Writers

Ahmed Al-Omran
Website: http://saudijeans.org/

Ahmed Al-Omran, 26, is currently studying for a master degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, New York. Omran’s blog, SaudiJeans.org is a personal look at political and social issues in Saudi Arabia, focusing on freedom of expression, human rights and women’s rights.

American Bedu
Website: http://americanbedu.com/

American Bedu shares her experiences and perspectives as an American in Saudi, one who has made the transition between having typical expat experiences and traditional experiences of any Saudi, on a daily basis, thanks to her marriage to a Saudi man and “a beautiful and large extended Saudi family”. American Bedua was a former American diplomat who was in the US Foreign Service for 20 years. She has been writing her blog since 2006.

Allan Biggar
Website: http://www.aabplc.com

Allan Biggar is the Chairman of All About Brands plc, a group of marketing services company established in 2006. With 10 business divisions and offices in London, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and India, All About Brands plc is a fast growing group of businesses spanning public relations, marketing, brand strategy, design and advertising.

Alexander McNabb
Website: http://fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com/

Alexander McNabb is “the granddaddy” of the social media, twitter and blogging universe, particularly in the UAE, but the tentacles of his influence extend much wider, most significantly through Geekfest which he “UnOrganises” and his blog, Fake Plastic Souks. In addition to being a Director at Spot On, Alex is a radio pundit, writes columns in newspapers, and has recently finished his second novel, Beirut.

Andrew Mackay
Website: http://www.aabplc.com

Andrew Mackay is a Director at Influential Thinking Public Affairs, part of the All About Brands group of companies. Andrew is a regular commentator on social, political and economic affairs. He has worked extensively throughout the Middle East and Asia as a journalist and PR director. He can be reached at info@aabplc.com. www.aabplc.com

Bassam Sebti
Website: http://www.bassamsebti.com/

30, Iraqi, from Baghdad. Currently in the US. Writer/Arabic Editor of IJNet (www.ijnet.org/ar) at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) www.icfj.org in Washington, DC.

Brit in Beirut
Website: http://britinbeirut.blogspot.com

British expatriate who has lived in Beirut for the last 9 years, Brit in Beirut is “irreverent, cynical, occasionally funny, and always with love”.

Carrington Malin
Website: http://www.spotonpr.com

Carrington Malin is a founder and director of Spot On PR, quite possibly the most respected technology public relations firm in the Middle East. Carrington posts regularly on www.spotonpr.com on all things media, digital and marketing.

Common Ground News
Website: http://www.commongroundnews.org

Common Ground News is an initiative of the international conflict transformation organization Search for Common Ground, and the home of multiple writers, giving their perspectives on key issues affecting Muslim-Western relations.

David Roberts
Website: http://thegulfblog.com/

David B Roberts is a Phd student at Durham University, UK focusing on Persian Gulf international relations, with a particular interest in Qatar’s foreign policy. He has lived throughout the Middle East, speaks Arabic with varying degrees of success and is the creator of www.thegulfblog.com

David Westley
www.mideastposts.com

David is the former Editorial Director at ITP for Digital (ArabianBusiness.com, Time Out Dubai),  Head of Editorial at Yahoo!, and was Deputy Editor at Dow Jones Financial News. He is presently the MD of Turret Digital.

Eman Al Nafjan
Website: http://saudiwoman.wordpress.com/

Eman Al Nafjan is a mother of three, a postgraduate student at a university in Riyadh. “So many non Arabs and non Saudis out there giving “expert” opinions on life and culture here, hence my blog. Get it straight from the source: Saudi, genetically wahabi and a woman.”

