Qatar situation

The digital element of this current dispute is significant, especially in relation to this blog. A variety of opinions are available:

BBC News, Qatar row: Six countries cut links with Doha

Middle East Eye, Three potential motives behind the spat between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours "It's clear that the hacking of Qatar's news agency last month was a premeditated assault. Here's why it happened - and why now."

 Middle East Eye, Qatar hits back as Saudi, Egypt, UAE cut diplomatic, transport ties "Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain cut their ties with Qatar and expelled the Gulf state from the coalition fighting the war in Yemen, accusing it of supporting terrorism. It opens up the worst rift in years among some of the most powerful states in the Arab world."

Arab News,  Bahrain, KSA, Egypt and UAE cut diplomatic ties with Qatar

Al Jazeera,  Inside Story: What's behind recent media attacks against Qatar?

Bahrain

CBC, Canadian company helped Bahrain block opposition, anti-Islam websites, says report Allegations: "Canadian technology company Netsweeper helped the Bahraini government block opposition party websites, various news websites and content critical of Islam, according to a new report by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs." Report link here: Citizen Lab, Tender Confirmed, Rights At Risk: Verifying Netsweeper in Bahrain

'Bearing Witness to the Rise of ISIS: The Story of Anna Therese Day'

Gail Sheehy, jezebel.com, Bearing Witness to the Rise of ISIS: The Story of Anna Therese Day, 25 Feb 2016 "As unlikely as it may seem, the story of Anna Day, an intrepid and slight blonde twentysomething from Idaho with a name like a Beatles song, is entangled with the saga of how peaceful political change sought by young Arab activists collapsed against the genocidal appeal of the ISIS narrative."

International Islamic Conference on Prophetic Sunnah

Bahrain News Agency, International Islamic Conference on Prophetic Sunnah urges the UN to enact laws which incriminate the desecration of religions, 13 Jan 2013 "The conference recommended the creation of effective, qualified internet websites in order to introduce the prophetic story and to instill the love of the prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in children and to educate them on Islamic ethics and proposed the creation of a specialized international academy in order to spread prophetic guidance and to respond to misunderstandings and to train teachers in order to teach the prophet's story through modern and attractive teaching methodology."

Nabeel Rajab: imprisoned for tweets

Nabeel Rajab: imprisoned for tweets, paying the price for the struggle for freedom « Bahrain Coordinating Committee:

'Angryarabiya' arrest

byshr.org, Bahrain: Arrest of Prominent Cyber Activist due to a Demonstration Against the Formula One and Human Rights Violations "Ms. Zaynab Alkhawaja – a 27 years old Cyber Activist, better known as Angryarabiya on twitter.She was arrested yesterday (April 21, 2012) after Sit in the middle of the road which leads to the Circuit Bahrain Formula One."

Bahrain sentences

Tanya Nolan, ABC, Bahraini activists sentenced to life in prison, 23 Jun 2011 "Eight Bahraini activists have been handed life sentences for their roles in the March uprisings against the regime. The Bahraini regime brought in troops from neighbouring Gulf States to quell the month-long uprisings that coincided with the Arab Spring protests." Others were also sentenced.

Reporters Without Borders, One blogger sentenced to life imprisonment, another to 15 years in jail "Reporters Without Borders is shocked by the long jail sentences that a military court passed today on 21 activists accused of belonging to terrorist organizations and trying to overthrow the government. Eight of them, including human rights activist and blogger Abduljalil Al-Singace, got life sentences. Thirteen others received sentences ranging from two to 15 years in prison. Ali Abdulemam, a blogger who was tried in absentia, was given 15 years."

Guardian, Bahrain rights activists jailed for life, 23 Jun 2011 "Hopes of dialogue between Bahrain's Sunni leaders and the country's restive Shia majority have been dashed when 21 civilian activists were given lengthy prison sentences as a crackdown against protesters continues unabated."

Twitter arrests

Arab Times, Bahrain royal sues a Kuwaiti man for twitter comments, 12 Jun 2011 "A member of the Bahraini ruling family Sheikh Abdullah Mohammad bin Ahmad Al-Fatih Al-Khalifa has announced that he is suing a Kuwaiti man, Nasser Abul, for slandering and defaming his family. Abul allegedly posted unflattering remarks about the Bahraini ruling family on his Twitter homepage."

