Ahmed Shihab-Eldin

The Arab world has forever changed, and so has the media. Some would argue governance, as we've known it, is also changing. Business is certainly changing; in fact, the whole world might just be changing too. The question is, is social media the catalyst? My simple answer is yes.

For...

Both the president of Syria and the King of Bahrain have worked hard this past year to portray their respective countries as stable and safe, hoping to distract from the popular uprisings they have brutally crushed. Both regimes have systematically tortured members of the opposition, killed and detained children, and...

For the better half of a decade, friends have repeatedly said to me, "Arab" is the new "Black."

I'm not sure there is much value in equating such discrimination, but as an Arab-American, there is no denying that my name, heritage, and physical appearance -- especially when rocking some...

Michelle Obama's family is from Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States. The family of Asma Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is from Homs, Syria's third largest city. One of their husbands has been bombarding his wife's hometown with mortars, tanks and rockets, killing hundreds over the...

In Al-Qatif, a large and predominantly Shiite city on the coast of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, renewed clashes between police and protesters erupted on Sunday, injuring both local policemen and activists.

The protests began after Saudi security forces arrested two elderly men on Sunday in order to pressure their sons...

Using the hashtag, #MyQ8, Kuwaiti netizens are protesting against the announcement by a group of Kuwaiti lawyers who plan to join the defense team for Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak whose trial resumes in Cairo on Monday.

As Asooma87, a Kuwaiti woman writes on...

"Stop messing with our future" - these are the words written on the logo of a Facebook group in the Mauritius that is hoping to bring about social and political change in the small island just off of Africa's southern coast.

Inspired by the Arab uprisings,...

The phrase Tal3mrak in Saudi Arabia literally translates into "May god prolong your life" - and its used as a sign of respect when addressing royalty or influential business men in the Gulf region.

But a new use of the expression in the form of a Twitter hash-tag links to...

The Cambodian government is on its way to passing a law that critics say threatens the country's lively civil society groups and NGOs.

Cambodia's Council of Ministers recently released a third draft of the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations that would more tightly control the eligibility of civil society...

Dejavu. An election in the Middle East marred by voter intimidation, fraud, and a series of sobering violent incidents - except this time, this isn't an enemy state but rather the United States' closest ally in the region, Egypt.

With a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, inflation in the double digits,...

Islam is not responsible for 9/11, extremism is. Just like the two planes that crashed into the Twin Towers, Islam was also hijacked and used to justify the unjustifiable - an act of terror.

The U.S. government's inability to prevent the attacks was unfortunate, but a bigger misfortune was the...

Rihanna may have raved about her "amazing" trip to Israel several days ago, but most of the rest of the world, and namely Europe, isn't as impressed with the Jewish state.

Most EU governments and their citizens seem to have united in their criticism of Israel's raid on...

Torture and terror, two terms peppered across the pages of newspapers, spouted from the mouths of news-anchors and stamped across countless websites throughout the first decade of the 21st century, but rarely used to describe the Israeli government's policies towards Palestinians over the last six decades.

But today, after...

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall highlights both the inherent thirst for freedom and proclivity to hypocrisy ingrained in the human condition.

As people across the world are joining to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, there is...

Israel forcibly removed Palestinian families from homes that its government declared to be under Jewish ownership last weekend.

Never mind that the Palestinians had been living on the land in Sheikh Jarrah for decades. But within hours, Jewish families settled into the evacuated homes.

In a statement on...

In Lebanon, where divisions dominate both the political and media spectrum, a new and independent youth newspaper, is shaking up the status-quo.

Sawt Ashabab, which translates to "Youth Voice" in Arabic, began as part of a media literacy project, but has evolved into the successful launch...

The most volatile region in the world is going nuclear.

As North Korea restarts its main nuclear plant and Iran continues to flex its nuclear muscles, a less publicized nuclear renaissance is underway in the Middle East.

Putting the Chernobyls and Hiroshimas aside, in the Arab...

Iran is flexing its nuclear muscles again. North Korea has kicked out nuclear inspectors, and now the world's most potentially explosive region is going nuclear as Arab nations begin importing nuclear technology at an unprecedented pace.

President Obama, who recently spoke of his commitment to pursue a world without nuclear...

What if there were a small city whose entire purpose for existing was to promote education for an entire country?

Scratch that...an entire region?

Well, on the outskirts of Doha, the capital of Qatar, is Education City, possibly the beginning of just such a place.

Founded ten...