Global Voices Online

American Bedu explains how commercialism is making is way to Mecca, the holiest of Islamic sites, where residents are being forced out of their apartments and homes, to make room for accommodation for pilgrims at inflated rates.

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

samuraisam, from the UAE Community Blog, asks: “Has anyone else found the Israeli TLD to be unblocked from the UAE? On my Etisalat connection it seems to be open.”

UAE blogger An Emirati's Thoughts calls for action following the “recent slump in the confidence in Dubai's debt management capabilities.”

Yemeni Omar Barsawad shares with us information on the Yemeni capital San'aa. “Be it in Sana'a Old City or the mud bricked houses of Hadhramout, Yemen's architecture remains very much traditional and unique. And is still being preserved in most parts of the country,” he notes.