days back, there were unconfirmed reports that the king has issued a decision to not prosecute women who drive in the general courts.