Hisham Wyne
Website: http://hishamwyne.com/

Hisham Wyne is a columnist, copywriter and radio commentator. His endless gabbing sometimes scores him MC, radio and compering gigs. He is a blatant pen for hire who pretends to know his words. Scruples are optional, but opinions are not. Sometimes he is also a general faffer, arts and theatre enthusiast, braggart, armchair sociologist and political scribbler. He writes for the Huffington Post, Khaleej Times, Gulf News, Global Comment, Weekend Review, Vision UK, Mideast Posts…

James M. Dorsey
Website: http://incoherenci.blogspot.com/ and www.mideastsoccer.blogspot.com

James M. Dorsey is the author of two blogs: www.mideastsoccer.blogspot.com and http://incoherenci.blogspot.com/. In the former he looks at the effect of soccer politically and socially in the region. His most established blog, (In)Coherent, contains the thoughts of a “veteran observer and wandering heretic” focusing on the broader Middle East and ethnic and religious conflict with ventures into the media as well as the culinary and other arts.

James Mullan
Website: http://www.mideastposts.com

James, the co-founder of MidEastPosts, is a former Director of a leading global public relations firm in the Middle East, and a Managing Partner of Insight, a successful media training business that works with clients at a senior level throughout the region.

Jonathan Cook
Website: http://www.jkcook.net/index.html

Former Guardian and Observer journalist Jonathan Cook covers the region from his base in Nazareth, Israel. James took the decision to become a freelancer so that he could “choose the issues I wish to cover, so I am not constrained by the ‘treadmill’ of the mainstream media, which require an endless flow of instant copy and analysis. I am also not tied to the mainstream agenda, which gives disproportionate coverage to the concerns of the powerful, in this case the Israeli and American positions.”

Juan Cole
Website: http://www.juancole.com

Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is Engaging the Muslim World (Palgrave Macmillan, March, 2009) and he also recently authored Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

Khaled Akbik
Website: http://measternpoles.blogspot.com

Born and raised in the UAE, a Syrian national, and a Human Resource Manager at a contracting company with an active interest in politics in the Middle East in particular and the World in general. You can follow him on Twitter: @Khaledtron.

Marcia Lynx Qualey
Website: http://arablit.wordpress.com/

M. Lynx Qualey is a writer and passionate reader based in Cairo, Egypt and is the author of Arabic Literature (in English), the go-to blog for non-Arabic readers wanting a deeper understanding of Arabic literature.

Matt J. Duffy
Website: http://www.mattjduffy.com

Dr. Matt J. Duffy is a media scholar. His works have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Middle East Media, the Journal of Mass Media Ethics and the Newspaper Research Journal. An assistant professor of communication, Duffy teaches UAE and international media law at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. He is an active member of AUSACE, the Arab-US Association for Communication Educators.

Micheline Hazou
Website: http://michcafe.blogspot.com/

Micheline’s blog, Mich Cafe, is mostly about her experiences and travels which she writes about and illustrates with old and new pictures. Micheline is based in Dubai, but regularly travels to Beirut.

Mishaal al Gergawi
Website: http://mishaal-algergawi.blogspot.com/

Mishaal al Emirati is a commentator on GCC and Middle East affairs. He is primarily interested in analysing and contributing to the improvement of the state of civic development in the Gulf. He has worked in the financial and public service sectors.

Mondoweiss
www.mondoweiss.com

Mondoweiss is a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective. It has four principal aims: 1. To publish important developments touching on Israel/Palestine, the American Jewish community and the shifting debate over US foreign policy in a timely fashion. 2. To publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues. 3. To foster the movement for greater fairness and justice for Palestinians in American foreign policy. 4. To offer alternatives to pro-Zionist ideology as a basis for American Jewish identity. Mondoweiss is maintained by Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz. Weiss is 55 and lives in New York state. Horowitz is 37 and lives in New York City. “We maintain this blog because of 9/11, Iraq, Gaza, the Nakba, the struggling people of Israel and Palestine, and our Jewish background.”

Moroccan Maryam
Website: http://moroccanmaryam.typepad.com/

An American travel writer ‘Maryam in Marrakech’ is also a human rights and democracy specialist. As a freelance writer, Maryam has written articles about Moroccan lifestyle experiences and global textiles. She has written or contributed to articles about Morocco and Marrakech for the National Geographic, The Financial Times, Food & Wine, Gourmet, The Guardian, Time, Budget Travel, Somerset, Stitch, Girlfriend Getaways, and many others.

