So not much came of the last weekend's Day of Rage. On Thursday night, 3 Shiite men were shot during protests of a couple hundred people in the Eastern Province. The official statement said the officers were returning fire and the men's injuries were not life threatening. But on Friday, the day which coordinated protests were called for in cities across Saudi Arabia including Riyadh and Jeddah, everything was sufficiently locked down and the day passed without incident. There were police and security personnel checking identification and searching cars in key positions in towns all over the country. They were set up outside of mosques in the Olaya district of Riyadh when midday prayers let out-- the place and time set for demonstrations on social media sites including facebook. My students complained about the police being everywhere and stopping people, but they seemed more annoyed at the inconvenience than outraged at the violation of their "universal right" to peaceful demonstration.
Demonstrations and clashes with security forces in Yemen are continuing to increase in scale and violence. Yemen has seen scores of people killed and many more injured over the last four weeks. Promises of reform are being seen as too little, too late. The situation is growing less and less tenable for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and considering all the talk in recent years of Yemen being a breeding ground for Al Qaeda, more concerning to the U.S. and its allies.
Protests have taken place in Syria, surprising many observers. And in the West Bank and Gaza, tens of thousands gathered to show solidarity in the normally politically divided occupied territories.
The Sunni royal family in Bahrain must have been impressed with the how the Saudis handled their calls for protest, because they've enlisted the help of the Saudi military as well as that of other Gulf Cooperation Council countries to help "protect" its citizenry. One thousand Saudi troops as well as over 500 Emirati police were seen crossing into Bahrain on Monday. The situation there has continued to progress in scale and violence as well, something which is extremely worrying to the house of Saud, whose own Shia population just across the causeway have been the only within the Kingdom to conduct demonstrations. The U.S. is in a tough position as a close ally of both KSA and Bahrain, and the injection of Saudi military forces has come as an unwelcome surprise to the Whitehouse. The State Department had been calling on the Bahraini ruling family to seek resolution through political means, so Saudis sending in troops demonstrates just how divided Washington and Riyadh are in terms of their reactions to the region's unrest. So far all that has come out of Washington officially are calls for "restraint by all parties" but it is clear that the situation is tense. Yesterday, emergency law was declared and an intensive campaign to uproot the demonstrators has already begun.
It's pretty crazy being right smack dab in the middle of all of this. Not only to be in the middle of the Middle East during this historic period, but also to be in Saudi, which is itself bordering 7 countries that have experienced unrest ranging from peaceful demonstration to popular uprising. The royal family has to be feeling the same. Still though, it does seem like an island unto itself, like a place properly equipped to weather the storm for the time being. I'm sure this fact is welcomed by those concerned for friends and family living in Saudi (like me!). But while you've always got to be careful what you wish for, and while it's nice to be in a place that is relatively secure where I can generate dialog with a number of Arabs, Muslims, and Westerners with a tremendous amount of interest in the region, I am honestly a little disappointed. I would like to be experiencing a little more history first hand-- and not just so my blog gets more interesting. I would like to engage the local population. I'd like to know to what extent the local population is engaged. I'd like to witness real democracy. In the meantime though, I'm safe, secure, and sitting perfectly comfortably in the eye of the storm, with a front row seat.
Demonstrations and clashes with security forces in Yemen are continuing to increase in scale and violence. Yemen has seen scores of people killed and many more injured over the last four weeks. Promises of reform are being seen as too little, too late. The situation is growing less and less tenable for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and considering all the talk in recent years of Yemen being a breeding ground for Al Qaeda, more concerning to the U.S. and its allies.
Protests have taken place in Syria, surprising many observers. And in the West Bank and Gaza, tens of thousands gathered to show solidarity in the normally politically divided occupied territories.
The Sunni royal family in Bahrain must have been impressed with the how the Saudis handled their calls for protest, because they've enlisted the help of the Saudi military as well as that of other Gulf Cooperation Council countries to help "protect" its citizenry. One thousand Saudi troops as well as over 500 Emirati police were seen crossing into Bahrain on Monday. The situation there has continued to progress in scale and violence as well, something which is extremely worrying to the house of Saud, whose own Shia population just across the causeway have been the only within the Kingdom to conduct demonstrations. The U.S. is in a tough position as a close ally of both KSA and Bahrain, and the injection of Saudi military forces has come as an unwelcome surprise to the Whitehouse. The State Department had been calling on the Bahraini ruling family to seek resolution through political means, so Saudis sending in troops demonstrates just how divided Washington and Riyadh are in terms of their reactions to the region's unrest. So far all that has come out of Washington officially are calls for "restraint by all parties" but it is clear that the situation is tense. Yesterday, emergency law was declared and an intensive campaign to uproot the demonstrators has already begun.
It's pretty crazy being right smack dab in the middle of all of this. Not only to be in the middle of the Middle East during this historic period, but also to be in Saudi, which is itself bordering 7 countries that have experienced unrest ranging from peaceful demonstration to popular uprising. The royal family has to be feeling the same. Still though, it does seem like an island unto itself, like a place properly equipped to weather the storm for the time being. I'm sure this fact is welcomed by those concerned for friends and family living in Saudi (like me!). But while you've always got to be careful what you wish for, and while it's nice to be in a place that is relatively secure where I can generate dialog with a number of Arabs, Muslims, and Westerners with a tremendous amount of interest in the region, I am honestly a little disappointed. I would like to be experiencing a little more history first hand-- and not just so my blog gets more interesting. I would like to engage the local population. I'd like to know to what extent the local population is engaged. I'd like to witness real democracy. In the meantime though, I'm safe, secure, and sitting perfectly comfortably in the eye of the storm, with a front row seat.
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