Category Archives: Arabian Peninsula

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Human Right, Saudi Arabia

Kangaroo Trial: Secret Saudi Court Sentences Human Rights Activist to Prison………

    

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“The Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) has received information concerning the sentencing of human rights defender Mohammed Albajady in Saudi Arabia, to four years in prison imprisonment followed by a five-year travel ban. The sentence was handed down following a secret trial in flagrant breach of fair procedures and in total disregard for his right to a fair trial. Mohammed Albajady co-founded the Saudi Civil & Political Rights Association (HSM), in October 2009. He was previously the host of a weekly on-line forum called “The citizen and his rights”. The GCHR issued an appeal on his case on 10 April 2012 (http://gc4hr.org/news/view/116). On 10 April 2012 the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh, established to try terrorism and security-related offences, reportedly held a secret session during which the four-year prison sentence was handed down. According to information received, soldiers in military uniforms and representative of the governmental National Human Rights Commission attended the trial. However, neither Mohammed Albajady‘s family nor his legal representatives were told of the court session…………”


This was a classic Saudi kangaroo court: his lawyers and his family were not aware of the court session that sentenced him. That means Mohammed al-Bejady was alone in a room facing some sycophants of the al-Saud princes calling themselves “judges”. In the secret trial, he was sentenced to two prison sentences. The first sentence is four years in a small al-Saud cell. The second sentence is five years travel ban: in effect five years in a larger al-Saud cell.
Arab regimes, especially on the Gulf, love to sentence people to travel bans (it is probably against the laws and against human rights to do so, but who cares). A reminder of the old Soviet Union. I guess our potentates on the Gulf look at it this way: four year not traveling means four years staring at the pictures and videos of the princes all over the media. Not only do they oppress and rob you, but you are forced to watch them honored for it everyday. Just adding some insult to the injury. That ought to be punishment enough.
Mr. al-Bajady will now serve nine years: a sentence passed by faceless Wahhabi Salafi judges appointed by the al-Saud princes. Many others have been sentenced the same way, some to prison, some to flogging and beheading in the Kingdom without Magic. Many thousands are in prison, many of them have yet to be charged and sentenced.
Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Sports

Lawlessness in Bahrain: Formula One East of the Pecos………….

    

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“Bernie Ecclestone denied all knowledge of protests and violence in Bahrain, as a 15-year-old boy lay in intensive care after being shot by anti-riot police. The bullish Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder for Formula One, also denied all knowledge of anyone being shot by police. “Nobody has been shot,” he said. “What are you talking about?” He then swore and stormed of…………”

“Armed gangs and foreign militias are wreaking havoc in the country, attacking people, assaulting, stealing, destroying, breaking. Neither the law nor regime institutions seem to control them….”
 
No, this is not the Congo (either one) or Timbuktu or parts of Syria. It is not Dodge City or some wild town West of the Pecos, or New Orleans after Katrina. This last quote was a tweet by the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). This is Bahrain they are talking about, occupied Bahrain, its people terrorized by regime goons, foreign mercenaries, and Saudi (& Emirati) invasion forces. Bahrain on the eve of the Formula One Grand Prix event.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

Gulf Prisoners of Conscience: AlKhawaja of Bahrain, al-Bejadi of Arabia, and Al Hypocritical West………….

    

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““Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a military court, is now in a critical stage of a hunger strike which has gone on for 64 days. Foreign doctors who have been to see him have said he is at serious risk of death if he continues. The Bahraini government has rejected increasing international pressure to release him, and has limited outside access. His plight has begun to draw attention to the failure of reform in Bahrain, including an unusual White House statement yesterday. If he dies, it could mark a significant breaking point for the regime’s efforts to rehabilitate its tarnished reputation — and could accelerate the disturbing trend toward militant radicalization in the opposition. Hunger striking has become a distinctive phenomenon in the current round of Arab protest movements. It has a long history, marking many of the major emancipatory struggles throughout the world from British suffragettes to Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers. It has recently emerged as a particularly important form of protest against tyrannical states. From Palestine, to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, prisoners of conscience have used the last thing they control — their bodies — as a tool of dissent. Palestinian Hana Shalabi was released by the Israelis after a 43-day hunger strike, while Mohamed Albajadi in Saudi Arabia is on his 33rd day. Al-Khawaja’s hunger strike, by dovetailing on the back of a revolutionary tide, and supported by a digitally wired and outspoken family, has elevated his protest beyond his prison walls……………” Foreign Policy

