Category Archives: Arabian Peninsula

Al-Qaeda, Arabian Peninsula, Jihadis, Syria

Holy Road to Liberation: Syrian Rebels Enter Maaloula, Capture Nuns………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      

“The Syrian terrorists abducted 12 nuns from Mar Takla monastery, which lies in the historic town of Maaloula in Damascus, and moved them to the nearby town of Yabroud. The Papal ambassador to Damascus Mario Zinara said that the 12 nuns were obliged by the terrorists to leave the monastery in order to follow them to the nearby town of Yabroud. “I think that the twelve nuns are in Yabroud.” There is a fierce battle in Maaloula, and it is hard to determine the exact information,” he added, “We are not familiar with the reasons that pushed the terrorists to force the nuns to leave the monastery.” SANA confirmed that the militants, who belong to al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, entered the Orthodox monastery of Mar Takla in the center of Maaloula……………”

Maaloula has been a point of contention between regime forces and Jihadist rebels for months now. The various groups and militias of Syria’s rebels are predictable, be they simple plain Salafis or die-hard Wahhabi Takfiris. Their second instinct after capturing a village or hamlet or neighborhood is to round up people of other faiths, those who are not Wahhabis, and take them captive as war hostages. Some might add to that last sentence “if they are lucky”, and that ‘luck’ is related to their ‘first’ instinct. Be they Alawis (Alawites), Shia’s, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, or Vegans. They would also no doubt love to grab some Jews, who are still the Wahhabis’ preferable hostages (more prized than the Shi’as as hostages, but more elusive). I know some who would dispute this last assertion.

So, two years ago the putative liberators of Syria captured a bunch of Lebanese Shi’a pilgrims, anointed them Hezbollah and Quds Force fighters, and held them captive. Some months ago they got more ambitious, they captured and took hostage a couple of priests and an archbishop (presumably all Christians since neither Muslims nor Wahhabis have archbishops nor priests as far as I know, and I should know). Then last summer they captured an Italian priest (Father Paolo Dall’Oglio) who was trying to ‘talk to them’. Reports a month later claimed he was killed by the liberators, they probably Daniel Pearled him (most Western media ignored the story).
Now the Jihadis have  a bunch of nuns from an ancient held captive. Let us see how closer that brings them to the liberation and capture of Damascus promised by the unelected GCC potentates, the Arab League, and a gaggle of traveling U.S. senators.
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arabian Peninsula, Economics, GCC, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Labor Unrest: An Economic Gulf of Expats?……….

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      

“Two people were killed and 68 others injured in clashes between police and foreign workers following a visa crackdown in Saudi Arabia, the official news agency reported. Police arrested 561 people Saturday in the capital of Riyadh, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The arrests came after “unidentified” people barricaded themselves in narrow streets, where they threw stones at residents and vandalized shops and cars, according to a police statement posted on the news agency’s website. In the aftermath of Saturday’s clashes, a police spokesman urged workers without proper documents to surrender at a shelter in the capital until they could be deported…………..”

“Nearly 17,000 illegal foreigners, including women and children, have surrendered to Riyadh police until Monday evening………” Arab News

“Thousands of undocumented expatriates are desperately seeking to get arrested and deported, as a last resort to end their plight……….” Arab News

This can be a sign of more ominous events. All the Gulf GCC countries have huge foreign populations of laborers, housemaids, and others. The percentages of foreigners to the population range from about one third in Saudi Arabia to about 85% for the UAE and Qatar. Is this Saudi unrest a prelude to more unrest along the Gulf? It can be. When there is a majority of temporary foreigners leading a precarious life, their livelihood and stay in the country tied to often unstable employers, unrest is quite possible. Many are laid off or quit and are forced into becoming “illegal” and fending for themselves. There are tens of thousands of unemployed (also meaning illegal) expatriate laborers in the Persian Gulf states who earn a living in black markets and legally gray areas of the economy, including illegal activities like petty crimes, prostitution, smuggling, and drugs. What is even more ominous is that much of the domestic GCC economies are tied to temporary expatriate labor. The whole infrastructure and available housing and trade and supply network of the GCC states have been built based on larger populations than the native citizens can ever attain. If ‘enough’ of these expats depart, much of the domestic non-oil economies would collapse. Both the supply and demand for goods and services would implode.
I have suggested in the past, almost seriously, that the name of the Gulf be changed from the Persian-American Gulf to the Gulf of South Asia. Now I amend that to the more appropriate name of “Gulf of Expatriates”. Of course the scowling mullahs across the Gulf might object………..

