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Keywords: Saudi Arabia

  • AUSTRALIA

    How not to have a revolution

    • Justin Whelan
    • 23 August 2012
    6 Comments

    Syria was touted as an example of the limits of nonviolent struggle against a ruthless dictator. Now it is fast becoming a case study on the even greater strategic weaknesses of violence. As the nonviolent movement came under sustained repression, some people decided to take up arms, and opened a Pandora's Box.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What's the point of the Olympics?

    • Fatima Measham
    • 01 August 2012
    16 Comments

    The games are an escapist spectacle, where the flags of Iran, Palestine and Syria flutter without irony alongside those of the US, Israel and Turkey, and delegates from Spain and Greece wave as if their nation's economies have not fractured the Eurozone. The dissonance between the games and reality has become hard to ignore.

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  • MEDIA

    Syria's hopeless democracy dream

    • Ruby Hamad
    • 14 October 2011
    8 Comments

    My family belongs to the same Alawite religious minority as beleagured Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. There are great and legitimate fears that Assad's downfall will result, not in democracy, but in civil war and large-scale massacres of minorities, including the Alawites.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sects and power in the Arab revolution

    • Shahram Akbarzadeh
    • 07 September 2011
    4 Comments

    The unfolding events in the Arab world are not simply about finding a path to democracy and political openness, but a maze of sectarian tensions and regional power-plays. There is widespread consensus that the opening up of the political space will benefit Islamist forces.

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  • RELIGION

    Islam in denial over burqas

    • Muhammad Izhar ul Haq
    • 07 June 2011
    16 Comments

    Everything Western nations do is analysed by the Muslim world in the light of 'conspiracy theories'. Fanatics present the French burqa ban as a reflection of anti Islamic sentiment. In fact millions of Muslim women in France and elsewhere do not cover their faces.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Quitting Afghanistan cold turkey

    • Shahram Akbarzadeh
    • 25 May 2011
    7 Comments

    President Obama appears to have given in to domestic pressure for prompt withdrawal from Afghanistan. But a complete withdrawal could have major ramifications for the region and ultimately for US interests.

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  • RELIGION

    In bed with Fred Nile

    • Irfan Yusuf
    • 27 February 2011
    26 Comments

    In the past, Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile saw conservative Muslims as allies. Now he, like the Australian Christian Lobby, prefers to play sectarian wedge politics. Most homophobic Muslims would rather stay silent on gay marriage than support sectarian bigots.

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  • RELIGION

    Christmas in Islam

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 20 December 2010
    13 Comments

    The Gospels describe Christmas as a time of great happiness that a saviour has been born. But they also intimate the murderous business through which salvation will come. This Christmas many Christians in Muslim nations will be shadowed by fear.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Reviving climate hope

    • Tony Kevin
    • 21 June 2010
    9 Comments

    The new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres is well qualified to help heal the wounds of Copenhagen. If the West can learn the lessons of those failed talks and move forward with modesty, flexibility and sensitivity, we may hope for progress.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Politicising women's bodies

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 06 May 2010
    36 Comments

    What's the difference between wanting a thin wife and wanting an invisible wife? Which is more democratic: the western tendency to idealise the porn-star aesthetic, or the old-fashioned imperative for modesty and virtue? When the chips are down, is raunch culture really more dignifying than discretion?

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  • MEDIA

    St Mary's a metaphor for blogger power

    • John Cokley
    • 22 May 2009
    6 Comments

    Bloggers are being hunted and jailed in countries such as Burma and Iran. In Western nations they are incurring the wrath of disgruntled mainstream journalists. The plight of St Mary's South Brisbane holds a useful metaphor for this crusade on free speech.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Indonesia veering towards extremism

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 07 April 2009
    9 Comments

    This week's Indonesian presidential election ought to concern Australians more than it does. If Muslim radicals gain significant influence, we will have a huge hostile neighbour just to our north.

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