If Al-Khawaja of Bahrain and al-Bejadi of the Arabian Peninsula, with their brave acts of self-sacrifice, are trying to shame the Western powers they will not succeed. Western governments have proven their total hypocrisy and shamelessness this past year, from Washington through London and Paris to Berlin. They opposed the Arab uprisings until the fall of the despots in Tunisia and Egypt, then they rode the bandwagon. They were friends of Qaddafi until his country was split by revolt. They supported the despot in Yemen and, along with the Saudis, contrived to keep his hapless regime in power without him. They continue to support the murderous regime in Bahrain, ignoring its despotic and gangster nature.
The only Arab people the Western powers seem to profess to really like are the Syrians. They have shown eagerness to help get rid of the dictator of Damascus, but only him among all Arab despots. Now if you think a reactionary opportunistic politician like Joe Lieberman is looking for the interests of the Syrian people, I still have that one-eyed lame camel for sale.
Cheers
mhg


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Al-Qaeda, Arab Politics, Arabian Peninsula, GCC

A Gulf GCC Dilemma: Tribes without Flags……..

    

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I was intrigued by a tweet from a Saudi demanding “Freedom for Hamza. If it weren’t for racism he’d be at home now”. It was of course about Saudi journalist Hamza Kashghari who was arrested in Malaysia through Interpol and sent to Saudi Arabia to face death by beheading based on a sick Salafi definition of “blasphemy”.
It took me a few seconds to realize what they meant by “racism”. It has to do with tribes, they meant “tribalism“. In our Gulf GCC states, the tribe is the most important thing to many people, the only true loyalty of many is to the tribe. The tweeter meant that if Hamza belonged to one of the large Saudi tribes, he would be out. He is not of a tribal background, as his name clearly indicates, hence he has no tribal advocates.
This is a phenomenon in our Gulf states where some people profess loyalty to country but they are practicing deceit (tribal taqiya) because they have shown that their true loyalty is to the tribe. In one Gulf state, in my own hometown, tribal members stormed and trashed a television station last February because someone criticized the tribe in an interview. Another tribe also attacked and ransacked a television studio because they did not like what someone said about their tribal leader last month. One tribe sent hundreds, maybe thousands, out to the street when members were arrested. Tribal members spring each other out of prison and there are cases where journalists were shot for ‘disrespecting” a tribe.
Tribalism also explains why next door in Saudi Arabia they have a system of soft rehabilitation for suspected al-Qaeda terrorists, but only for tribal terrorists. This means it does not apply to others like Hamza Kashghari or to Shia suspects because they are not tribal. They have no tribe advocating for them.
This tribal system is all over the Gulf GCC states and it is like a disease that eats the social and political fabric. The ruling potentates usually like it because they used to believe that tribes were more loyal than city people. That is not always true, although it may be true in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for specific reasons. The Qatari ruler had serious troubles with some disloyal tribe that backed a Saudi plot to overthrow him during the 1990s.
In the end tribal people are mainly loyal to their tribes. The tribes, on their part, are often loyal to more than one ruling dynasty, often depending on who pays more. Yet several tribes have their main branches inside Saudi Arabia, hence their deeper loyalties may be to the Saudi princes rather than the other potentates. This can happen in one or two other GCC states that host large cross-border tribes.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Hezbollah, Iran, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy, Yemen

The Usual Suspects: Hezbollah and Hamas in Yemen and Casablanca………….

