Category Archives: Arab Politics

Arab Politics, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Succession: Cardboard King, Paper People?…….

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“Following the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, two videos have emerged showing Saudis pledging allegiance to their new ruler – by shaking hands with cardboard cutouts of King Salman and the two heirs to the throne. Actors standing behind the life-sized cutouts extend their arms to shake hands with visitors. Of course, it wouldn’t be possible for the kingdom’s new king to shake hands with everyone who wanted to pledge allegiance. So the cardboard cutouts are the next-best solution. The ritual is part of an Islamic custom known as the bay’ah – a traditional oath of allegiance given to a leader. In the video, they also “shake hands” with cardboard cutouts of Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.…………….”

So, who said there is no democracy and popular participation in the Kingdom Without Magic? A cardboard king and a paper people. Cartoon cardboard participation is better than none. This is progress under the new king, and so much cheaper and less disruptive than ballot boxes……….

On the other hand, some trouble-maker, some foreign agitators, might add that a truly cardboard royal family might be cheaper to maintain than………..
Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

Arab Politics, Saudi Arabia

Of Saudi Palace Coup Reforms and LOL and MDR………

Shuwaikh-school1 RattleSnakeRidge Sharqeya-Baneen-15

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Remember the days a couple of years ago, way back then, when the late Saudi King Abdullah announced an Allegiance (Al-Bae’a) Commission to regulate succession to the throne? Remember the fanfare? How it was cheered as shifting the kingdom toward a ‘civil society’ where ‘institutions’ are supreme?

Remember when Saudi media trumpeted this as a great wise decision? Remember when Western media dutifully echoed all that? Remember when some American columnists, especially in the Washington Post, waxed enthusiastic about King Abdullah’s “reforms”? When a whole media cottage industry about “Saudi reforms” grew in Western punditry (and among some Arab columnists)? Remember when the king almost immediately ignored it completely and appointed whoever he wanted?
Now the new King Salman has also ignored it completely, and will continue to do so.

No doubt they will soon start talking about the new “reforms” of the new king. In Riyadh and Washington.
Vive la réforme et MDR! That means LOL……….
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Arab Politics, Egypt, Saudi Arabia

Hyperbole Arabica: Saudi-Egyptian Ties to Last Until the Dinosaurs Return…….

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Egypt’s Shorouk News quotes the Saudi ambassador in Cairo making a strange statement. Supposedly a prescient statement. He is quoted as saying that Saudi Arabian policy towards Egypt will not change until the Judgement day (or End of Time).
He might have added: until the regime changes or until the dinosaurs return……….

After that, all bets are apparently of.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Arab Politics, Egypt, Human Right

Generalissimo Al Sisi Opines on the Tooth Fairy and the Opposition………

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Generalissimo Field Marshal President Al Sisi of Egypt came to power in 2013 as a result of military coup he staged against the man who had promoted him to minister of defense and army chief. He was “elected” with almost 98% of the sparse vote last year. He ran against a token phony opposition.
The Generalissimo has just opined that “there are no political prisoners in Egypt“. He also said that “making peace with the Muslim Brotherhood is not my decision, it is not in my hands“.
He was not talking about the tooth fairy in his first statement; there are tens of thousand of political prisoners in Egypt. His second statement about the MB might be true. He probably can’t reach a deal with the MB, not unless he wants to lose all that Saudi and UAE oil money that has been promised to him if he keeps a lid on free speech and on the the opposition of all stripes.

In the meantime, he seems to have lost control of a chunk of the northern Sinai Peninsula to groups of Jihadis, kidnappers, and smugglers.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Al-Qaeda, Arab Politics, Caliphate, Terrorism

Greatest Enemy Within: Desperados of Arabia and Europe……..

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Desperado- Linda Ronstadt

Back to my last post.

Reports claim that the Caliphate of the Wahhabi Islamic State is still expanding its territory in spite of months of allied bombings. Which means that there is something missing in the broader strategy that has been used to counter its expansion and push it back.

The logical conclusion is that bombing, killing, or arresting some of them may be necessary to keep them off balance, but it is not enough. We go back to the idea of the swamp and how to drain it. That should be back as part of the longer-term solution. It requires political changes across the Arab world: the so-called Arab Spring failed miserably with one possible exception. The old regimes are still in control, from the Persian Gulf to the Nile. It also requires recognizing the elephant in the European room: the need for some changes in race relations across Europe. Racism and Jihadist terrorism feed each other in Europe now.

Repression and oligarchy rule in the Arab world might fit into some short-term Western strategy of cultivating ‘cooperative’ regional alliances, but it should be clear by now that the downside is too costly. When people are shot at in the streets, they not only blame those who pull the trigger, they also blame those who supply the guns and the tear gas. And who wouldn’t?

