MidEastPosts.com Writers

Ahmed Al-Omran
Website: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: incoherenci.blogspot.com/ and www.mideastsoccer.blogspot.com

James M. Dorsey is the author of two blogs: www.mideastsoccer.blogspot.com and 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: www.mattjduffy.com

Dr. Matt J. Duffy is a