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arabian Peninsula, Culture, History, Islam, Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Destroyers of Islamic Heritage, Looters of Mecca………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      

“Two million Muslims have flooded into Saudi Arabia’s Mina Valley from Mecca for the start of the Hajj pilgrimage this week. Dressed in simple white garments and freed from their worldly possessions, they are following in the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad. But in Islam’s holiest city, there is increasingly little sign of the prophet’s legacy – or the frugal life he espoused. “The authorities are trying to destroy anything in Mecca that is associated with the prophet’s life,” says Irfan al-Alawi, director of the UK-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, who recently returned from a trip to the city. “They have already bulldozed the house of his wife, his grandson and his companion – and now they are coming for his birthplace. And for what? Yet more seven-star hotels.”…………..”

Notice that the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation is based in Britain, not in Hijaz. In Saudi Arabia, they would have some prince leading it: it would be like having a fox in the hen house.
I have written earlier posts on this topic, how a combination, an alliance of royal greed and Wahhabi dogma has destroyed, is still destroying the priceless historical monuments of early Islam. It is downright criminal what the Al Saudi princes and their merchant allies and retainers are doing. Properties closest to the Kaaba are the priciest, and that is where monuments of early Islam were located. Ergo, these monuments were doomed once the Saudi princes set their eyes on that prime land, within walking distance to the Holy Mosques. Here are some links to my earlier posts on this:

Saudi Culture: Bulldozing the Graves of Mohammed and Omar into Las Vegas……

Buying the Soul of Britain, Raping the History of Islam, Sacking Mecca……

Birthplace of Islam: Where Dogma and Greed Face History……

Eid and Haj and Abraham and the Martyred Sheep of Mecca….

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Internal Palace Wars?…………….

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      

“Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz has ordered former deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz be put under house arrest. The monarch apparently issued the order after the country’s intelligence services detected suspicious activities by the officers within the ground forces who are close to the former defense minister, mirataljazeera.net reported. The king ordered the house arrest from Morocco where he was on a visit. The monarch cut short the trip and flew home to deal with the issue. The investigation was carried out by a committee comprising six different security agencies. It revealed that the officers, in cahoots with the prince and the former governor of the Eastern Province Mohammed bin Fahad bin Abdul Aziz, currently residing in the United States, were planning to stage a coup d’etat…………….”

The source of this is a Saudi opposition news website (www.mirataljazeera.net) and it was covered by Iran’s Press TV. The details could not be verified, but the facts are that: (1) King Abdullah (90+ years) was rushed back from Morocco too early (Saudi kings and princes prefer Morocco to any other Arab country for vacationing); (2) Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, son of the late defense minister and crown prince, was fired last month from his job.
The Al Saud branches are gearing up for a protracted internal fight over who owns the country that is now called Saudi Arabia (but should be called the Arabian Peninsula). The report also says that former Prince of the eastern province, Mohammed Bin Fahad, son of the late King Fahad, who is vacationing abroad, has been banned from returning home.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]



Arabian Peninsula, Corruption, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Prince Downsizes: Sells A380 Flying Combo Mosque-Night Club-Ali Baba Cave………

         

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      

“Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, ranked #29 on the list of global billionaires by Forbes magazine, has sold off his ‘off-plan’ Airbus A380, according to media reports. Prince Alwaleed, whose net worth in March 2012 was estimated at $18 billion by Forbes magazine, ordered the A380 way back in 2007, and had ordered multi-million-dollar customisations to it, which made the media dub his aircraft as ‘the flying palace’. According to unconfirmed reports, among the customisations that Saudi Arabia’s richest businessman had ordered included a parking spot for his Rolls-Royce, five suites with king-sized beds and en-suite bathrooms with showers, first-class ‘sleepers’ for an additional 20 guests, a steam room for spa treatments and a marble-finished Turkish bath, a boardroom with holographic displays, a prayer area in which computer-generated mats move to point towards Mecca……………..”

