John R. Bradley

Last updated

John R. Bradley (born 6 June 1970 [1] ) is a British author and journalist who has written on Middle East issues for numerous publications, including The Economist , The Forward , Newsweek , The New Republic , The Daily Telegraph , Prospect and The Independent . Beginning in early 2011 he was a regular contributor to The Daily Mail, The Spectator , [2] where he highlighted Islamist trends in the Arab Spring. He has also appeared on television networks such as CNN, [3] C-SPAN and Fox News. [4]

Contents

Bradley was educated at University College London, Dartmouth College and Exeter College, Oxford. [5]

According to an article published in May 2015 by Vice magazine, Bradley "has remov[ed] himself from public life due to ill health," [6] a statement that confirms an earlier posting by Bradley himself on his personal website. [7]

Career

Bradley is best known for his 2008 book Inside Egypt which accurately predicted the Egyptian uprising of January 2011 that ousted president Hosni Mubarak. In May 2011, Fareed Zakaria selected Inside Egypt as his "Book of the Week" on his GPS show:

“(This) book… in a strikingly prescient way… foretold the January revolution. (It) was banned by Mubarak’s regime — and understandably so! If you want to understand how Egypt got to this crossroads, read this book.” [8]

For two and a half years beginning June 2001, he worked as a news editor and managing editor for the English-language daily newspaper Arab News in Saudi Arabia. Unlike other journalists until that time he was able to travel most of the country without a minder. [9] Based on his experiences he wrote the book Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. The book received considerable praise, with for example the New York Times review saying it provides "a highly informed, temperate and understanding account" of the country. [10]

Bradley lectured on the Middle East at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy [11] and Intelligence Squared in London. [5]

Publications

Related Research Articles

Islamism is a religio-political ideology. While there is no consensus definition of Islamism, which has many varieties and alternative names, and whose use is objected to by some as derogatory, and by others as so broad and flexible as to have lost its meaning; at least in its original form, Islamism described an ideology seeking to revive Islam to its past assertiveness and glory, purifying it of foreign elements, reasserting its role into “social and political as well as personal life"; and in particular “reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam". According to at least one observer, Islamist movements have "arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence", redefining "politics and even borders".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim Brotherhood</span> Transnational Sunni Islamist organization

The Society of the Muslim Brothers, better known as the Muslim Brotherhood, is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties—not all using the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hosni Mubarak</span> Fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011

Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic organization that was founded in Ismailia, Egypt by Hassan al-Banna in March 1928 as an Islamist religious, political, and social movement. The group spread to other Muslim countries but has its largest, or one of its largest, organizations in Egypt, where for many years it has been the largest, best-organized, and most disciplined political opposition force, despite a succession of government crackdowns in 1948, 1954, 1965 after plots, or alleged plots, of assassination and overthrow were uncovered. Following the 2011 Revolution the group was legalized, and in April 2011 it launched a civic political party called the Freedom and Justice Party (Egypt) to contest elections, including the 2012 presidential election when its candidate Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first democratically elected president. One year later, however, following massive demonstrations, Morsi was overthrown by the military and arrested. As of 2014, the organization has been declared a terrorist group by Russia, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia and is once again suffering a severe crackdown.

<i>Tash ma Tash</i> Saudi Arabian satirical comedy

Tash Ma Tash (1993–2011) was a popular Saudi Arabian satirical comedy that ran for 18 seasons and is considered one of the most successful television works in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world. The show followed a sketch comedy format. It aired on the Saudi State-owned television channel Saudi 1 for 13 seasons but in 2005 it was bought by MBC. New episodes ran exclusively during Ramadan right after sunset. The United States Library of Congress requested some parts of the work to be placed in the library’s archive. The idea of the series started through the artists Abdullah Al Sadhan and Nasser Al Qasabi, and directed by Amer Al Hamoud. After the first two seasons, the trio separated to be the duo Abdullah Al Sadhan and Nasser Al-Qasabi, in cooperation with the director Abdul Khaleq AlGhanem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palgrave Macmillan</span> English publishing house

Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offices in London, New York, Shanghai, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Delhi, and Johannesburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nasseef House</span> Historical structure in Saudi Arabia

Nasseef House or Nassif House is a historical structure in Al-Balad, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. As of 2009, it is a museum and cultural center which has special exhibits and lectures given by historians.

Karantina is an area in southern Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Sherifa D. Zuhur is an academic and national security scholar of the Middle East and Islamic world. She was most recently a visiting scholar at the Center for Middle East Studies, University of California, Berkeley and is the director of the Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic and Strategic Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Suwaidi (Riyadh)</span> Neighbourhood in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Al-Suwaidi is a residential neighborhood and a subject of Baladiyah al-Urayja located on the right bank of Wadi Hanifa in southwestern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the city's 'residential districts' and is relatively overpopulated in terms of the standards of Riyadh.