    

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Captain Renault: “Major Strasser’s been shot. Round up the usual suspects.“  Casablanca

“Washington believes Iran is working with Shi’ite Muslim rebels in northern Yemen and secessionists in the country’s south to expand its influence at the expense of Yemen’s Gulf neighbours, the U.S. envoy to Sanaa was quoted as saying on Sunday. The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat cited Gerald Feierstein, in an interview in London, as accusing Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas of helping their backers in Shi’ite Iran at the expense of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc in which Sunni-led oil giant Saudi Arabia’s influence is dominant. “The Iranians want to build influence in Yemen… both internally and more broadly in the region by establishing a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula,” the paper quoted Feierstein as saying in remarks published in Arabic. “It’s something that’s naturally regarded as a security threat to Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC states.” Feierstein told Reuters in an interview last month that there were signs of greater Iranian activity in Yemen, There is evidence that Hezbollah and Hamas support this Iranian effort ……….”

Also sprach the US ambassador quoted by Saudi semi-official daily al-Hayat (owned by Prince Khalid Bin Sultan).
Yemen is much more complex than the picture this ambassador paints. Al-Qaeda has become a major disruptive force across Yemen now, including the once secular south. That is what 20 years of union with the tribal north Yemen has done to the rest of the country. That and nearly twenty years of Saudi Wahhabi influence.
The fact is that the GCC (Saudi) plan that the West supported in Yemen does not meet the aspirations of most Yemeni people (excluding Tawakkol Karman). The killings by regime forces continue, except that Arab and Western media are not covering them anymore. The people want a regime change, but they had a reactionary status-quo GCC plan rammed down their throats. Clearly they are not accepting it.
There is some Iranian involvement and influence in parts of Yemen, just as there are Saudi influences in parts of Yemen. And there is American influence, especially in the skies. But it is not clear how Hamas and Hezbollah got together in Yemen. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood Sunni, Hezbollah is Shi’a. Maybe the ambassador has some evidence he can’t share with the public. It is also quite likely he is just mouthing the same old manta the Yemen regime has been repeating for the past two or three years. The “foreign interference” mantra most Arab regimes repeat when they are in trouble in places like Bahrain and Syria and before them in Egypt and Libya.
Of course, this is not to say there is no Iranian interference, there probably is some of that (the theory of political vacuum and all that). But Hamas and Hezbollah? That sounds like a 2012 American presidential campaign slogan, produced by AIPAC.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Religion, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, WTF

Paid Fatwa: Using Allah in Politics…………

    

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“She said: “Kings, when they enter a country, despoil it, and make the noblest of its people its meanest thus do they behave….…..” Holy Quran, Surat al-Naml (The Ants)

“The protests in Eastern Saudi Arabia have been ongoing for several years now; the protesters from the Saudi Shiite minority, a majority in the Eastern province, are only demanding end of all forms of discrimination in public and private sector jobs, improved housing (some live in shameful slums), and a ban on incitement against their faith. The hard-line religious establishment opposes any reforms, and continues to consider Shiites heretics. Recently, and when asked on the proper punishment for protesters, the Saudi Mufti cited the following verse from the Quran:
“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter“. (below, a photo of Saudi’s mufti)…………”

The royally-paid always-accommodating Grand Mufti said: “execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land“. Nice Effing Mufti, huh?
Yet that is what is being done in the kingdom without magic, except it is easier nowadays to shoot and torture and imprison them. Waging war against oppression and corruption is twisted as waging war against God. Of course, that Hadith applies more to the princes and their retainers, for it is they who wage war against God by disobeying Quranic and Hadith rules against oppression and corruption and hypocrisy. By their very existence they disobey Islamic rules against the rule of kings and princes.

FYI for my new readers only: His Muftiness Shaikh Abdulaziz Al Al Shaikh is
a relative of that other Shaikh Al Al Al Shaikh who heads the Saudi Commission
for the Propagation of Vice (religious police). They are both relative of that
other Shaikh Al AL Al Shaikh who used to be the Saudi Minister of Justice,
among others. All these Al Al Shaiks are descendants of Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab
of Nejd, after who the Wahhabi sect is named. They have been close allies of
the al-Saud clan, sometimes more than just allies if you get my drift. Mr.
Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab should not be confused with the late great Egyptian
musician and singer Mohammed Abdelwahhab, who was no Salafi, not even a
Wahhbai, but an Egyptian-style bon vivant.


Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Human Right, Racism, Religion, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Hateful Scientific Grand Mufti and Salafis Call for Destruction of All Gulf Churches……….

 

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“The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has said it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region,” following Kuwait’s moves to ban their construction. Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, stressed that since the tiny Gulf state was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, it was necessary to destroy all of the churches in the country, Arabic media have reported. Saudi Arabia’s top cleric made the comment in view of an age-old rule that only Islam can be practiced in the region. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom. He is also the head of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas……….”

At least their hateful muftis do ‘scientific research’, but perhaps not the kind that deals with quantum physics or astronomy. These gentlemen deal in more useful types of research. Now the Grand Mufti (I can’t help it: this “Grand” always remind me of a piano, something His Muftiness hates) is close to the royal family. His Muftiness is appointed by the king and he issues fatwas that support the al-Saud policies at home and in the rest of the world.
About
this call for tearing down the churches: again this does not fit well with the narrative of the offshore “dialog of faiths” that the Saudis publicize in the West. Not when they and their Salafi agents around the Gulf are calling for such intolerance even as they invite millions of non-Muslims to come toil for them, to come and “defend” them. Then people like Geert Wilders, Pam Geller, Liz Cheney, and others will say: aha, we were right!

FYI

for my new readers only: His Muftiness Shaikh Abdulaziz Al Al Shaikh is a relative of that other Shaikh Al Al Al Shaikh who heads the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Vice (religious police). They are both relative of that other Shaikh Al AL Al Shaikh who used to be the Saudi Minister of Justice, among others. All these Al Al Shaiks are descendants of Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab of Nejd, after who the Wahhabi sect is named. They have been close allies of the al-Saud clan, sometimes more than just allies if you get my drift. Mr. Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab should not be confused with the late great Egyptian musician and singer Mohammed Abdelwahhab, who was no Salafi, not even a Wahhbai, was not a “bin” but an Egyptian-style bon vivant.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arabian Peninsula, Human Right, Saudi Arabia

Arabian Peninsula: in a Remote Gulag in the Desert………

 

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“At a small oasis far out in the desert, Abdulkarim al Khadr, a dismissed Professor of Theology, elucidates texts for his student Yusuf. He speaks the clear and ornate high Arabic of Islamic scholarship and cites the Koran and Sayings of Mohammed. The Prophet himself said that the struggle against vice in one’s own country is of greater merit than fighting against the unbelievers abroad. He says that it is the royal family that constantly speaks of bloody Jihad in order to discredit the justified demands for reform within the kingdom. The dissident and chairman of the unauthorized “Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association” demands reforms, yet he does not mean an opening of Saudi society. The uncompromising Islamist wants a transformation of the political system. He says that it is the royal family that constantly speaks of bloody Jihad in order to discredit the justified demands for reform within the kingdom. The dissident and chairman of the unauthorized “Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association” demands reforms, yet he does not mean an opening of Saudi society. The uncompromising Islamist wants a transformation of the political system. Most theologians in Saudi Arabia keep far removed from politics and follow the royal family like lambs, he says mockingly. They soil the memory of the most respected Companions of the Prophet by demanding blind obedience to the ruler, while at the same time ignoring the lack of rights for all citizens. He does not wish to talk of regime change, and even less so of terrorism. He thereby remains a troublesome adversary for the government. There are currently more than 5000 political prisoners from the Qassim Province alone. Most of them were jailed without due trial, claims the dismissed professor and he energetically rejects the assertion that these are Al-Qaida terrorists. His 17-year-old son has been sitting for two years in prison in order to silence Abdulkarim al Khadr. He nonetheless refuses to keep silent. His Internet site is regularly blocked and then quickly reopened under a new name..………”
Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy, Wahhabi, Yemen

Of Iranian Mullahs, Saudi Princes, the Old Ikhwan, and Walled Cities on the Gulf…..

