Category Archives: Islam

Al-Azhar, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, History, Islam, Islamic History, UAE, Uncategorized, Wahhabi

Grand Ayatollah of Al Azhar Gets His Just Reward on the Gulf………

Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter
Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports that His Excellency the ‘Great Imam’ shaikh of Al-Azhar went to Dubai last week by private plane. He was to receive the Dubai Holy Quran International Prize (WTF that be). He is reported to have received the award as “Islamic Personality of the Year” as a reward for his efforts in the service of Islam (WTF they be). It does not say if he is rewarded for siding with the military coup that overthrew the elected Muslim Brotherhood presidency of Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, nor if he was awarded for siding with Hosni Mubarak during the uprising of 2011. As I noted in a recent post here, he was bound to win the prize.

This is news to most people, the fact that now Shaikh Dr. Al Tayeb calls himself the “Great Imam”, or is it the “Grand Imam”? Apparently the Al Azhar bureaucracy and its hierarchy are now copying some of the Shi’a (Shi’ite if you prefer) titles like Grand Ayatollah, etc. It is now not too fat-fetched that Dr. Shaikh Al Tayeb will pop out some day with the title “Grand Ayatollah” of Al Azhar, possibly earned from one of them ubiquitous online for-profit theology colleges.

Now what would their Wahhabi allies and financiers in Riyadh think of all this? A Grand Ayatollah leading Al Azhar, just as its original creators of the Fatimid Dynasty had intended? Thus undoing the military coup of Salah El Din Al Ayyoubi (Saladin) who overthrew his Fatimids bosses and benefactors long before Al Sisi overthrew his Morsi boss and benefactor. Saladin did atone for it later by liberating Jerusalem from the European barbarians. No wonder there are complaints, warnings, and fears about the spread of Shi’ism in Egypt. No wonder the military regime and its Salafi and Wahhabi-Liberal allies ban Bahrain activists and Iranian tourists from coming to Egypt. It can be risky. Look, even the recently Wahhabi-ized Al Azhar shaikhs are adopting Shi’a titles now. Soon they might start allowing Shi’a mosques and Husseiniyyas all over Cairo. Who knows, some day we might see Al Sisi playing Shimr, or maybe even Al-Hurr, in a re-enactment a Shi’a passion play about the Battle of Karbala.

And our princes and pals on the Persian-American Gulf had thought their man Al Sisi had come to power and was generously rewarded in order to stop all that.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]

Arab League, Gaza, Hamas, History, Islam, Israel, Mossad

Trapped and Eyeless in Gaza: Hamas and Mossad, Arabs and the Memory of Badr and an Earlier Ramadan……

Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter “The Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was published Monday night took most members of the diplomatic-security cabinet by complete surprise. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett heard about it in a television studio moments before going on air. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman heard about it on the radio. A senior Israeli official said Lieberman knew that talks were being held with the Egyptians, but had no idea a proposal was being finalized. Upon hearing the news, he realized that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who were running the talks, had left him out of the loop………………”

Modern Arab legend has it that the Israelis were instrumental in the rise of Hamas. The somewhat credible story is that way back in the days when the PLO, Fatah, PFLP and all the other secular Palestinian acronyms were bugging Israel, the Israelis thought of encouraging some rivals to distract them. That the Mossad helped the growth of what the Palestinians call ‘Islamic resistance’. It was a classic example of the old ‘divide and rule’. The rest is history, allegedly, but in fact credibly. It is not clear how aware the ‘Islamists’ were of the alleged Israeli role on their behalf.

Now back to the current. No wonder Hamas leaders were unhappy, nay fundamentally pissed. No wonder they rejected a deal they did not know any details of. Of course Hamas may now be somewhat trapped, more trapped than Benyamin Netanyahu, since both are not sure what to do next. In some ways Hamas’s task is easier: it mostly reacts. All it has been doing so far has been to duck the air raids and missiles, occasionally firing a few rockets that apparently do little serious harm. In other words, they only respond to Israeli action, which puts them in a weak position.

Netanyahu is also trapped: his biggest problem now is what to do next if Hamas continues to reject the deal he made privately with Al Sisi (and perhaps with the knowledge of Abu Mazen whose legal tenure in office also expired long ago)?

As for the people of Gaza, they are even more painfully trapped than either Hamas or Israel, screwed by almost all sides, to put it crudely. As usual they pay the terrible price of this new brutal Israeli assault, which was claimed to be a reaction to Hamas actions in which the people of Gaza have no input. The last Palestinian elections were so long ago, that was when Hamas won. But we don’t know how new elections will turn out in both Gaza and the West Bank. Provided they are free and fair elections.

