Petrol prices and sentencing of Qaddafi’s son heat up debate

Sarah Khamis highlights the trend on Arabic Twitter last week

The price of petrol was among the subjects that inspired social-media users this past week. (Sammy Dallal / The National)

The death sentence given by a Libyan court to Saif Al Islam, the son of Libya’s former dictator Muammar Qaddafi, raised a storm on Twitter. Other dominant topics of discussion included the disappearance of two Emirati brothers in Oman last week, as well as the terrorist attack in Bahrain and the revision of fuel prices in the UAE.

The Libya drama

A large number of tweets denounced the sentencing of Saif Al Islam saying that he was the only person “capable” of salvaging Libya.

Tweeters such as @IgbAtilla wondered whether the verdict will serve any purpose. Making a statement on the current state of affairs in the country, he wondered whether it’s enough just to do away with Qaddafi’s progeny.

The statement of Jim (@anonymous4835) was stronger. “Saif Al Islam may be a criminal, but Nato is not innocent. It also committed war crimes in Libya.”

David (@db2289) too vented his anger at Nato, saying that it “supplied jihadists to destabilise the country”.

“Libya is set to become another Somalia,” wrote @waily_al. “Libyans will forever regret the decision to eliminate Saif Al Islam” .

@moftahhassan saw “Saif Al Islam as a victim of the same people he freed more than a decade ago from Guantanamo Bay prison”.

Emirati tragedy

According to the latest reports, a Royal Oman Air Force helicopter has joined the search for two Emirati brothers – Mansour, 19, and Abdullah, 21 – who went missing off the country’s southern coast last week.

Tweeters such as @hudhudoman1 and @NET_AD expressed disappointment that a week of searches has not yielded any clue.

Others, meanwhile, held the men in their prayers.

Bahrain attack

Another tragedy happened in Bahrain earlier this week when terrorists killed two policemen in the village of Sitra, south of the capital Manama. The incident, which came hard on the heels of the government’s declaration that it had disrupted an arms smuggling plot linked to Iran, evoked plenty of responses.

Directing the comment at Iran, @m_s_albishr wrote that Tehran was “wasting its resources in terrorism, while so many people in the country go hungry”.

The comment of @ArabYouth was even tougher: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will spark violent revolution.”

The oil issue

Needless to say that the rise in fuel prices in the UAE was a hot topic on Twitter. Some of the tweets were interesting.

One from @fares, for example, had a link to a site that helps individuals calculate how much it would cost to fill the tank of a car under the new rates.

@dbelhoul shared a hopeful expectation: “August could be the month that will help enhance the level of UAE economy”.

Dr Ali Al Noaimi (@Dralnoaimi) reassured the public saying that anyone trying to take advantage of the price increase will be dealt with severely.

@NET_AD shared a consumer-protection hotline number that would allow people to report any irregularities.

Sarah Khamis is The National’s social media editor

On Twitter: @SarahKhamisUAE