Desperate living conditions in the Middle East and in some European cities make pliable desperate young men and women open to the Jihadist narrative. The Wahhabi narrative can be a compelling narrative if you are in a desperate situation. In some cases it is the only compelling narrative in town. If you believe that many Frenchmen are eager for the five or six million Muslims among them to participate and vote in elections, then I’ve still got that old perfect lame camel for sale.

Despair in the Middle East and in some European cities. It is the greatest enemy, an even greater enemy than the comical bloodthirsty new Caliph or the doddering Al Zawahri and his men and their stale message.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Arab Politics, France, Media, Saudi Arabia

Raif Badawi: Tous les dirigeants arabes sont Charlie……..

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“Saudi Arabian rights activist Raif Badawi has been publicly flogged for insulting Islam despite international outcry over the sentence handed down by a court in the conservative kingdom, Amnesty International and his wife said. The flogging Friday in Jeddah was the first of 20 such sessions imposed by a Saudi court after Badawi’s 2014 conviction. He was arrested after creating an online forum in 2008 that his wife says was meant to encourage discussion about faith……….Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, said the video was difficult to watch. “It’s a scene I cannot describe. It was horrible,” she said from Canada. “Every lash killed me……….”

Some of the Middle East potentates and dictators rode the Charlie Hebdo bandwagon. Some of them sent leaders, officials, or had mock marches in their capitals. All in support of Charlie, that is Charlie Hebdo, a magazine I occasionally browse online, a magazine they would never allow in their own countries. Solidarity with a magazine they all think should not be allowed to publish anywhere in the world. Others were more discreet about the whole affair.

They arrest journalists, writers, and common citizens who openly speak. Not “blasphemy”, just criticism of government and its oligarchs.

Now they ride the bandwagon of “freedom of the press”, as they ‘celebrate’ the defense of free speech in Paris, only in Paris. From the Persian-American Gulf to the Nile River. At the same time they arrest more people at home, and they sentence more free speakers to prison on trumped up charges, and they sentence people to internal and external exile, and they publicly flog free speakers in their countries. M. Hollande and Mr. cameron never protest such travesties. And the freedom-loving Western leaders keep arming them with the weapons needed to keep up the repression. In exchange for some nominal fee………

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Arab Politics, GCC, Hezbollah, Lebanon

Lebanon’s Shi’as and Hezbollah: Back to the Feudal Past?……….

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“However, this political dynamic may be starting to change. In recent years other Shiite organizations that resent the dominance of Hezbollah and Amal have emerged to question the direction of their leadership. This defection began almost immediately after the 2006 war. While hard-liners hailed Hezbollah’s resilience in the face of the Israeli onslaught as a “divine victory,” others questioned the human and material cost of the group’s intransigent stance. Skepticism continued to grow in the following years – after a 2008 invasion of Sunni areas in Beirut intended to consolidate Hezbollah’s political power, after a 2009 corruption scandal that brought into question the altruism of the group’s leaders, and most especially, after 2011 when it became apparent that Hezbollah was intervening in the Syrian civil war on behalf of the repressive Assad regime. One new Shiite voice is a group called the Lebanese Option Party, founded in 2007. The head of the organization is Ahmad al-Asaad, whose father, Kamel al-Asaad…………” 

This piece is rehashing old wishful thinking, extremely wishful thinking about Lebanon. It is trying to recycle an old failed approach. It is old stuff of the kind that Thomas Friedman, for example, would hang his hopes on. The old semi-feudal Al As’ad family? The outlier Ali Al Amin who has hardly any following and is a permanent fixture on the vast Wahhabi sectarian media of the Saudi princes (Alarabiya, Asharq Alawsat, etc)?

The Al As’ad family were the semi-feudal political overlords of much of South Lebanon, during the days when the Shi’a were marginalized and kept impoverished and uneducated in Lebanon. They are as representative of Lebanese Shi’as as, say, the Romanovs were representative of the Russian people. The pro-Saudi March 14 camp keeps going back to them as a possible way to weaken Hezbollah. So far to no avail.
The petroleum princes need to think outside the box: they can’t go to the past and present it as the future. The people will never buy it. Saudi media have in the past promoted other pliable Shi’a stooges, including one or two crackpot clerics, to no avail. You can only buy so many votes, and you can never buy true love although you can lose it.

They need to try a new method, these princes: how about offering Lebanon membership in the Gulf GCC if they ditch Hezbollah? Hell at that price, even Hassan Nasrallah might become excited enough to jump on the Wahhabi bandwagon, right next to Hariri.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Arab Politics, Culture, US Congress, Women

Shaikh Boehner: Burqa and Niqab in the U.S. Congress……….