That is a cute touch, the part about pointing toward Mecca. He ought to sail through the pearly gates, or our Muslim equivalent.
It is amusing how Forbes Magazine every year lists Al-Waleed (Male Born Baby) among the “top’ wealthy people in the world, without mentioning other princes and potentates who are even more powerful and more wealthy, as I have pointed out here and in others posts some of which are listed below. It must have to do with the fact that he is accessible to Western media, while the rest of the princes, the richer ones, hide away like bats in the dark.
It is even more amusing how Forbes every year notes that the source of the prince’s wealth is “self-made”. As I opined before: it must be all those teenage years he spent flipping burgers in Riyadh.
 
The Saudi Uprisings: Shi’a Opposition, Wahhabi Opposition, Lost Liberals

Gangs of Arabia: Oil Fiefdoms and Turf Wars, Ivanhoe and Isaac of Qatif

Saudi Legs and Bellies: Roots of Instability, the Coming Age of Warlord Princes

The Coming Brawl for Saudi Succession: a Kingdom of Principalities

Saudi Arabia: the Most Ignored Arab Uprising

Lion of Sunnis, King of Falafel, Pious Prince of Baba Ghannouj

Who is Running Saudi Arabia: Retainers or a Cabal of Desperate Housewives?

Saudi Mufti Diagnoses Arab Uprisings: Sectarian Fitna, Sinful Anarchy, Ali and the Umayyads

PR Nation: Saudi King Appoints Women to Advisory Council

Holy Greed: Paris Hilton Does Mecca, Takes Over Prophet Mohammed’s Childhood Home

A Saudi Timeline for Arab Spring: Omitting Bahrain and Qatif and Hijaz and Nejd

Impact of Lower Oil Prices on Gulf Potentates, Gross Princely Product

Gulf Poverty: Ali Baba and the Potentates, Shameless Hungry Saudi Kingdom of Arabia

The Mufti as Theoretician of Arab Uprisings and Activist of Private Lives

A Saudi Al-Basoos War on Twitter, Mujtahidd and the Royal Court

Saudi Activist Goes Mad, Claims All Princes Want Democracy, Wants Future King Tried

Battle of Saudi Succession Heats Up, Rectal Prince Promoted

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Islam and Elections, Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi

Wahhabi Distortion of Islam: Banning Elections, Idolizing Kings and Princes………

         

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      

“She said: Kings, when they enter a land, they ruin it, and make its noble people its meanest, thus do they behave…….” Holy Quran (Saurat al-Naml: The Ants)
(Some might say I am taking it out of context. They’re probably wrong)

“Election is banned in Islam: Saudi scholar. A well-known Saudi Islamic scholar has issued a new fatwa (edict) saying holding elections for a president or another form of leadership is prohibited in Islam. Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Nassir Al Barrak, reputed for his radical views, described western-style elections as an alien phenomenon to Islamic countries.“Electing a president or another form of leadership or council members is prohibited in Islam as it has been introduced by the enemies of Moslems,” he wrote on his Twitter page, according to Saudi newspapers. “Selecting an Imam (leader) must be up to the decision-making people not the public…election is a corrupt system which is not based on any legal or logical concept for those who enforce this system by some Moslems…this system has been brought by the anti-Islam parties who have occupied Moslem land.”………..”

This Wahhabi shaikh played music to the ears of the absolute princes: “Selecting a leader must be up to the decision-making people not the public”


This “scholar” will probably get his rewards in this world. It must be clear by now that many if not most of these Saudi clerics and muftis are basically mercenaries (or outlying extremists, or both) . The chief Mufti Shaikh Al Shaikh repeatedly calls protesters and dissidents infiltrators who seek to create “fitna” (except in Syria and Libya for some odd reason). Most of the rest of the Saudi clerics, those who are not in prison or in exile, usually fall in line.
Of course they are distorting history and Islam, these Wahhabi shaikhs of the palace. It is they who are un-Islamic, since Islam was, is, against absolute hereditary monarchy. Islamic leaders, in the early decades when true Islam ruled, where chosen by the Muslims. (They probably also did some politicking). That was how the first four caliphs came to be leaders: from Abu Bakr to Omar and Othman and Ali. Later, the Umayyads in Damascus started the first hereditary dynastic monarchy in Islam. That started a trend that continued until the Mongols sacked Baghdad.
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

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

Saudi Arabia: a Popular Revolution or a Potential Palace Revolt by Princes…………..

         

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter      

“You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right………..

You say you’ll change the constitution……….”
                                  
