Mai Yamani
Mai Yamani's most recent book is Cradle of Islam.
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2011-10-25
| The contrast between the deaths, within a week of each other, of Libya’s Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz is one of terminal buffoonery versus decadent gerontocracy. And their demise is likely to lead to very different outcomes: liberation for the Libyans and stagnation for the Saudis.... read |
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2011-09-07
| Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda has been marginalized, but not by Saudi Arabia, which nurtured the terrorists, or by the US, which waged wars against Bin Laden and his acolytes. Instead, it has been eviscerated by the courage and dignity of ordinary Arabs from Damascus to Tripoli.... read |
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2011-07-27
| With the eviction from power of his allies in Egypt and Yemen, and the looming withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is feeling isolated and betrayed. But a key part of his isolation is the Kingdom’s own doing. The refusal to accept a democratic, Shia-dominated Iraq has left the Saudis with no influence in Baghdad, to the delight of Iran.... read |
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2011-06-13
| Women have played a leading role in the revolutions unfolding across the Arab world, and now Saudi women, too, are beginning to demand change. The spark was as unlikely as it is revealing of Saudi Arabia's bizarre system of sexual segregation: one woman's decision to brave prison in order to drive a car.... read |
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2011-05-03
| Osama bin Laden’s death should open the international community's eyes to the source of his movement: repressive Arab regimes and their extremist ideologies. Otherwise, his example will continue to haunt the world.... read |
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2011-04-04
| Ali Abdullah Saleh is finished as Yemen’s president, abandoned by his closest allies in the face of massive popular pressure to step down. But Saleh will not shuffle off the historical stage until the US stops trying to revive his dying regime.... read |
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2010-02-16
| Saudi Arabia has been increasingly willing to use Mecca as a forum to resolve regional political disputes - most recently by inviting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an effort to push forward negotiations with the Taliban. But the Saudi regime is openly ambivalent about Karzai, whereas its real goal is to rehabilitate the Taliban, thereby countering Iran's growing regional influence.... read |
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2010-01-18
| Following Al Qaeda's failed Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown jointly proposed a conference in London to propose solutions for the previously overlooked crises in Yemen. But, unless they grasp the fact that Yemen’s problems go well beyond Al Qaeda’s presence in the country, the conference will do more harm than good.... read |
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2009-12-07
| The Middle East continues to have the highest concentration of dictatorships in the world. But 2009 was the year that democracy appeared to take root in the region – and the future looks as bleak as ever.... read |
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The Terror Next Door
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Mai Yamani 
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In a prominent hadith, the Prophet Mohammed said: “If disorder threatens, take refuge in Yemen.” But today, the reverse is true: disorder and radicalization in Yemen are beginning to infect Saudi Arabia, and thus the safety of the world’s largest oil producer.... read
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2006-02-01
| The world has been transfixed by the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian election. But a different assertion of democratic and parliamentary power, this time in the Gulf sheikdom of Kuwait, which possesses 10% of world oil reserves, may prove to be equally important. Every sign indicates that the wave of democratization in Kuwait is irreversible, and the impact of these changes extends beyond Kuwait to all the other oil-rich Gulf countries, which are also ruled by emirs and sheikhs. ... read |
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2004-03-03
| Now that the dust of the Gulf War has settled over the Middle East, it is clear that some unexpected winners have emerged, blinking in the sunlight. Across the Gulf, Shia Muslims are waking up to their growing political power, their ability to organize themselves - and the gift that lies literally under their feet. Oil. ... read |
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2009-03-11
| The Saudi regime has long viewed the country's restive Shia minority, which accounts for 75% of the population in the Kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province, as a proxy of Iran. But, with the empowerment of Shia in Iraq, in neighboring Gulf States, and in Lebanon, the official policy of repression and discrimination is now creating a serious threat to security, if not to the regime.... read |
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2005-08-01
| Saudi Arabia’s decade long royal death watch is over. King Fahad, the longest-serving king in Saudi Arabia’s history (24 years), is dead. For six weeks, the King lay in a hospital fighting death, something he has done, in reality, ever since he suffered a massive stroke 10 years ago. The identity of the new king is clear, but who will really wield power is not. ... read |
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2004-06-07
| Beheadings online, fatwas online: the subterranean world of Islam’s radical fringe can be found on countless Internet sites. These technologically sophisticated fanatics are able to reach a wide audience. But that audience exists because of the deep dissatisfaction and anger of so many young Muslims everywhere. The Internet has brought together a worldwide community of the alienated and the embittered. ... read |
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2006-07-24
| Is the Sunni-Shia divide in the Middle East now deeper than the antagonism between Israel and the Arabs? You might think so given the response of some Arab governments to Hezbollah’s decision to attack Israel. Even as Israeli bombs fell on Beirut and Tyre, Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most conservative Arab Muslim state of all, openly condemned the actions of the Shia Hezbollah in instigating conflict with Israel. Never before in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict has a state that considers itself a leader of the Arab Muslim peoples backed Israel so openly. ... read |
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2007-01-08
| Sometime this month, President George W. Bush will – reluctantly – announce a new policy for the United States in Iraq. A new policy is needed not only in order to halt America’s drift into impotence as it tries to prevent Iraq from spiraling into full-scale civil war, but also because the map of power in the Middle East has changed dramatically. ... read |
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2006-06-15
| What is it that makes young Muslims in the West susceptible to radicalism? What is it about the experience of the West’s rising generation of Muslims that leads a small minority to see violence as a solution to their economic and political dilemmas, and suicide as their reward and salvation? ... read |
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2005-05-24
| A democratic tide seems to be sweeping across the Arab world. Even the traditional Arab monarchies and Emirates are changing in its wake. Kuwait now allows women to vote, Qatar has embraced an ambitious reform program, Bahrain has shown great tolerance of mass demonstrations, and the U.A.E. is allowing something like a free press. But Saudi Arabia continues to be deeply wary of any sort of change, and thus remains a huge and seemingly immovable obstacle to region-wide reform. ... read |
2010-01-18