Saudi Arabia

Cockburn’s 160 pages are an introduction to the rapid rise of Islamic State (IS) across Iraq and Syria. Recycling material from articles in the Independent and London Review of Books Cockburn charts how Islamists from various groups came to dominate the Syrian rebellion after 2012 and changed it from one of predominantly secular and democratic opposition to the ultra-conservative. In which Saudi Wahhabism and Saudi and Gulf state funding played a big role. Cockburn argues here, as he has in the past, the invasion of Iraq created a sectarian war between Shia and Sunni. Subsequently a US-backed...

Bitter Lake is a highly unconventional documentary, in equal parts haunting, chilling and moving. Like some of Adam Curtis’ earlier pieces, narration is kept to a minimum — quite fitting, considering the touching meta-narrative it tells. At over two hours long, it is like falling down the rabbit hole. Bitter Lake is titled after the one-time meeting place of President Roosevelt and the Saudi royalty. Curtis painstakingly puts together an array of scenes like a jigsaw puzzle, to create the story of our lives, with all of modern western civilisation and global socio-economic geo-politics as its...

8,000 contract construction workers struck in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday 27 January. The workers, contracted by the Ministry of Finance and working on building projects including the King Abdullah Financial Centre in Al Aqeeq, were demanding backpay. Some workers said that they were owed wages up to five months in arrears. Strikers held a four-hour sit-down in the Al-Aqeeq district of Riyadh. They were also angry at rumours that their contractors planned to demand the SAR2,400 ($639) “expatriate fee”, which contractors are obliged to pay for every foreign worker they employ...

On 12 February, Malaysian police deported 23 year old Saudi columnist Hamza Kashgari, who fled Saudi Arabia after making comments on Twitter claimed by some to be “insulting” to the prophet Muhammad. There have been widespread calls from Islamists for his execution — and in Saudi Arabia, blasphemy is punishable by death. Theocratic regimes like Saudi Arabia will not tolerate the most basic freedom of thought and expression. We defend the right of everyone in the world to freely express their views, including to criticise religion. We condemn the Malaysian government for handing over Kashgari...

According to the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) seven majority Muslim countries still maintain the death penalty for homosexual activity. They are Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen. In northern Nigeria, where some states use Sharia law, homosexuality is also punishable by death. In Iran gay men are normally arrested under other trumped up charges. But in September 2011 three men were executed for homosexuality. And when execution is not used other brutality can be. In 2010 a Saudi man was sentenced to 500 lashes and five years in jail for...

The unstable stand-off between the Sunni Muslim monarchy and mainly Shia opposition demonstrators in Bahrain broke down over last weekend. The mass protest movement demanding democratic reforms erupted over a month ago. Alarmed, the state backed off — temporarily — following the killing of seven protesters in a failed clampdown. On Sunday thousands of protesters attempted to enter the financial area of the capital, Manama. The police reacted with great violence, shooting with rubber bullets, tear gas and live rounds. There was also fighting at the University of Bahrain in the southern city of...

The Tunisian Ministry of Defence has asked all reservists to report to barracks from 16 February. That may indicate a crackdown against the bubbling workers’ movement is being prepared by the transitional government. In Tunisia, class struggle is continuing. Strikes and protests are breaking out in many different sectors of the economy as groups of workers take advantage of the relative political freedoms. On 13 February, the new Tunisian foreign minister, Ahmed Ounaies, resigned following strikes by workers in the ministry. The strikes were sparked by Ounais’ complimentary remarks about the...

Yahya Al-Faifi was persecuted for organising a trade union at BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia, a state where all serious oppositionists are rounded up, tortured, imprisoned and denied a fair trial. Very few people have dared organise trade unions in Saudi Arabia. Yahya Al-Faifi is an exceptionally courageous man. Yahya Al-Faifi was forced to flee to Britain in 2004 with some of his family. He settled in south Wales and continued his union work with the Communications Workers Union. He has continued to highlight the oppression trade unionists face in Saudi Arabia. He now faces deportation from the...

Yayha al Faifi fled Saudi Arabia in 2002 after he was sacked from his job with British Aerospace for trying to organise a workers' meeting to discuss new contracts. He has continued the struggle for workers' rights in Saudi Arabia ever since. Sacha Ismail spoke to him at a Socialist Youth Network demonstration coinciding with the state visit of Saudi King Abdullah. Can you tell us about your campaigning? I have continued to campaign peacefully for workers' rights. What Saudi workers want is the right to negotiate - but the regime will not even grant this. They have no interest whatsoever in...