Khaled al-Ghanami takes on the issue of Abdu Rahman al-Hussein; the talk show host who was sacked after some of his guests criticized the action of the Religious Police. “They said what everyone knows, and we all know they were right,” he wrote.

Reading the Consumed column of the NY Times, I found this nice notebook. It is called the Moleskine notebook, and there are some interesting stories about it. I love little notebooks. Although I don’t write much on paper anymore, but whenever I find a good one, I immediately buy it. Now, I’m thinking about getting one of these babies.

AlArabiya.net has a story on the hottest issue in Saudi Arabia now: women’s driving. The opinions in the story reflect the same ideas we already have read in several places on the issue. The thing that amazed me was the numbers. Check out these numbers, and tell me what you think. The size of the Saudi auto market is huge, with an estimated value of US$ 4.8bn. There are 230,000 new cars on the roads every year. According to some survey, 74% of Saudi women said they would purchase a car if they were allowed to drive. If women were allowed to drive, Saudi women will spend US$ 2.5bn, and the market will reach a 38% growth in the first year. Dr. Mohammed Al-Zulfa says the lost of the Saudi economy caused by foreign drivers is about US$ 4.8bn. And finally, the number that made me go: What? There are more than 300 Saudi women work in Dubai, and most of them drive their own cars. I mean, I know there are Saudi women who work in Dubai, but I never thought there are this many.

Global Voices Online are going to launch a new design tomorrow. I had a sneak preview on the new design, which looks great. I think the new design will help us to reach the goals of this project.

After the London blasts, Jeff Jarvis said he is not sure if the Western world is dealing with the problem of terrorism directly. However, he thinks that Tom Friedmanhas made it clearer when he said, “it’s a Muslim problem, it needs a Muslim solution.” Humoud Abu-Talib, writing for Al-Watan daily, has quoted these words of Friedman:

Either the Muslim world begins to really restrain, inhibit and denounce its own extremists – if it turns out that they are behind the London bombings – or the West is going to do it for them. And the West will do it in a rough, crude way – by simply shutting them out, denying them visas and making every Muslim in its midst guilty until proven innocent.

Abu-Talib wrote: “It is sad that Friedman said ‘every Muslim in its midst guilty until proven innocent’, and it seems that this is what is going to happen.” He also blames the British authorities for being indulgent with the extremists. Abdul Rahman al-Rashed expressed the same idea. “Not only are they admitted to the country, they are also provided with accommodation, a monthly salary, and free legal advice for those who want to prosecute the British government,” he wrote for the English edition of Asharq al-Awsat.

Abu-Talib thinks that what happened will open the gates of hell on Muslims, especially Arab Muslims. “Muslims in Europe will pay the price for the idiocy of lunatics who commit crimes in the name of Islam.”

UPDATE: I reposted this to the GVO blog because I thought the subject worth further discussion. Is it a Muslim problems so Muslims have to solve it themselves, or is it a global problem and the whole world is responsible to find the solution?

A book about the winner of Star Academy? You’ll never know what’s coming next! According to this column by Najwa Hashim, a Saudi journalist is writing a book about Hisham Abdul Rahman, the Saudi contestant who won the second edition of Star Academy, the reality TV show broadcast earlier this year on the Lebanese satellite channel LBC. The book is called “رحلة أبو الهش من عنيزة إلى الأكاديمية” (The Journey of Abul-Hesh from Onaiza to the Academy).

Ferdous Abul-Qassim thinks SCT will need less than five years to prove the success of the local tourism. I doubt it. She said she was surprised when a friend of hers told her that her 21-year-old son never spent a summer vacation in Saudi Arabia! So, I just want to know how could she convince this boy, who knows “every little detail about the streets of Paris and Madrid,” to spend his summer in regions like Hassa and Assir?