Revolution (The Beatles)

“Unfortunately, notwithstanding the stakes, the United States has no serious option for heading off a revolution in the Kingdom if it is coming. Since American interests are so intimately tied to the House of Saud, the U.S. does not have the choice of distancing the United States from it in an effort to get on the right side of history. Nevertheless, you should try to reestablish trust with the King and urge him to move more rapidly on his political reform agenda, while recognizing that this effort is likely to have limited results………. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a proven survivor. Two earlier Saudi kingdoms were defeated by the Ottoman Empire and eradicated. But the House of Saud came back. They survived a wave of revolutions against Arab monarchies in the 1950s and 1960s. A jihadist coup attempt in 1979 seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca but was crushed. Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda staged a four-year-long insurrection to topple the royal family and failed less than a decade ago. Nevertheless, al Qaeda cadres remain in the Kingdom and next door in Yemen…………. Much more disturbing to the royals would be protests in Sunni parts of the Kingdom. These might start in the so-called Koran belt north of the capital where dissent is endemic or in the neglected Asir province on the Yemeni border. Once they start they could snowball and reach the major cities of the Hejaz………………”

Reform will not do it in the Arabian Peninsula. There is no such thing as a “political” reform in an absolute tribal monarchy that is also a theocracy. Nor can meaningful “reform” happen. When you have thousands of princes living in a certain style by effectively looting the wealth of the country, it is nearly impossible to get them to give it up for “reform”.
Saudi Arabia has the biggest and most generous entitlement program in the world, but it is welfare for the Al Saud princes and their retainers. (I must add that it is not for all princes, just for a few thousand of them, the ones that matter. I was told by a source that there are some ‘distant’ princes who are “middle class”). No serious attempt at reform and accountability is possible under the Al Saud system. For the princes, accountability and freedom of speech would kill the Golden Goose. Any monarch or potentate that tries serious reform will face a ‘palace revolution of princes’. Can you ask the Forty Thieves to give up the cave and its treasures to Ali Baba? Besides, they are not only “forty” thieves, they are thousands of thieves and hence it is impossible to get a consensus.
There can and will be some cosmetic reforms. Women will be, they are, used as a substitute for real change. Women appointed to the appointed Shoura Council. Women allowed to drive within certain areas. Limits will be put on a girl’s marriage age (I am guessing 12 or 13 will be the best limit they can do, for historical reasons). These will be cheered in the West as “reforms” while the princes monopolize the politics, such as they are, and continue to rob the resources (oil and land) of the people.
I have opined (succinctly and insightfully, I might add) in the recent past on the prospects for a Saudi “revolution”. Some of my more recent posts on this topic are linked here, both for my archival purposes and for your dubious reading pleasure:

The Saudi Uprisings: Shi’a Opposition, Wahhabi Opposition, Lost Liberals

Gangs of Arabia: Oil Fiefdoms and Turf Wars, Ivanhoe and Isaac of Qatif

Saudi Legs and Bellies: Roots of Instability, the Coming Age of Warlord Princes

The Coming Brawl for Saudi Succession: a Kingdom of Principalities

Saudi Arabia: the Most Ignored Arab Uprising

Lion of Sunnis, King of Falafel, Pious Prince of Baba Ghannouj

Who is Running Saudi Arabia: Retainers or a Cabal of Desperate Housewives?

Saudi Mufti Diagnoses Arab Uprisings: Sectarian Fitna, Sinful Anarchy, Ali and the Umayyads

PR Nation: Saudi King Appoints Women to Advisory Council

Holy Greed: Paris Hilton Does Mecca, Takes Over Prophet Mohammed’s Childhood Home

A Saudi Timeline for Arab Spring: Omitting Bahrain and Qatif and Hijaz and Nejd

Impact of Lower Oil Prices on Gulf Potentates, Gross Princely Product

Gulf Poverty: Ali Baba and the Potentates, Shameless Hungry Saudi Kingdom of Arabia

The Mufti as Theoretician of Arab Uprisings and Activist of Private Lives

A Saudi Al-Basoos War on Twitter, Mujtahidd and the Royal Court

Saudi Activist Goes Mad, Claims All Princes Want Democracy, Wants Future King Tried

Battle of Saudi Succession Heats Up, Rectal Prince Promoted

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Women

PR Nation: Saudi King Appoints Women to Advisory Council………….