TG Daily, Kuwaiti man arrested for anti-Saudi tweets

Bahrain: analysis

Patrick Cockburn, Independent, Bahrain escapes censure by West as crackdown on protesters intensifies, 19 Apr 2011

"The harshness of the government repression is provoking allegations of hypocrisy against Washington, London and Paris. Their mild response to human rights abuses and the Saudi Arabian armed intervention in Bahrain is in stark contrast to their vocal concern for civilians in Libya."

As always, Patrick Cockburn is well worth reading in this article.

Bahrain

BBC, Bahrain unrest: Manama erupts in violence, 13 Mar 2011 also check #bahrain for views on all sides.

Bahrain protests - 22 Feb 2011 YouTube

'New shocking video of Bahrain Army shooting protesters with automatic guns'

Internet use disrupted in Bahrain tests turn bloody

Internet use disrupted in Bahrain as protests turn bloody, The Register, 18 Feb 2011 "Internet traffic in and out of Bahrain showed a marked decline that coincided almost precisely with this week's start of citizen protests demanding government reforms in the small Persian Gulf country."

#Bahrain

Twitter #Bahrain

see New Yorker, Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain by Jacqwi Campbell for the slide show.

Also BBC News, Bahrain protests: Anti-government campaign gathers pace, 16 Feb 2011

Mahmood's Den, 'The People Want to Overthrow the Regime offers an extensive commentary, and numerous photos.

Bahrain protests - 'We are all Ali Abdulhadi Mushamai'

guardian.co.uk, Unrest in the Middle East - live updates : "A Facebook tribute group, modelling on a similar group in Egypt, has been set up for the protester killed in Bahrain yesterday.

"'We are all Ali Abdulhadi Mushamai' deliberately echoes Egypt's 'We are all Khaled Said' the group set up by Google executive and activist Wael Ghonim.""

World Leaders Twitter Mubarak Reaction

NYTimes.com, Many World Leaders Turn to Twitter for Mubarak Reaction, 11 Feb 2011: "“Egypt takes the Arab world into a new era. Let’s make it a better one,” Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, wrote on the social networking site. The minister appeared to have been following developments on Twitter, where he reacted swiftly, reposting and agreeing with a statement by a Dubai writer that a “strong powerful innovative Egypt is good for us all.”"

Government bloggers

Ahmed Shaaban, khaleejtimes.com, Government blogging still short of systematisation, 10 June 2010

"The Arab countries, particularly the UAE and Bahrain, have presented leading examples of government blogging, yet all still lack systematisation, according to senior official here.

"“The Bahraini e-government has created a blog where it more effectively interacted with the public and led to an informed decision making process based on the comments, feedback and information received and collected from residents,” said Dr Basem Shahin, Content Development Manager at the UAE General Information Authority."

Bahrain, Tunisia - Twitter 'filtered'

ONI, Bahrain, Tunisia Filtering Individual Twitter Pages, 4 Jan 2010 "Over the past few weeks, reports have trickled in to Herdict and via Twitter, alerting us of the filtering of individual Twitter pages in Tunisia and Bahrain (as well as, possibly, China). In Tunisia, the accounts of exiled activist Sami Ben Gharbia (@ifikra), engineer @Ma7moud, and popular independent news source Nawaat (@nawaat) have been confirmed inaccessible, while in Bahrain @FreeBahrain was allegedly blocked on New Year's Day, but has since become accessible."

Kuwait elections and the net

Commentary:

Mohammed Adel Fakhro, Gulf Daily News, Rise of liberal phoenix... , 26 May 09

"The election of four women to Kuwait's parliament represents the most significant tidal shift towards liberalism since the rise of Islamic extremism began to take hold in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Middle East. It represents the rise of the Internet as a means within the region to inspire the youth of a country to go out and vote. It also proves the interest of the youth to see change in the region."

Bahrain ongoing case - Internet defence

Gulf Daily News, Weapons claim by terror suspects , 8 May 09 Ongoing case in Bahrain:

""He said his client only spoke to the Gulf nationals via Internet chat-rooms, where they discussed several issues surrounding jihad, defending Islam and new threats the Gulf countries face.

""My client never met these alleged members of a terror cell, but only spoke to them in chartrooms," said Mr Hashim.

""Their relationship was strictly 'virtual' and he only knew them by their screen names."