Latest from Sultan Alamer
How Henry Kissinger Bungled the Arab Oil Embargo
Most public debate about Kissinger’s legacy has concerned the morality of his “realism.” Yet examining his approach to U.S.-Saudi relations at a key moment reveals little strategic thinking and more of an ad hoc style, influenced by deep ideological values and a naive understanding of the Middle East.
A New Holiday Heralds a More Complex Understanding of Saudi Arabia’s Origins
The kingdom’s new Foundation Day plays down the false idea that the Saudi state legitimized itself through Wahhabism, with political authority divided between the ruling Al Saud dynasty and the religious establishment, and helps to reveal how it gained its legitimacy via a hybrid normative tradition that included Arabist and Salafist elements.
The Arab and Muslim Evolution of ‘Deviance’ in Homosexuality
Before the 20th century, Arabs and Muslims never described homosexuality as deviant or abnormal. For more than a millennium, religious scholars, linguists and poets discussed sexual relations close to our modern understanding of homosexuality without using derogatory terms common in the public discourse today.