Category Archives: Culture

Culture, Middle East Women, religious police, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi

Saudi Shura Council and Sexual Harassment: Frustrated Males Shopping for Shmagh without Satan……..

    

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   
 



“The Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia, also known as the Shura Council, will vote this month on a draft law that will set punishments in cases of sexual harassment. Council member Sadaqa Fadel said the law classifies sexual offenses into categories and assigns particular punishments to each category. Fadel told Saudi al-Eqtisadya newspaper that punishments range from warning flogging and imprisonment. The draft law came after Saudi Arabia, which has strict sex segregation rules, saw growing presence of women in various work places and after single men were allowed into shopping malls. Fadel said there will be monitors in malls and in workplaces to watch for cases of sexual harassment and that monitoring will be conducted in accordance with Shariah law. “Sexual harassment is a criminal offence whose perpetrator must be punished. The people who commit sexual offences are mostly men, but this does not mean that some women do not harass men, and this was taken into consideration in the new regulation,” Fadel said. He added that the new draft law requires employers to separate between men and women……………”

This consultative council is an unelected group of men appointed by the Saudi king to pretend that they form some kind of parliament. Last year or so the absolute king issued a fatwa extending the term of the current council until the king decides when to replace them. They pretend that they create legislation and pass bills, but they deal only with select issues suggested by some minions of the king and princes. They usually deal with banal issues like: who can enter a shopping mall between 5 and 8 pm or (possibly) whether the breasts of she-camels (nooq) and she-goats (skhool or ma’iz) should be covered in public (lest they excite and provoke the extremely frustrated male population).
Last week, the Saudi government issued a permit allowing single males (men) to enter shopping malls, but only for the purpose of shopping. Shopping as in for clothes, watches, underwear, shmagh, serwal mkassar, and other inanimate objects. Before that only women, children, and males accompanied by females were allowed into shopping malls. They were worried that the devil, Satan, will get in there and do what the devil usually does when men and women are within fifty meters of each other, according to Wahhabi Salafi doctrine. Apparently Satan has signed a pledge to stay away from the shopping malls during certain curfew hours.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, France, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

The Prince and Contemporary Cultural and Intellectual Movements ………….

    

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   
 



“Defense Minister Prince Salman recently launched an academic chair for historical studies at King Saud University in Riyadh during a ceremony attended by intellectuals and academics in this particular field. Following a seminar organized by Dr. Noura Al-Asheikh, dean of the College of Arts and Community Service, Princess Hussa bint Salman spoke about her father and his penchant for history. Dr. Dalal bint Mukhallad Al-Harbi is one who received support to publish her book titled ‘Famous Women from Najd,’ which was published by King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives in 1998, on the occasion of the Kingdom’s centenary.” Princess Hussa said Prince Salman’s thoughts were not at all isolated from contemporary cultural and intellectual movements………..”

Nope, the prince’s thoughts are not at all isolated from contemporary cultural and intellectual movements. Nor are the thoughts of the Grand Muftis Al at all isolated from contemporary cultural and intellectual movements. In fact there are unsubstantiated and non-credible reports that the old cleric was at one point an existentialist, hanging around Les Deux Magots in the old days with Sartre and de Beauvoir. Occasionally dabbling in Hegelian thoughts, holding court over coffee and rich buttery croissants, ogling les jeunes filles……
Those were the days.

(FYI: Dr. Noura Al-Asheikh and the Mufti Al Al Shaikh, and that other Minister Al Al Shaikh, among other potentates, are descendants of Shaikh Mohammed Bin Abdulwahhab. He was the founder of the Wahhabi sect and a close ally of the al-Saud. No relation to Mohammed Abdelwahab, the late great Egyptian musician and singer who was never a Salafi.)

Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, GCC, Israel, Kuwait, Mossad, WTF

Kazakhstan’s Real National Anthem, Hava Nagila and Hatikvah on the Gulf………….

    

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   
 



“Алтын күн аспаны,

Алтын дән даласы,

Ерліктің дастаны,

Еліме қарашы!

Ежелден ер деген,

Даңкымыз шықты ғой.

Намысын бермеген,

Қазағым мықты ғой!……...” Kazakhstan National Anthem

“Kazakhstan’s shooting team was taken by surprise when a spoof national anthem from the film Borat was used at a medal ceremony in Kuwait. The team demanded an apology after Maria Dmitrienko was played the obscene song, which features lyrics about prostitutes and potassium exports, as she received her gold medal……. The blunder apparently occurred after the event’s organisers downloaded the parody from the internet by mistake. They also got the Serbian anthem wrong. An apology was issued and the ceremony staged again. The incident was the second in the space of a few weeks involving a slip-up over Kazakhstan’s anthem at a sporting event. Earlier this month, stunned officials opening a ski event in northern Kazakhstan were blasted with a few bars of Ricky Martin’s Livin’ la Vida Loca instead of the national tune……….”


