By Nathan French, Miami University | – (The Conversation) – The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, or “MBS,” is bringing a new vision of a “moderate, balanced” Saudi Islam by minimizing the role of Saudi religious institutions once seen as critical to the monarchy. For decades, Saudi kings provided support to religious […]
- Africa (233)
- Animals (1)
- Asia (1,215)
- Australasia (8)
- Australia (24)
- Authoritarianism (382)
- Canada (5)
- Cats (1)
- Celtic Religion (1)
- Culture (509)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (319)
- Dissent (416)
- Ecology (1)
- Economy (1,011)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (48)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (15)
- Industry (4)
- Inequality (416)
- Inflation (4)
- infrastructure (10)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (197)
- Plutocracy (607)
- Poverty (201)
- Regulation (2)
- Sanctions (4)
- Taxes (36)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (113)
- Weapons sales (6)
- Education (121)
- Elderly (3)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Energy (1,688)
- Batteries (47)
- Coal (137)
- Fossil Fuels (317)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (407)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (5)
- Hydroelectric (13)
- Natural Gas (106)
- Nuclear Energy (156)
- Petroleum (296)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (394)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (328)
- Environment (2,572)
- Climate Change (1,527)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (24)
- Biodiversity (12)
- Climate Refugees (2)
- CO2 (108)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (145)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (158)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Weather (293)
- Flooding (131)
- Food Supply (1)
- Forests (17)
- Green New Deal (39)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (60)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (11)
- Sea Level (332)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (249)
- wildfires (229)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,224)
- Drought (284)
- Ecology (9)
- Environmentalism (391)
- Green Transportation (249)
- Ice Melt (130)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (98)
- Oil Spills (7)
- Pollution (226)
- Water (92)
- wildlife (19)
- Climate Change (1,527)
- Europe (1,324)
- Featured (3,818)
- fiction (5)
- Food (13)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Health (653)
- History (339)
- Human Rights (1,365)
- Apartheid (255)
- censorship (274)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (549)
- Food Insecurity (5)
- Gay rights (28)
- Genocide (17)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Migrants (4)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Torture (96)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (99)
- Unlwful Killing (74)
- War Crimes (352)
- War Rape (7)
- Immigration (20)
- International (786)
- Islamophobia (373)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (97)
- Latinos (4)
- leisure (21)
- media (466)
- Middle East (9,158)
- Arab World (5,128)
- Iran (1,267)
- Israel (860)
- Israel/ Palestine (2,969)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (289)
- Turkey (573)
- Turkiye (99)
- military (123)
- Modernism (3)
- nationalism (115)
- NATO (36)
- Natural Disasters (13)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- nuclear weapons (102)
- Patriarchy (10)
- Peace (132)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Pete Buttigieg (1)
- Planetary Exploration (1)
- Popular Culture (24)
- Poverty (12)
- privacy (21)
- racism (461)
- Rape (8)
- religion (1,450)
- Rights (139)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (145)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Sexual Assault (2)
- South Pacific (2)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (278)
- Terrorism (1,086)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,075)
- United Nations (130)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,248)
- US politics (5,191)
- Anti-War Movement (12)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (21)
- Central Intelligence Agency (62)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (76)
- Conspiracy Theories (21)
- Constitution (394)
- Courts (11)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (925)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (123)
- Ethnicities (377)
- Far Right (381)
- FBI (47)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (94)
- Immigration (234)
- Israel Lobbies (121)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (271)
- National Security State (471)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (554)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (8)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (12)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (66)
- Republican Party (2,904)
- Supreme Court (123)
- Voter suppression (35)
- Whistleblowers (5)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (487)
- White Supremacists (223)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (548)
- workers (230)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (207)
Wahhabis
Saudi Arabia Executes Two Shia Bahrainis on Terrorism Charges in “Grossly Unfair” Trial
By Leila Saad | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – Two Bahraini Shi’a men have been executed in Saudi Arabia following what Amnesty International described as a “grossly unfair trial” on terrorism-related charges. Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer were arrested in May 2015 and held incommunicado for more than three months, according to Amnesty International. […]
Why Most Muslims Celebrate Mawlid, the Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday, despite Wahhabi Disapproval
By Deina Abdelkader, UMass Lowell | – (The Conversation) – Most Muslims celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad on the 12th day of the third month of the Islamic calendar, Rabi’ al-awaal – which starts on the evening of Oct. 7 in 2022. Muslims view the celebration, called Mawlid al-Nabi or simply the Mawlid, […]
Ultimate Hypocrisy: Saudi Crown Prince touts Religious Tolerance in NYC
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s charm offensive in New York allegedly involved meeting Oprah Winfrey, which may be the only canny thing I’ve ever heard of him doing. He also had some religious leaders over to his condominium in NYC to stress the importance of […]
Lebanon PM Hariri Resigns in fear for Life, Slamming Iran
Long known for Saudi Ties, Hariri Accuses Tehran of trying to Destroy Arab World
Top 7 ways Saudi could learn from Qatar about Moderate Islam
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman has announced that he wants to take his kingdom toward a more moderate Islam. The state religion of Saudi Arabia is what outsiders call Wahhabism, a puritanical and strident interpretation of the religion. Only about 40% of Saudis are thought […]
Saudi Arabia: Official Hate Speech Targets Minorities
Shiites, others, demonized by official clerics
The top 4 Challenges facing the Arab World
By Tarek Osman | (Project Syndicate) | – – LONDON – Fifty years after the Six Days War, the Middle East remains a region in seemingly perpetual crisis. So it is no surprise that, when addressing the region, politicians, diplomats, and the donor and humanitarian community typically focus on the here and now. Yet, if […]
Execution-Crazy Saudi Gov’t railroads 14 Shiite Dissidents with unfair Death Penalty
Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Saudi Arabia should immediately quash the death sentences of 14 members of the Shia community for protest-related crimes, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The Court of Appeal of the notorious Specialized Criminal Court upheld the sentences in May 2017, after they were handed down […]