Hamza Kashgari: a roundup of some recent news and views

• "We are all Hamza Kashgari"

article in the just released 48th issue of Wasla, the journal of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Here is a link to the journal, but it is mostly in Arabic (including the article on Kashgari). And here is a link to an English language description of this issue's contents.

• A Tweet To Mohammed

by Cabalamuse, a Morrocan blogger, who notes: "Ironically, it hasn’t been two years since Prince Saud al-Faisal said to an American journalist that Saudi Arabia is 'breaking away from the shackles of the past.'"

• PM's credentials shaken by journalist's deportation

by Jonathan Manthorpe writing for the Vancouver Sun. The article critiques Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's human rights record, with special attention to the extradition of Hamza Kashgari back to Saudi Arabia.

• In What Century Saudi Rulers Live?

by Kurdish journalist Nazik Zada, who writes "Sometimes I wonder what century the leaders of Saudi Arabia think they live in. In the age of globalization, Internet and social media, they should know that every abuse would be recorded, every lash will be written about, and every Saudi woman deprived of a vote will be supported by millions of other women around the world.

• From the palace to the protest Talking to Sultan al-Qassemi

An interview in Lebanon Now with Sultan al-Qassemi, who is a columnist, blogger and Emirati royal family member.

And finally here is a video from a protest at the Saudi embassy in Ottowa, Canada. The protest took place yesterday, Sunday, February 26, 2012, and was sponsored by Muslims for Progressive Values, Canada: