MUST-READS

• Islamic Finance
  Saudi Arabia Said to Weigh Opening Nation’s Debt Markets

  Saudi Arabia is working on new rules aimed at promoting the local currency bond and sukuk market, three people with knowledge of the matter said today. The rules are expected to allow foreign investors to buy local currency bonds for the first time and could be published early next year, they said.

• Saudi Arabia seizes $500 million worth of narcotics

  Speaking at a news conference, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said among the substances seized were 7.32 kilograms of unprocessed heroine, 5.84 kilograms of processed heroine, 16.37 tons of marijuana and more than 21 million amphetamine capsules. He said the crackdown over the six-month period saw the arrest of more than 1,100 suspects, 741 of whom are residents from 35 countries.

• Business Outlook
  Saudi Arabia, UAE lead best business outlook in emerging markets

  Increasing external and domestic demand has led to the high PMI levels, with growth in new export orders hitting a record high and credit growth picking up for the first time in the last five years. Although the recent improvement in global economic conditions has reinforced the Saudi Arabian and the UAE economies, their domestic sectors are playing a major role behind the countries’ stabilities, both consumer and corporate led.

• Counter-Terrorism
  Here’s What Often Happens After You Kill a Terrorist Leader

  The efficacy of removing terrorist leaders depends in part on the nature of the group targeted. In her 2008 book How Terrorism Ends, Audrey Kurth Cronin of George Mason University identified leadership decapitation as one of several factors that have historically been involved, sometimes in combination, in the demise of terrorist organizations—with negotiations, loss of popular support, and repression among the others. “Those that have ended through decapitation,” she has written, “have tended to be hierarchically structured, young, characterized by a cult of personality, and lacking a viable successor.” In her own study, Jordan found that religious organizations “are highly resistant to leadership decapitation.”

  • Long War Journal - Shabaab names new emir, reaffirms allegiance to al Qaeda
• Qatar
  Qatar’s Support of Extremists Alienates Allies Near and Far

  Standing at the front of a conference hall in Doha, the visiting sheikh told his audience of wealthy Qataris that to help the battered residents of Syria, they should not bother with donations to humanitarian programs or the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.

• Extremism
  Saudi public calls for severe punishment of extremists

  It is very sad that the people who are the right image of Saudi Arabia are not recognized and have to endure such uncivilized behavior from the fanatics who have no right to be in positions that allow them to harass citizens and expatriates.

• Jordan
  Jordanian filmmaker wins award for best director at Venice film festival

  Naji Abu Nowar, a Jordanian filmmaker, won the Orizzonti Award for Best Director at the 71st Venice Film Festival

• Egypt
  Egyptians take to Twitter to trash ‘chat is sinful’ fatwa

  The edict prohibits “electronic conversations between the sexes on social media, except when necessary.”

• Construction
  Saudi Arabia to award $55bn contracts in 2014

  Saudi Arabia is set to remain the Middle East’s largest projects market for the foreseeable future as the Kingdom focuses on job creation and the diversification of its economy. In 2014, it is forecasted to award $55 billion worth of contracts, comfortably ahead of the UAE, the region’s second largest market.

• Saudi Economy
  Analysis | Saudi Economy – Jadwa Chartbook – September 2014

  Economic data for July was strong with the non-oil PMI expanding at the fastest rate since September 2012. Consumer spending also remained robust. Cement production and sales declined on the back of seasonal trends, but also due to changes in labor market.

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