Beehive: Volume 2, Issue 4, April 2014

The articles in this issue illustrate the importance of social networks (SNS) as an arena for driving political and social processes in the Middle East. In the last month, Farsi-language SNS conducted a successful online campaign for the release of five Iranian soldiers who were kidnapped by a Balochi organization, while Turkish networks reflect increasing political polarization  in light of the municipal elections and the state’s decision to block access to Twitter and YouTube. This issue also includes a discussion of the discourse within Saudi Arabia’s Shi‘i minority community regarding its relationship to the Sunni state.