No big deal, but it is funny, straight out of a film by you know who.
It’s a good thing the Israelis don’t compete on the Gulf. Some meshugenah in Bahrain might mistakenly play “Deutschland Über Alles”. An uber faux pas. Apparently the Kazakhs are having trouble getting their national anthem played properly, and not just in Kuwait; even at home. These things happen, it happens.
I recall some years ago back home when the national television surprised everybody one night by playing a bunch of Israeli dancers and singers doing a hearty rendition of “Hava Nagila”. It was not supposed to have been broadcast, but at least it wasn’t “Hatikvah”. There were a few lame explanations by the media, including that Mossad may have been behind it. In retrospect, they could have done worse, sometimes they did.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Britain, Corruption, Culture, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

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

    

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   
 


“He (David Cameron) did not understand that the readiest alternative to public money is not the free market. If a public servant needs a fortune fast, he can turn to Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and the other oil-rich dictatorships……… All the dictatorships ask in return is that Britain’s cultural institutions sell their souls. They are more than happy to haggle………..Saudi Arabia provided exhibits. The Saudi royal family’s King Abdulaziz Public Library partnered the museum. HSBC Amanah, a bank that issues sharia-compliant loans, sponsored the show. By negligence or design, nothing in the exhibition offends the Saudi state, which derives legitimacy from its control of sacred sites and income from pilgrims. You might have thought that of all people the museum’s director, Neil MacGregor, would deplore cultural vandalism. The author of A History of the World in 100 Objects would surely deprecate the destruction of buildings of historical significance. He must know that Saudi’s monarchical dictatorship has wrecked Mecca with an abandon worthy of the Taliban. It has destroyed the remnants of the 7th-century city, most notably the houses of the prophet, his first wife and Abu Bakr, father of Aisha, one of Muhammad’s other wives. According to the Wahhabi monarchy’s puritanical and iconoclastic version of Islam, anything that generates idolatry – images of the prophet, homes associated with him – is dangerous. So medieval Mecca had to go………..”

This piece does not cover all factors behind the crime of destruction of historical Mecca. I have written more than once on this subject, as have others. It is not all Wahhabi ideology that doomed the monuments of Mecca. Historical Mecca was destroyed by a combination of Wahhabi Salafi dogma against history and the greed of the princes and developers. You see, land in Mecca has become too valuable, a result of the explosion of the Hajj pilgrim tourism. The closest to the Holy Mosque a location is, the higher the rent and hotel costs. Historic houses of the Prophet Mohammed and the early Sahaba were replaced with 5-star, 6-star and 7-star hotels and condominiums. Greed by the potentates used the Wahhabi doctrine against history to take over some invaluable property and rape the very history of Islam. That was robbery of something that belonged to the whole Muslim world, not just the princes.
As for David Cameron, he is no different than that other corrupt prime minister, Tony Blair who bent British laws and institutions for the benefit of the al-Saud princes and Muammar Qaddafi and other despots. This is buying the soul of British institutions. It has been going on for some years, and it will accelerate under the Tory PM.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, GCC, Iran, Middle East Women, Muslims, Saudi Arabia

Sigheh (Mut’ah) and Misyar: Iran’s Hookup Marriage, Gulf’s Hookup Marriage………..

 

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter    BFF   



“This week, Iran’s parliament approved a new amendment to a controversial law in the civil code that allows men to have as many sexual partners as they want – all sanctioned by sharia law under the term “temporary marriage”.
Sex outside marriage is a crime in Iran punishable by 100 lashes or, in the case of adultery, potentially a sentence of death by stoning. However, a man and a woman can marry for a fixed period of time after performing specific religious rituals, in a practice called sigheh. The marriage can last for a few minutes up to several years without need to be officially registered. The man can end the sigheh almost at any time, but there is no divorce right for women in temporary marriages.
The new amendment, passed on Monday by 104 MPs who were all male, requires registration in certain circumstances such as those leading to a pregnancy but still largely allows sigheh without formal registration. An opposing MP, Sattar Hedayatkhah, was quoted in the reformist newspaper Etemaad as saying: “From tomorrow, no woman can be sure that her husband is not in a sexual relationship with another woman. Therefore, there is now no difference between here [Iran] and the west. Anyone can have a sexual relationship………………..”


