"She said: 'Kings, when they enter a country, they despoil it,
and make the noblest of its people its meanest, thus do they behave.' she said"
                                                                                    Holy Quran
                                                                                   Saurat al-Naml (out of context) 

In Iraq: the Sadrist militias force a stalemat, so far.
Saudis trash the Arab summit. Leaders avoid Somali trap.
Qaddafi in the limelight again.
In Egypt: Salafi doctrine vs. populist politics.
UAE: the right venue for a mother of all 'beauty' contests.

                                       
 Source: Elaph                                          Mubarak et fils: sales tactics             UA beauties
Last supper: aber wer Judas ist? 

On Iraq:
At this point it is not clear how the campaign against the Sadrists will go. The battle looks like an overall stalemate so far. The problem for the Iraqi military and the supporting US firepower is the same faced by all those who have fought a guerrilla force with a strong popular base. It is clear that the Sadrists are popular in some areas of southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad- as popular as the Sunni insurgents and the Awakening Councils are in, say, al-Anbar.

This morning Senator Graham (R-SC) on CNN: "You can't have militias take the place of lawful authority." True, the militias must go if Iraq is to stabilize, but what about the militias of the Awakening Councils? They are also taking the place of lawful authority, and they are not likely to accept the authority of a central government dominated by Shi'as and Kurds.

This morning Senator Mel Martinez (R-Fla) on CNN; "The Shi'a militias cannot go unfettered. They have pacified the armed Sunnis, now they will pacify the Shi'a militias."
The armed Sunnis militias have not been exactly pacified, as the senator claimed. They have been bought and brought in from the cold for the time being. They have been given some new monikers(Awakening Councils, Sons of Guns, etc), and they are still armed. Now they have more money, better training, and have a little bit better hope of someday overturning whatever regime in Baghdad they don't like and installing another of their famous regimes of the past.

Saudis TP Arab Summit:
Saudi Arabian media, and its satellites in parts of Lebanon and the Gulf, have tried to mark the Damascus summit as a failure even before it started. Yeterday's headlines in the Saudi press ran as follows:
"The Damascus summit...and its risks."
"The bitter Syrian harvest."
"The ultimate summit of insults."
"From a sumit to a catastrophe."....ad nauseaum.

Yesterday there were criticisms of practically everything at the summit, the kind of criticism we used to see in Arab media about Israel in the bad old days:
 
Alarabiya the Saudi news channel, reported that it was the first time the host (Syrian) president and Arab League Secretary General did not start by exchanging "Islamic greetings", whatever that means. So, did they shalom each other instead? That will still be close enough.

It reported that "observers have noted" that the summit was the first ever not to start with a reading of the Quran. (Perhaps the secular Syrians were trying to tell the Iranian mullahs something? Or maybe they just wanted to irritate the Saudis? Or both?)

It was the first summit where the current chair (Syria) has refused to officially receive the chairmanship from the outgoing chair (Saudi Arabia). Maybe that was because the outgoing chair was not there, he had sent his doorman, remember?

Expect complaints soon about the quality of the water, the food served, or perhaps availability of toilet tissue or its quality which may not be up to the usual accustomed royal "standards". Speaking of which: the Saudis and their Lebanese rump cabinet allies are going out of their way to seriously trash the Damascus Summit. Literally they are Toilet Papering it because they did not get their treat, i.e. their way in Lebanon.

Saudi media, which has always been pissed at Qaddafi, were even more so. Apparently Qaddafi downplayed the issue of three islands that Iran occupies and the UAE claims, calling it a fake issue. Qaddafi also wildly claimed that 80% of the people who live along the Gulf are Iranians, something that further irritated Aalarabiya's unknown "Gulf sources". This last assertion was definitely an exaggeration by Qaddafi, or maybe his data sources are confused.

As a reaction an 'Unknown' Gulf source (read a Saudi source) also lashed out at the Libyan for deploying his country's resources solely for the purpose of keeping himself in power, noting that Qaddafi has been in power for 39 years. In that last one Qaddafi is a true Arab leader, he rules for life- then tries to hand the torch to his son. Just like the dynasties of Assad, Mubarak, Salih, and all the other monarchies.

Nevertheless Qaddafi, as usual, managed to have the last word, and it was the best one: he said that this summit was no more and no less successful tha others that preceded it.

On the positive side, the leaders managed to dodge a Somali bullet. The next summit was slated for Somalia (I bet you didn't know Somalia is an Arab country, did you? Well, sometimes I forget that too. And no, Zimbabwe is not an Arab state, although it acts like one), but the leaders wisely decided to shift it to Doha, Qatar. That was probably the third wisest decision of the summit, after the decisions to hold the meeting and to adjourn.

Use and abuse of religion in the New Middle East:
A fatwa by an Egyptian Salafi shaikh that Mr. Mubarak's son should inherit the presidency has been dutifully sent to some committe at al-Azhar. It is not clear what these people have to say about something that the Egyptian people should decide through voting. Salafi doctrine, as far as I know, calls for obedience to the ruler, be he king or dictator or clown, as long he he keeps on building mosques and allows prayers to be held. He can be a Muslim Caligula or Nero, but as long as he allows the five main foundations of the faith, then he should be obeyed.
Now you know why some of these potentates lean toward the Salafi fundamentalists. Something went wrong in the case of Bin Laden and his group- a lot of mosques are always being built in Arabia, many more than schools or hospitals.
Speaking of building and groups: the 'other' Bin Laden Group is reportedly slated to work on a bridge that connects the Arabian Peninsula to Africa from the shortest point of distance, between Yemen and Djibouti. 

Some of these worried shaikhs at al-Azhar did not want to sound doubtful about the son inheriting Egypt's throne. They went so far recently as to bring up the example of the Prophet Mohammed and Abu Bakr, his close friend and first successor. Husni Mubarak and his son Gamal as the early Caliphs?

Fortunately a shaikh from the Islamic Research Center noted that early Muslim did NOT believe in hereditary rule, that neither the Prophet nor the early four Khalifas appointed their children to rule as monarchs. That started with the Ummayed dynasty.

Meanwhile an Egyptian journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison for spreading 'lies' about the health of President Husni Mubarak (80 years of age).  Mr. Mubarak is prepping his son Gamal to take over after he leaves the scene.

Mother of All the Camel Races::
Next Wednesday the UAE will hold the largest beauty contest ever, for camels (probably the largest ever for any creature). It will last for one week. Contest officials in Abu Dhabi claim that more than 10,000 dromedary beauties from the various Gulf GCC countries will participate.
Officials said that judging will focus on the top, front and rear end of each animal. Speaking of dromedary rear ends, did I mention that another Arab Summit has just ended? 

Emphasis in the contest will be on purity of breed, and hybrids need not apply.
This is one event in the Gulf, perhaps in the whole Middle East, I would like to attend, but alas, purity of breed is not enough to qualify: I am no dromedary.

The UAE is the only Arab country that has managed to succeed in holding large regional and international events, as has Qatar to a lesser extent. With over ten thousand camels vying for votes, and many more people, imagine the mess any other Gulf (and Arab) country would make of such an event. Just the logistics of removing (as in shoveling) the daily products of the camels would be daunting, even for the best and brightest of the local managerial pool. Think of all that natural fuel, think of yelleh, a.k.a. the indispnsable camel chips.
Cheers
mhg
m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com


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