Omar al-Issawi
Website: http://www.man-in-a-desert.com/

Omar al-Issawi is a journalist based in the Gulf.

Naseem Tarawnah
Website: http://www.black-iris.com/

Naseem has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Administrative Studies, with a specialized Honors Degree in Public Policy & Administration. He is currently finishing his master’s degree in Public Policy & Management through the University of London. Naseem currently lives in Amman with his retired parents who, although absolutely lovely, love to drive him mad about his life decisions. In his spare time he writes haphazard poetry, and plays the guitar.

News from Syria
Website: http://newsfromsyria.com/

The Syria News Wire is written from Damascus and London. It was the fourth Syrian blog to appear on the internet – back in 2004. It is a Lonely Planet favourite, award nominated, Toot-ified blog, which gets about 15,000 hits a month. In 2008, Damascus became the Arab Capital of Culture. The year was packed full of events. Every month, a programme was published – but it didn’t hit the streets until half the month had passed. In Damascus, that doesn’t matter. We find out what’s happening by word of mouth. And the same goes for news, or plans for the city’s development. This site puts some of those whispers on to the net. News from the streets of Damascus, and beyond.

Parastou Hassouri

Parastou Hassouri, who teaches international refugee law at the American University in Cairo, is a human rights activist who has been living in Cairo since 2005.

Rachel McArthur
Website: http://raych-m.tumblr.com/

Rachel is a multi-national, music-loving, FCBarca-obsessed, writer based in Dubai, UAE. For the past eight years, Rachel has been writing across the board, mainly focusing on lifestyle- and business-related issues, as well as current affairs and sport. Rachel has spent half of her life in the Middle East, moving as a child from the UK to Egypt.

Ramzy Baroud
Website: http://www.ramzybaroud.net/

Palestinian-American journalist, author and former Al-Jazeera producer, Ramzy Baroud taught Mass Communication at Australia’s Curtin University of Technology, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle. “Ramzy Baroud’s sensitive, thoughtful, searching writing penetrates to the core of moral dilemmas that their intended audiences evade at their peril.

Rob L. Wagner
Website: http://13martyrs.wordpress.com/

Rob L. Wagner is veteran journalist with more than 35 years in the news business. He served as managing editor of the Saudi Gazette in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 2004 to 2007 and currently divides his time between Jeddah and Newcastle, England. His reporting experiences include coverage of terrorism, women’s rights, Islam and the societal changes now taking place in Saudi Arabia.

Saad Al Dosari
Website: http://www.aneyeonsaudi.org/

Saad Al Dosari is currently working as a chief engineer in one of the Saudi telecom companies. He holds a B.Sc. degree in engineering; electronics and communication from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, KSA and a master of business administration degree (MBA), specialized in marketing, from the University of Leicester, UK. His blog, An Eye on Saudi, aims to initiate discussion and exchange ideas – and has a focus on business issues in the Kingdom.

Sarah Walton
Website: http://www.thehedonista.com

Sarah Walton runs The Hedonista blog, and is a lover “of all things warm, fattening, velvetty, far-away and funny”. Sarah has managed restaurants, been a sommelier, a waiter, a bottle shop attendant, written a very small wine magazine, been a wine sales rep and had my own wine website with cellar management and online sales. She can be contacted at admin@thehedonista.com

Sasa Milosevic

Sasa Milosevic is Serbian-based freelance journalist and blogger . His articles have been published in variety of international media: UPI (USA),The Peninsula (Qatar), Palestine Note (USA), Global Voices (Netherlands). His articles have been linked by Huffington Post, New York Times, USA Today, Reuters Alert, AolNews, France24 and translated in French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Malagasy,Bangla, Macedonian.