The Shi’as call it Mut’ah in Arabic and Sigheh in Persian. The Sunnis also have their own version in some Arab states, mainly Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, called the Misyar. There are also other variations of the same theme. They are based on some ‘reported’ practices in early Islamic history when men traveled far and for long periods away from their wives. Some senior religious leaders in both sects oppose these so-called marriages. They are basically sexual oriented arrangements, with little commitment between the partners. It is almost equivalent to the Western “hooking up”, but it can last longer and has a veneer of ‘legality’. All these forms of funny marriage should be banned, or called what they really are, sexual “hook-ups”.

Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Al-Qaeda, Culture, GCC, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia

Pakistan Army Demolishes the Alamo of al-Qaeda, Gulf Jakhoor Outside the Soor………

 

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter    BFF   


“Pakistani authorities have begun to demolish the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that Osama Bin Laden used as a hideout until he was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in May 2011. “The action was taken to keep the compound from ever becoming a shrine for Bin Laden’s followers,” a Pakistani military official told CNN. “It’s a message that Pakistan doesn’t want to keep anything connected with this terrorist.” CNN affiliate GEO-TV showed video of dust flying into the air from the compound as troops stood and watched from outside……….”


Santa Ana of Mexico never thought of destroying the Alamo after he subdued Texas (briefly). Maybe Sam Houston didn’t give him enough time. It survives in San Antonio de Béxar (now shortened by illegal Anglo immigrants to San Antonio).
The Islamic world has a knack for destroying monuments, especially the parts of the Islamic world that are Salafi Wahhabi or are influenced by that barbaric ideology. From Mecca and Madina to Bamiyan to Abbottabad, monuments to the Prophet and to ancient leaders and to modern terrorist leaders are destroyed. If the Pyramids were in Saudi Arabia, they’d be torn down by the greedy princes to make room for luxury hotels. If they were in Afghanistan or Pakistan, they’d be torn down to make room for a goat herd. If they were in a certain place on my Gulf, they’d be torn down to make room for some jakhoor (look it up or ask some schmuck from the outskirts of my hometown, but it is related to goats and such things).
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, Latin America, Sanctions, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Travel: from the Soviet Union to Cuba, from Communist Albania to Cuba, from USA to Cuba………..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
         BFF   

“For years, U.S. citizens have not been able to fly legally to Cuba from the United States. Some travelers found their way around the ban, slipping in through Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. This was time-consuming, costly and a bit risky……… Looking for a deal to Cuba? Despite these changes, deals are still rare. Airfare is chartered, and with the U.S. government paperwork required, it is nearly impossible to put a trip together yourself. But deals can be found. Friendly Planet, one of the approved travel companies to bring U.S. travelers, currently has two programs (which include the Cuba entrance visa and all U.S. government paperwork). The four-night getaway costs $1,899 per person, based on double occupancy; similar packages from other licensed companies are selling for at least $2,400………”

This is almost like in the old “Communist” Soviet Union, when the state restricted travel. It is almost like trying to travel from old “Communist” Albania to any other country in the “free” or “communist” world. But wait, this is not the old USSR or Communist Albania, it is the USA, a free country, banning travel to Cuba, a “Communist” Bible-less dark-purple country. I am exaggerating a little, as usual.
Both the USA and “Communist” Cuba seem to have one thing in common: both encourage the citizens of the other to come visit; both discourage their own citizens from visiting the other. So, they are not that far apart after all.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, Death Penalty, Religion, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

The Kashghri Case: A Fatwa to Kill, a Fatwa to Boycott, a Royal Order………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
         BFF   

“His Grace Shaikh Salih al-Lhaidan, member of the Commission of Senior Ulema (clergy) and former chief of the High Judiciary Council today demanded that the writer Hamza Kashghari should be put to death as an apostate, even if he repents. He also demanded that Arab states of OPEC should stop all petroleum exports to Russia and China after their veto at the United Nations Security Council……”

“Saudi King Abdullah has ordered the writer Hamza Kashghri be arrested for insulting Islam in his writings and tweets….….”

This Kashghri, I haven’t read anything by or for him, has now got a double whammy. The shaikhs fatwad that he be killed, the king (no less) has now ordered his arrest. It is usually Prince Nayef’s empire that arrests people and “punishes” them, but this time his royal majesty decided to get the credit. Unlike the shaikh, the king did not tie all this to Russia and China and their UN vote on Syrian intervention. A royal decree, no less, for an arrest: only in Saudi Arabia, what we on the Gulf used to call watermelon country (with watermelon laws).