“For, since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, US and Saudi foreign policy has been almost single-mindedly dedicated to destabilising Iran. Indeed, there is a way to understand the post-1979 political history of the region stretching from Pakistan to the Red Sea as permutations of an ongoing and devastating battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The export of the battle keeps expanding: sectarian violence has become ubiquitous in countries where it had been non-existent. Colonial powers may have engineered sectarian strife into the geography of countries like Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, but what of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and even Bahrain? The expanding battle field tells us something about shifts in Saudi ambitions, and the anxieties that shape them. The Kingdom that exports terrorism is also the Kingdom of the terrified………. Saudi Arabia has never fought a war. In fact, as the embarrassing flight from Al Khafji well ahead of a badly battered Iraqi brigade demonstrated, the Saudi army is not capable of managing even a scrimmage. However, the government has been engaged in proxy wars more or less continuously since 1962……………..”

She says: “US and Saudi foreign policy has been almost single-mindedly dedicated to destabilising Iran….“  Yet that is also what the USA and the Saudi regime accuse Iran of doing around the Middle East. My humble guess: they are both doing it to each other. But the weapon of sectarian divisiveness and hatred is a specialty of the Saudi regime, and they have used it effectively in the Gulf region in the past few years.

Actually the al-Saud clan and their fanatical Ikhwan Wahhabi tribal troops initially waged wars to expand their domain and bite off big chunks of other countries early in the 20th century. They focused on countries that were not part of the British or other European empires. They preferred to attack and invade neighboring countries that were not under any foreign protection. They tried briefly to conquer one country that was part of the British Empire, Kuwait, but were disabused on the notion quickly. (For a long time the Kuwaitis had to build a wall around the old city for protection).
They conquered and annexed big chunks of Yemen, invaded Hashemite-ruled Hijaz (Mecca and Madinah), and occupied and annexed al-Ahsa’a (now part of the Eastern Province). That was early in the 20th century, before the “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” was announced.


But all that was then. The Ikhwan fanatics are long gone, disbanded long ago when their usefulness to king Ibn Saud ended. If they were around, the Ikhwan would be fighting against the princes whose corruption and opulent lifestyles would be abhorrent to them. The regular Saudi army is not a force capable of fighting wars. It is one of the best-armed, or most expensively armed, military forces in the world, but that is all. Advanced weapons alone do not make a capable military force, otherwise the UAE would be a superpower. Two years ago they were soundly defeated by the Huthi tribal clans of northern Yemen.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Libya, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

Libya and the GCC: a Garbled Speech, a King’s Urge to Merge……….

 

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The late Muammar Qaddafi was famous for his ‘urge to merge’ with nations (as well as with women). He tried merging Libya with Egypt, Tunis, Chad, Algeria, Morocco and other assorted African states. Qaddafi became a legendary advocate of Arab mergers, before he gave up on Arabs and faced the rest of Africa. Saudi kings and princes normally have restricted their ‘urge to merge’ to women, multiple wives among others. But nowadays they are getting into the political side of ‘merging’ as well.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, in another one of his unintelligible speeches a couple of weeks ago, again brought up the issue of a “confederation” or “union” among the Gulf GCC nations. Hard to believe that Arabic, one of the most beautiful languages, originated from the same place as these barely intelligible princes. Jordan and Morocco have not even joined the GCC yet, at the invitation of Saudi King Abdullah. But the princes are now distracted, they have other plans.
Saudi officials and media of course have started now to echo the king. They are saturating their vast outlets with calls for more “integration”. Their agents and trolls are all over the internet encouraging it. True to form, Wahhabi faux-liberal media and tribal academics in one or two Gulf states, and the Salafi fifth column in one or two Gulf states, have taken their cue and are treating the king’s speech as the equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount. They are pushing for Saudi hegemony over the GCC nations through this half-baked “confederation” idea.
Bad idea. But I shall have more on this, and soon.
Cheers
mhg


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