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New Statesman - The Emir of Qatar (754 words) |
 | In his little state, jutting like a thumb off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, the Emir has balanced the need to keep his conservative, Wahhabist subjects happy with his plans to modernise and gently liberalise Qatar, in a way that could provide a template for the region. |
| The best-known of the Emir's initiatives, al-Jazeera, became a familiar name when Bin Laden chose the station to send his video messages to the west, but suffered as a result from western perceptions that it was an al-Qaeda propaganda tool. |
| Such open discussion would be astonishing, were it not that Qatar's new constitution, endorsed by 96 per cent of voters in a referendum, enshrines the principle of universal suffrage. |
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