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Was watching C-Span: Speaker John Boehner swearing in new members of Congress. He had to hop from corner to corner, posing for photos with each representative and his/her family. Wives, husbands, kids, occasionally grandparents. A long process.
Which made me wonder: how come we don’t have this kind of festive, joyous swearing-in in the region? That is, for the few countries that have parliaments and elections.
And then what about the Salafis? Would they also pose with their wives and kids for post-swearing photos? And with the burq’a or niqab, which all Salafi/Wahhabi wives are required to wear? How can one of them tell his wife from another’s? Suppose at photo time he sidles up to the wrong chick by mistake? Would that mean war? Intriguing question, no?……….
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Arab Politics, GCC, Saudi Arabia, Sectarian

Gulf GCC Opposition Hampered by Tribal and Sectarian Walls……..

Shuwaikh-school1 RattleSnakeRidge Sharqeya-Baneen-15

KuwaitCox2     ChristmasPeanuts

Have Yourself a Merry Little——-> Kenny G. Holiday 

“Saudi security forces have killed four armed men in a clash in Awamiya region, the Interior Ministry said. The troops raided a hideout for fighters in the eastern Awamiya town and killed the four in an exchange of fire on Saturday, the ministry said. The dead, described the government as terrorists, were behind the killing of a member of the security forces and wounding of another last Sunday, a ministry spokesman quoted by the Saudi state news agency SPA, said on Saturday. Among the dead was the leader of that attack, it said. Awamiya has been the focal point of unrest among Saudi Shia since protests in early 2011 calling for an end to perceived discrimination against the minority sect and for democratic reforms…………”

Everybody who rises or publicly or privately criticizes the Saudi regime is either a terrorist or a foreign agent. It doesn’t matter if they are Shi’a or Sunni or Wahhabi. Other GCC media tend to go along with that or just ignore it. Of course, those who resist police attacks or fire on them are also called so.
Regardless of whether those killed are armed or not, the Saudi princes are in an unusually good position for a regime that is the most repressive in the Middle East and one of the most repressive in the world. Its opposition is severely divided. There is a Shi’a opposition, a Sunni opposition, and an extremist Wahhabi opposition. But like almost all opposition groups in the Persian Gulf GCC countries they are plagued by tribal and sectarian divisions.

The tribe and the sect create demarcation lines that these opposition groups rarely cross, if ever. These different groups work on separate planes, and do not cooperate with each other. Once I likened them to little children who play around each other but not with each other. The main Saudi Wahhabi opposition even accuses the ultra-sectarian regime of being ‘too soft‘ on Shi’as.
Advantage, the rulers. At least for the time being.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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Arab Politics, Bahrain, GCC

Royal Fun and Intelligent Life in Bahrain……..

Shuwaikh-school1 RattleSnakeRidge Sharqeya-Baneen-15

KuwaitCox2     ChristmasPeanuts

Have Yourself a Merry Little——-> Kenny G. Holiday 

Bahrain News Agency– Dec. 15, 2014- The consecutive headlines:
“His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa today received a cable of congratulations from Parliament Speaker, Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al-Mulla, on Bahrain’s celebrations of its National Days on December 16 and 17, marking the anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Bahrain as an Arab and Muslim country in 1783 by its founder Ahmed Al-Fateh, the 43rd Anniversary of its accession to the UN as a full member and the 15th Anniversary of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s Accession ………..”

“His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa today received cables of congratulations marking Bahrain’s celebrations of its National Days on December 16 and 17, marking the anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Bahrain as an Arab and Muslim country in 1783 by its founder Ahmed Al-Fateh, the 43rd Anniversary of its accession to the UN as a full member and the 15th Anniversary of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s Accession……………”

“His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa today received cables of congratulations on Bahrain’s celebrations of its National Days on December 16 and 17, marking the anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Bahrain as an Arab and Muslim country in 1783 by its founder Ahmed Al-Fateh, the 43rd Anniversary of its accession to the UN as a full member and the 15th Anniversary of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s Accession………….”

“His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa received a cable of congratulations from Parliament Chairman Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al-Mulla on Bahrain’s celebrations of its National Days on December 16 and 17, marking the anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Bahrain as an Arab and Muslim country in 1783 by its founder Ahmed Al-Fateh, the 43rd Anniversary of its accession to the UN as a full member and the 15th Anniversary of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa’s Accession…………….”

“His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa issued a decree pardoning 105 convicts who served part of their prison terms. The royal pardon is part of festivities on Bahrain’s celebrations of its National Days on December 16 and 17, marking the anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Bahrain as an Arab and Muslim country in 1783 by its founder Ahmed Al-Fateh, the 43rd Anniversary of its accession to the UN as a full member and the 15th Anniversary of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa’s Accession…………..” (After which the convicts probably sent him congratulatory cables, no doubt).

Ad nauseam………..

Cables? Whothefuck sends cables these days, other than Arab princes and potentates? They might as well use running messengers or pigeons. It gets even better: some of the princes are fond of sending handwritten missives. Which the others pretend to read slowly while the television cameras scan their faces for any signs of intelligent life. Alas…………
I noticed no congratulatory cable from the obese foreign minister of Bahrain. Not even a hand-written missive. What gives? Maybe his pen ran out of ink………
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

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