Shabina S. Khatri
Website: http://www.shabina.net

Shabina S. Khatri is an American journalist freelancing in Doha, Qatar and an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University in Qatar’s Medill School of Journalism. Born and raised in suburban Detroit, Khatri has previously worked as an editor/reporter for the Wall Street Journal and a reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Though a jack of many trades, she is master of some, with strengths in business, higher education and religion reporting.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed
Website: http://www.spirit21.co.uk

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed the author of Love in a Headscarf, a humorous and irreverent story of growing up as a Muslim woman. She is a columnist for The National UAE and EMEL magazine as well as a contributor to Guardian, the BBC and Channel 4 and writes an award-winning blog at Spirit21.co.uk. She was named by The Times newspaper as one of the UK’s 100 most influential Muslim women.

Stephen Corley
Website: http://www.mideastposts.com

Stephen Corley is a long time resident of Dubai. He has considerable experience as an investment banker, entrepreneur, columnist and writer. Stephen is presently the Managing Director of an Equity Management, Property Syndication and Investment Strategy firm based in the UAE.

Steve Royston
Website: http://59steps.wordpress.com/
Steve Royston runs the highly regarded 59 Steps blog. He lives in the Middle East, was born in the UK, and has personal and business ties to the USA, Ireland, Malaysia, France and more than one of the GCC countries. In 59steps, he reflects on business, politics, education and social issues in the Middle East and beyond, as well as other subjects close to his heart. He looks at most things through the prism of history. Through 59steps he tries to act as a bridge between cultures – to find common ground rather than focus on the divisive. He feels privileged to live in a region where spoken and written history first emerged.

Susie of Arabia
Website: http://susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com

Susie of Arabia is an American woman who, in the fall of 2007, moved with her family to the desert sands of Saudi Arabia. Her Saudi husband wanted to move back to his native country after spending 30 years in the States. It was something she never thought would ever happen. Her writing expresses her feelings, impressions, and experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

SuhaibWebb
Website: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/

SubaibWebb is dedicated to enhancing the spiritual and religious development of Muslims through sound, balanced & moderate Islamic teachings. It seeks to bridge orthodox and contemporary Islamic knowledge, bringing to light issues of cultural, social and political relevance to Muslims in the West.

Sultan Sooud al Qassemi
Website: http://sultansq.blogspot.com/

A regular Op Ed writer for The National newspaper and Gulf News in the UAE, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi has also written for Britain’s The Financial Times, India’s The Hindu, Lebanon’s Daily Star, Dubai’s Arab Eastern, London’s The International Institute For Strategic Studies, Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya news network and Arab News. His articles have also appeared on the UK’s Sky News, The Independent, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail in Canada, The Huffington Post… …

Tabsir
Website: http://www.tabsir.net/

We are scholars concerned about stereotypes, misinformation and propaganda spread in the media and academic forums on Islam and the Middle East. We are committed to fair, open-ended scholarly assessment of the current political issues of terrorism, gender inequality and intolerance. We encourage informed debate rather than partisan posturing on all issues. We believe in active involvement as public intellectuals communicating the best of available research.

The Moor Next Door
Website: http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/

The Moor Next Door is a weblog written by a student of Political Science and Middle Eastern/African Studies. Its purpose is to explore the politics, foreign policy and diplomacy of the Maghreb and the Arab Middle East. North Africa is the primary area of interest from a geopolitical, cultural, and historical perspective. TMND also aims to better understand the historical forces driving the international and regional affairs of North Africa.

The View from Fez
Website: http://riadzany.blogspot.com/

The View from Fez was formed in 2005 to promote interest and understanding of life and culture in the Medina of Fez and Morocco.

Zeinobia Zeinobia
Website: http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com

Egyptian Chronicles was the go to blog in English during Egypt’s Arab Spring revolution. Zeinobia claims she is “just Egyptian girl who lives in the present hoping for a better future for herself and for her country,” but the passion and bite of her blog make her considerably more influential than that.