Is Manal Al Sharif the Rosa Parks of the Saudi Arabia? Ms Parks, a courageous black woman during the civil right movement in the US, refused to vacate her seat on a full bus when asked by the bus driver for a boarding white-man passenger. She contributed to the end of the segregation laws in the US.

Ms Manal was arrested on May 21, 2011, and jailed for nine days for a YouTube posting of her driving a car in Al-Khobar, eastern province, Saudi Arabia. Can it be said that the ban against women driving in Saudi is a form of ‘civil rights’ type of struggle against segregation?
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MSCI has kept the door ajar for both Qatar and the UAE, but EFG-Hermes and Citibank analysts disagree whether either market will be elevated come December. Meanwhile, emerging market funds are already swirling around.

The MSCI left the door open for UAE and Qatar to allow them entry into the exclusive emerging markets club. The influential index provider that is used by many funds and investors as a benchmark, said that while both countries did not make the cut this time, they will extend their review till December. READ MORE HERE

U.S. Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke says interest rates will remain low and dampened enthusiasm for QE3. But one heavyweight thinks QE3 could come in August.
Forget about a U.S. rate hike and the third tranche of quantitative easing, also known as QE3, say analysts after hearing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’ speech after its periodic federal open market committee meeting. READ MORE HERE

Even if Saudi Arabia was aware of the IEA’s move to draw from its oil reserves, all parties appear to have lost face, without really upsetting the trend of stubbornly high oil prices. Goldman says buy the oil dip.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) followed through on its threat of releasing oil supplies into the global markets, after OPEC had failed to raise output in its last meeting in early June. READ MORE HERE

Dubai is no longer the worst housing market in the world - in fact real estate prices rose 2.1% over the past six months, according to Knight Frank. But the emirate is still the 4th worst housing market in annual percentage terms.

Dubai is no longer the worst housing market in the world. In April 2011, a Knight Frank report on global housing prices had noted Dubai’s housing prices had fallen the most in six months. Read More Here

Spring is nearly six months old. It is time to take stock, remember those who lost their lives and continue to fight, and hand out some well-deserved awards to the key players.

The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, asked the rhetorical question ‘What Country Handled Arab Spring The Best? His own answer: Morocco.

But he left the discussion at that. Given that the Arab Spring is just about six months old, alifarabia.com was inspired to take stock of how the various countries have handled a revolution that has smashed Middle East dogmas, broken the will of Arab strongmen and given hopes to millions not just in the Arab World but also around the world.

The Middle East has seen more public participation in politics in the past six months than it has done over the past 50 years. Much to the shock of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Moamer Qaddhafi, the people of the Arab World launched a unique coup that they could not have fathom and never saw coming. These strongmen were looking to suppress indigenous Islamic movements, the radicals, Al-Qaeda sympathisers, the socialists, the Shiaas and the sufis. They were looking for tangible forces they could fight, and suppress and imprison and maim - as they had done in the past.

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Equities markets across the world are feeling the heat as investors turn negative over a flood of dismal news from all corners of the globe. However, Goldman Sachs offers a contrarian view.
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Iraq’s energy sector is its economy’s lifeblood. But while Noor Al Maliki’s government has laid out an ambitious energy development programme, almost no one expect any of those production targets will be met. Can Iraq fulfill its potential and create jobs, ensure security and become one of the most important oil suppliers of the future? READ MORE HERE

In a landmark speech the Moroccan king offered to reduce his powers under a new more democratic Constitution. Can this overture quell political descent and serve as a role model for other monarchies? READ MORE HERE

Innovation and the ensuing needed authenticity are the pre-requisites to move Islamic finance to 2.0 or $2-Trillion by 2015.

But, how best to describe innovation in Islamic finance? Famous quotes often capture succinctly the essence of the issue, and, for innovation in Islamic finance, the below quotes are a good beginning.
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