The Arab Cold War was a period of political rivalry in the Arab world from the early 1950s to the late 1970s as part of the broader Cold War. The generally accepted beginning of the Arab Cold War was the Egyptian revolution of 1952, which ultimately led to Gamal Abdel Nasser becoming President of Egypt in 1956. Thereafter, newly established Arab republics defined by revolutionary secular nationalism, and largely drawing inspiration from Nasser's Egypt, were engaged in political rivalries of varying degrees of ferocity with conservative traditionalist Arab monarchies, led chiefly by Saudi Arabia. The approximate end point of this period of internecine rivalry and conflict is generally viewed as being the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which culminated in the installation of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the leader of Iran's theocratic government. Thereafter, the bitterness of intra-Arab strife was eclipsed by a new era of Arab-Iranian tensions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arab Spring</span> Protests and revolutions in the Arab world in the 2010s

The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām!.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wael Ghonim</span> Egyptian activist and engineer

Wael Ghonim is an Internet activist and computer engineer with an interest in social entrepreneurship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014)</span> State crisis between 2011 and 2014

The Egyptian Crisis is a period that started with the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and ended with a new government under the presidency of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2014. It was a tumultuous three years of political and social unrest, characterized by mass protests, a series of popular elections, deadly clashes, and military reinforcement. The events have had a lasting effect on the country's current course, its political system and its society.

The history of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak spans a period of 29 years, beginning with the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat and lasting until the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, when Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising as part of the broader Arab Spring movement. His presidency was marked by a continuation of the policies pursued by his predecessor, including the liberalization of Egypt's economy and a commitment to the 1979 Camp David Accords. The Egyptian government under Mubarak also maintained close relations with the other member states of the Arab League, as well as the United States, Russia, India, and much of the Western World. However, international non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly criticized his administration's human rights record. Concerns raised include political censorship, police brutality, arbitrary detention, torture, and restrictions on freedoms of speech, association, and assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egypt–Saudi Arabia relations</span> Bilateral relations

Historically, relations between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could be considered as extending several centuries back to the relations between earlier regimes in Egypt – the highly autonomous Egypt Eyalet in the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt – and the earlier manifestations of Saudi/Wahhabi power in the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are both highly influential countries in the Arab world. Egypt is the most populous Arab country, and Saudi Arabia is a member of the G20. According to a 2013 Pew global opinion poll, 78% of Egyptians express a favourable view of Saudi Arabia, and 19% express an unfavourable view.

<i>Okaz</i> Arabic Saudi Arabian daily newspaper

Okaz is an Arabic Saudi Arabian daily newspaper located in Jeddah. The paper was launched in 1960 and its sister publication is Saudi Gazette. The paper is simultaneously printed in both Riyadh and Jeddah and has offices all over Saudi Arabia. However, the daily mainly serves the provinces of the Hejaz and Asir. As of 2012 Abdullah Saleh Kamel was the chairman of the board of directors of the Okaz Organization for Press and Publication. Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker states that Okaz is "like an Arabic version" of the New York Post.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in the Arab Spring</span>

Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rawya Rageh</span>

Rawya Rageh is an Egyptian journalist and Senior Crisis Adviser for Amnesty International based in New York City. She was previously a broadcast journalist known for her in-depth coverage of notable stories across the Middle East and Africa, including the Iraq War, the Darfur crisis in Sudan, the Saddam Hussein trial, the Arab Spring, and the Boko Haram conflict in Northern Nigeria. Working as a correspondent for the Al Jazeera English network her contribution to the Peabody Award-winning coverage the network provided of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the Arab Spring was documented in the books 18 Days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution and Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation. The news story she broadcast on 25 January, the first day of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, was selected by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism as one of the "50 Great Stories" produced by its alumni in the past 100 years. In addition to her broadcast reporting, Rageh is an active social media journalist, recognized by the Washington Post as one of "The 23 Accounts You Must Follow to Understand Egypt" and by Forbes Middle East Magazine as one of the "100 Arab personalities with the most presence on Twitter."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict</span> Diplomatic issue between Qatar and Saudi Arabia

The Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict refers to the ongoing struggle for regional influence between Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), both of which are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It is sometimes called the New Arab Cold War. Bilateral relations are especially strained since the beginning of the Arab Spring, that left a power vacuum both states sought to fill, with Qatar being supportive of the revolutionary wave and Saudi Arabia opposing it. Both states are allies of the United States, and have avoided direct conflict with one another.

References

  1. Contemporary Authors database
  2. The Spectator: John R. Bradley, author page
  3. John R. Bradley on CNN discussing the death of Saudi King Fahd
  4. John R. Bradley on Fox News discussing the Egyptian revolution
  5. 1 2 Intelligence Squared. John R Bradley Archived 10 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Behind the Rise of Hijab Porn".
  7. "8. John R. Bradley (Biography)". 25 August 2014.
  8. CNN World. Global Public Square. Book of the Week: Banned by Mubarak regime May 23rd, 2011
  9. Bradley, John R. (2005). Saudi Arabia Exposed : Inside a Kingdom in Crisis . Palgrave. pp. xii–xiv. ISBN   9781403964335.
  10. "A Glimpse of Forces Confronting Saudi Rule". The New York Times. 17 August 2005.
  11. Saudi Monarchy: Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution? Featuring John R. Bradley and Rachel Bronson 7 July 2005
  12. William Grimes, "A Glimpse of Forces Confronting Saudi Rule", The New York Times, 17 August 2005,
  13. "Unveiling the Middle East's Sex Industry," Salon.com, 27 September 2010,