MUST-READS

• Saudi-India
  Saudi Arabia an ‘important pillar of India’s energy security’

  Answering questions from Saudi Gazette, Dharmendra Pradhan, Indian minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, who arrived in Riyadh on Monday for a three-day official visit for the second round of Saudi Arabia, India Energy Consultations, said the Kingdom is an important pillar of India’s energy security.

• Practicing Islam in Saudi Arabia
  Questioning the Faith in the Cradle of Islam

  Several forces are propelling the diverse changes in Saudi Arabia's religious landscape. Most important is the imminent passage of members of Saudi Arabia's largest-ever "youth bulge" into their early 20s. Youths between 15 and 24 years old make up around 17 percent of Saudi Arabia's 27 million people, and they have far more questions about their faith than their elders did.

  Saudi Arabia's isolation from regional and global trends has also been demolished by satellite television, the Internet, and the experiences of more than 150,000 Saudis sent abroad for studies on government scholarships. As a result, Saudis have greater access to religious information than ever before -- particularly about how Islam is practiced elsewhere.

• U.S. Middle East Policy
  Opinion: The Collapse of Order in the Middle East

  The rise of Da`ish is a consequence of anarchy brought on by Western attempts at regime change, but it is ultimately a deviant cult within Islam. Its immediate objective is to destroy the existing order in the Muslim world in the name of Islam. Its doctrines cannot be credibly rebutted by non-Muslims. The threat it poses requires a Muslim-led politico-military response. A US-dominated bombing campaign with token allied participation cannot kill it. The United States is well supplied with F-15s, 16s, and drones, but it lacks the religious credentials to refute Da`ish as a moral perversion of Islam. Arab air forces are helpful. Arab religious engagement and moral leadership are essential to contain and defeat Da`ish.

• Faith and Terrorism
  Opinion: How strong is link between faith, terrorism?

  The notion that there is a one-to-one correlation between religious beliefs and behavior may seem obvious and self-evident to those unfamiliar with the study of religion. But it has been repeatedly debunked by social scientists who note that "beliefs do not causally explain behavior" and that behavior is in fact the result of complex interplay among a host of social, political, cultural, ethical, emotional, and yes, religious factors.

  • Lawfare Blog - The Sectarian Apocalypse
• American Muslims
  9 Famous Americans You Probably Didn’t Know Were Muslim

  Still, there are more than 2.5 million American Muslims, making it the third-largest religion in the US. While Muslims account for just 0.8% of the population, they have faced rising discrimination and prejudice since the 9/11 attacks 13 years ago. With the rise of groups like the Islamic State now seeking to promote their brand of violent extremism, that may be unlikely to end anytime soon. A recent poll reported that 62% of American's didn't personally know a Muslim, so here's a list of 9 Muslim Americans you probably will know.

• Foreign Aid
  Why Egypt, of all places, is keeping a wary eye on falling oil prices.

  The budget impacts of falling oil prices could percolate down to countries that don't even export the stuff. Belt-tightening in petrostates, in other words, could curtail the generous foreign assistance that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others have showered on Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco to keep their economies afloat and stave off the specter of unfriendly governments steeped in Islamist ideology.

• Iran Negotiations
  Endgame for Iran nuclear talks

  US officials, while not confirming the reports, have recently said there are multiple combinations of ways that Iran’s breakout time could be extended, and the focus should not only be on the centrifuge numbers in a deal. The goal, US officials said, should be a deal that closes off all possible pathways for Iran to make fissile material for a nuclear weapon, either through producing weapons-grade uranium, plutonium or through a covert facility. “We’re trying to shut down the four pathways to get enough nuclear material for a nuclear weapon,” a US official told journalists in Vienna Oct. 15. “There are a lot of ways you can do that. There’s no one right answer.”

• GCC Economies
  IMF Retains GCC Growth Forecast But Warns Of Weak Fiscal Balance

  But despite a favourable economic outlook, the IMF warned of weakening fiscal balances across GCC countries and the wider region, urging nations to address these risks. “Fiscal balances are forecast to deteriorate. Notably, Saudi Arabia is expected to run a central government fiscal deficit as early as 2015,” the report said. “In aggregate, after reaching a peak of 7.75 per cent of GDP in 2012, the oil exporters’ fiscal surplus is expected to be only 1.25 per cent in 2015 and to vanish by 2017.

• Drone Proliferation
  Look Who Else Has Drones: ISIS and Al Nusra

  In late August, ISIS released a 14-minute video of the preparation, planning, and execution of an assault on a Syrian military base in the northern part of the country. The video, entitled in English, “Disperse Those Who are Behind Them,” is like many jihadist propaganda videos: it begins with a long segment of Quranic verses that are meant to justify the attack, shows militants examining a map of the region, and contains gruesome battle scenes, including two beheadings. However, the video is of special note for one reason: ISIS employs a drone for aerial surveillance of the base.

• Mideast Stock Markets
  Markets recover further, Saudi up despite SABIC’s Q3 miss

  Saudi Arabia's index rose 1.5 percent even as shares in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the Gulf's largest listed company, fell on disappointing third-quarter results.

• 10 of 60192 results<< 1 … 5,868 5,869 5,870 … 6,020 >>