The Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) hopes to achieve a monetary union, with a common currency, by 2010. Bloggers from the region, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, debate the merits of the union and more importantly what name they want for their new curren...

I have been conflicted with the administration’s plans to open talks with Iran. I am well aware Iran could be just playing team Obama as dupes, buying time to obtain nuclear weapons so they can roll the world on their terms. I am also aware of the fact we cannot negotiate alternative scenarios...

In light of the ongoing tensions between the Bahraini government and the disenfranchised Shia majority, the government has decided to take the highroad. And by highroad I mean, increasing internet censorship. It looks like Bahrain is working hard to join the 15 "enemies of the internet". You know yo...

While Brian Thompson battles way in Vendee Globe his wife Nathalie explains that it is not plain sailing for those back home....

Several people allegedly planning to detonate homemade bombs during Bahrain’s national celebrations have been arrested, security officials say. According to media reports from the Gulf state, the attacks were planned to take place on the anniversary of the king’s coronation. It is not cl...

Early this evening I went to a panel on "Negotiating Community in the Arab Persian Gulf" which featured Fahad Bishara from Duke, Farah al-Nakib of London's School for Oriental and African Studies, UCLA'a Laith Ulaby, Leila De Vriese of Hamline University, and a chair/discussant whose name I did not ...

So some Arab sheikh spend a fortune trying to figure out what the fuck is wrong with Michael Jackson. According to the NY Daily News: A sheikh subsidizing Michael Jackson spent almost $350,000 on a brain-power guru to help the singer’s creative juices flow. “Mind-mapping and motivational...

Michael Jackson’s friendships always fail - usually they’re soured by an unproved accusation of molestation or something. But at other times Michael Jackson falls out with people because he goes to live with them and then doesn’t pay his way. That’s the case with Sheikh Abdul...

On a recent visit to the United States King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa of Bahrain extended a warm invitation to any expartiate Bahraini Jew to return to the Arab kingdom . The invitation was made in... Come and see the Kashmiri Nomad's opinions on Islam and the West...

While it does deprive folks of a rhetorical point with regard to the oft forgotten Jewish refugees who had flee from their middle east homes when Israel was established, this little blurb buried in this already good news made me smile: The Bahraini king’s decision comes amidst talk to grant “ful...