Now
 I’ve got to read something about this guy, just to see wtf he said or wrote. They say that he soon retracted what he wrote and expressed his apology, but nothing doing. In Saudi Arabia, looking at the photo of a prince with your tongue out or your middle finger extended can get you an open-ended invitation to a cell in a cellar (not a chateau type).
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Britain, censorship, Culture, Internet, Iran

What do the Simpsons, the Middle East Media, Mausavi, and Yoda have in Common?………..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
         BFF   

“An Iranian government-affiliated agency has banned dolls of the Simpsons cartoon characters, who join Barbie and others on a toy blacklist, an independent newspaper reported on Monday. The report said that the Simpsons were banned to avoid the promotion of Western culture. But Superman and Spiderman were allowed, because they helped the “oppressed.” “We do not want to promote this cartoon by importing the toys,” Shargh daily quoted Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, secretary of policymaking at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, as saying……… He did not elaborate on what was wrong with the Simpsons specifically ………”

I like the Simpsons. I firmly believe they are more entertaining and more interesting than Press TV (Iran) or al-Manar TV (Lebanon) or CNN (USA) or BBC (Britain). Hell, they are always even more interesting than Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, although not always funnier. All of the above are more interesting than, say, William Hague (aka Yoda) or David Cameron (aka Pierce Morgan). The Iranian decision to ban The Simpsons is a repressive measure. It is more repressive, in my view than, say, the house arrests of opposition leaders like Mausavi or Karroubi, mainly because Homer and Bart and Marge (and even Apu) are fun-ner than those Iranian worthies.
On the other hand, I was also pissed that the Western governments are blocking television stations they don’t agree with. Mainly Press TV (Iran) and al-Manar TV (Lebanon). Not because I am a regular fan of these stations, I am not. I am not a fan of any television network. Come to think of it I am not a fan of anyone: I was not a fan of the late Saddam Hussein when most people around me thought the sun shone out of his ass, and now I am not a fan of the Wahhabi princes even when the same many people hink that the sun actually shines out of their royal asses.
 
I doubt that the ban means anything on the ground. Most Iranian who wish to see The Simpsons do so via satellite television and the Internet. Westerners who wish to see Press TV or al-Manar can do so as well.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, Europe, Islamophobia, Middle East Women, Muslims, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Somalia

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Reinvents the Islamic Wheel, the Holocaust and the Two Phobias………….

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
         BFF   

“The media’s reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia—and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression ……… The Christophobia that has plagued Sudan for years takes a very different form. The authoritarian government of the Sunni Muslim north……..”

There are three people the Western media often resort to when they want “objective” opinion on Islamic-Western relations. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one. Not that I disagree with ‘everything’ she espouses: I probably agree with her on some points. Ali hasn’t been on television as much, mostly writings and ‘utterances’. Ali makes sure everyone knows she has nothing but contempt for Islam: all its aspects, not just how it treats women. She does not distinguish between the faith and the “faithful”: an easy shot, some would say a cheap shot. We all know the “faithful” do not all follow the faith. That applies equally to Muslims and Christians. Fair enough, that is her opinion. There is room enough for both Islamophobia (of which she has a severe case) and Christophobia.

Now Christians and the world-wide assault on Christianity is apparently the cause du jour, even in the ongoing Campaign 2012. She certainly is not missing that bandwagon. In these days of fundamentalist ascendancy in the Middle East (and America), the fate of Christians is a legitimate concern. Yet is it a tit-for-tat Fox News (dare I say Geert Wilders) type of approach she takes? The point is: the West is free and democratic, and the Muslim world is mostly dictatorial, that is a fact. It is silly to insinuate that the West should persecute Muslims simply because, for example, Saudi Arabia bans any kind of worship other than Islamic even in private. That is why the West is what it is and Saudi Arabia is not. Could she be angling for a speaker’s slate at the Tea Party Republican National Convention next summer?

I am eager to read her future writings on the Endlösung and how Christians killed 6 million Jewish civilians in gas chambers in a Europe that was nearly free of Muslims. And about the 40 million (or is it 50 million) people of all faiths that were killed in the last European war. No need to mention the mass rapes and the genocide and mass graves of Bosnia. Everybody has a house of glass, but some houses are more so.
There is also a Syrian dude whom the American right wing has been celebrating for years; he is their favorite “witness” in Muslim and Islamic hearings. I suspect if anyone, he will be the one to speak at Tampa (you see, Muslim men rule, even in the Tea Party).
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]