        

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                                   

“Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, ruler of one of the most restrictive countries in the world for women, appointed the first female members Friday to a top advisory body that is the closest thing the kingdom has to a parliament. The 30 women named to the 150-member body will be required to wear proper hijab, or covering, and will have a separate entrance and section within the council’s main chambers, the royal decree announcing the appointments said. “It’s a big, big step forward,” said Thuraya Obaid, a former United Nations undersecretary-general from Saudi Arabia who was appointed to the council. In terms of women in Saudi Arabia, she said, “we will not be able to achieve everything at once … but this will give strength to the voice of women in the country……..”……”

Actually not only women members will be required to cover their heads. There is some equality here: both sexes, men and women, are required to wear a head cover. When they show a photo of the appointed advisory council, you’ll see that all members, both males and females, are wearing head covers, but with different names. It is called hijab for women and something else for the men. What separates the two sexes is probably the goatee, the royal fuzz on the royal chin, the (saksooka) which may become a requirement, but only for the men. As for separate entrances, I can’t imagine what will happen if some confused male member takes the wrong turn.

This appointment of women to this advisory council
is a positive departure from past policy. But it is a tiny symbolic step
that is meaningless in terms of any move toward freedom and democracy
and, as important, accountability. The Saudi regime has become masterful at creating diversions, at public relations stunts. It is good at making meaningless moves that attract headlines, especially in the West, even as the regime is tightening its controls. Even as it is cracking down at growing dissent and protests against repression across the Arabian Peninsula, from Qatif to Najd to Hijaz.
 
This council is appointed by the king, and last year his majesty arbitrarily decided to renew the appointment of all current members. Just like that. The late prince Nayef once famously remarked something to the effect that “I look at these members of the council, and I know that no electoral system can come up with better people than these”.
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia

Gulf: Absolute Prince Wishes Absolute Shaikhs Well, of Financial Fellatio………

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                          
                                Neck of the woods

“In a message sent by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, to The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the recent unfortunate terrorist acts suffered by the Kingdom of Bahrain were denounced, Prince Saud said that both the Saudi government and people condemned the terrorist incidents that accrued in Manama recently, where blasts resulted in the death and wounding of innocent people. He stressed that his Government was united with Bahrain in combating terrorism in all its forms and all those who support such crimes, wishing the country and its people further security and prosperity..…………”

Okay. Apparently Absolute Prince Saud Al-Faisal Al-Saud, foreign minister of some forty years, is apparently alive and well. Why shouldn’t he be, since he is neither in Morocco nor in New York? In case you’ve been living on another planet: senior Saudi princes usually go to New York for medical treatment, after which they return to Morocco either to recover or to die (sometimes they do both: recover and die). The Prince is wishing the Al-Khalifa clan of Bahrain well (I probably wouldn’t, not yet). Many Happy Repressive returns. Great. Thanks, prince.
(FYI: junior princes live much longer; they don’t start hitting Morocco until middle-age. Unfortunately they keep multiplying, what with multiple wives and nothing else to do in Riyadh besides conjugal bliss, hopefully. As they multiply, they keep on sucking more of the resources of the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula. The Bahrain shaikhs don’t have access to similar resources, but they do wonders with what little resources their blighted island is blessed with. They manage to suck off more of less, quite a feat, and no pun was intended, and I am just referring to a form of financial fellatio).

Cheers
mhg
[email protected] a


Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Activist Goes Mad, Claims All Princes Want Democracy, Wants Future King Tried………………

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                          
                                Neck of the woods

A known Saudi activist is reported to have gone mad, gone plum crazy as some would say around here. If the report in al-Quds Al-Arabi is true, if. Abdullah al-Hamid is quoted to have declared that most member of the Al-Saud ruling family support the idea of converting the absolute kingdom into a constitutional monarchy. He claimed that also included the king. He is also quoted as calling for the new interior minister Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef to be tried. He has called for a retrial of all those who were victimized by secret trials.


I call him plum crazy only because he seems to entertain the delusion that the king and most princes want a constitutional monarchy. His other proposals of retrials of victims and the trial of some princes are fine as far as I am concerned. The more (that are tried) the merrier. He could also be eventually committed as crazy for suggesting that the interior minister, probably the most important Saudi prince, be tried. Mohammed Bin Nayef, who controls the “police” part of the Saudi police state, is most likely to become the king of Saudi Arabia within the next few years. King as well as Custodian of the Cave of the Four Thousand Thieves that was exposed by Ali Baba.

Of course, it is possible he just being clever, too clever. FYI: he is disputing some of claims made by al-Quds Al-Arab about him.
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]