As for the other Arab regimes they are as usual divided and impotent. They all mouth some vague verbal support for ‘Gaza’, but some of the potentates are no doubt praying fervently this Ramadan for an outright Israeli victory. (They would be praying silently, with the history of the Battle of Badr in mind during an earlier Ramadan). They have done it before, they will do it again.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]

Culture, History, Iraq, Islam, Jihadists, Saudi Arabia

Biblical Monuments, Islamic Monuments………

Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“Soon afterward the minions of the self-appointed caliph of the freshly self-declared Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, paid a visit to the Mosul Museum. It has been closed for years for restoration, ever since it was looted along with many of Iraq’s other institutions in the wake of the culturally oblivious American-led invasion of 2003. But the Mosul Museum was on the verge of reopening, at last, and the full collection had been stored there……… … Soon after al-Bagdhadi’s men arrived in Mosul, they told the museum staff that the ancient statues were “against Islam.” But then they left the building. The collections remained unmolested for several days, and the initial reports that the statues had been smashed appear to have been erroneous. The photographs of shattered sculptures that circulated on the Web actually came from Syria, according to local officials in Mosul. But the caliphate’s gauleiters issued a city charter and declared in its Article 13 that “false idols” would have to be destroyed. For this strain of Sunni Muslim jihadists, any representation of the human form (with the apparent exception of their own propaganda videos), any shrine that might lend itself to idolatry, and any place of worship dedicated to the faith of supposedly heretical Shia Muslims must be obliterated…………..”

Before ISIS (ISIL) the other Wahhabi power, Saudi Arabia, had started to dismantle the premier monuments of early Islamic history in its birthplace of Mecca and Madinah. Excerpts from relevant previous posts:

“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”.

“It is not only the Wahhabi dogma against any historic sites, nay against history. It is also greed: properties in Mecca that are near the Kaaba are valuable. The tear them down to build expensive 5-star or 7-star hotels and apartments and shopping centers. Greed combines with Salafi dogma to doom the ancient monuments of early Islam. Homes and mosques of the Prophet and some of his early followers have been destroyed and built over with new ‘properties’.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]

Islam, Saudi Arabia, Sectarian

A Religious Joke: a Gaggle of Sectarian and Exclusionary Muslims Meet in Jeddah and……

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


“The Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, representing more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, affirmed Thursday a commitment to unity in combatting “sectarian” policies. A two-day meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah affirmed that OIC members will stand “united in combatting sectarian, confessional, and exclusion policies that have led to sedition in some countries and threatened their security and stability,” said a statement read by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal……………..”

Irony may be dead. A meeting of countries with governments that are almost all sectarian and exclusionary. A meeting in Jeddah to fight against sectarianism and exclusionism, by governments that are now almost universally sectarian. Regardless of their sects.
Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi foreign minister for the past forty years, waxing poetic about the sectarianism and exclusion policies, in the heart of Sectarianism and Exclusion. This is like Al Capone railing against organized crime. It is like holding a meeting in 1938 in Berlin to combat Nazism. It is like holding a meeting in Riyadh to combat absolute monarchy. It is like holding a meeting at the U.S. Congress to combat lobbying influence. It is like holding a meeting in Tehran to promote open Internet access and freedom. It is like holding a meeting in Cairo to combat military influence in politics. It is like holding a meeting in Tel Aviv against Zionism. It is like, you probably get it by now………. ad nauseam.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

GCC, Iraq, Islam, Jihad, Sectarian

New Muslim Zeitgeist: Iraq and Saudi Arabia Wage a Sectarian War……

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   
  
لماذا يموت العراقي حتى يؤدي الرسالة؟؟ 

و أهل الصحارى سكارى وما هم بسكارى ؟؟ 

يحبون قنص الطيور ولحم الغزال ولحم الحبارى !! 

لماذا يموت العراقي والآخرون يغنون هندا ويستعطفون نوارا ؟؟ 

 
“Iraqi government on Tuesday accused Saudi Arabia of financing terrorism committed by Takfiri insurgents of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, a day after Riyadh blamed “sectarian” policies by Baghdad. Comments from Riyadh indicates it is “siding with terrorism”, the cabinet said in a statement issued by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office.
“We strongly condemn this stance,” the statement read. “We hold it (Saudi Arabia) responsible for what these groups are receiving in terms of financial and moral support.”
“The Saudi government should be held responsible for the dangerous crimes committed by these terrorist groups,” the statement continued. Earlier on Monday, Saudi Arabia and Qatar blamed “sectarian” policies by Iraq’s government for the unrest that has swept the country………………”

That came one day after Saudi media quoted King Abdullah, from an undisclosed location in Morocco, ordering his cabinet to call Iraq ‘sectarian’, and demand they change their sectarian policies of the past few years. No doubt Iraq has become much more sectarian over the past ten years, but I have three points about that:


  • Now we are all sectarians, from Shi’a-dominated Iraq to Wahhabi-dominated Saudi Arabia to military-dominated Egypt. Even places like Morocco that can’t tell a Shi’a from a plate of coucous are going sectarian. That is an unfortunate spirit of our time, our Zeitgeist. In the sense that we are now all so aware of each other’s sect and wary of it. So aware and wary that it affects our behavior and our opinions on regional issues. It even affects how we respond to politics in our blog comments (take my blogs for example).

  • Nobody is as responsible for the worsening of sectarianism in our region, and inside Iraq and Syria and the rest of the Gulf, as the Saudi princes and their media and their policies. That is why they have spent billions of acquiring Arab media outlets, which they dominate now. That is how they keep the allegiance of their (Wahhabi) people, by raising the specter of a Shi’a threat. That is why they keep and pamper their palace clerics: they come in very handy in issuing appropriate fatwas.

  • There is sectarianism in Iraq, but it pales compared to sectarianism in Saudi Arabia. Iraq is not nearly as sectarian as Saudi Arabia where it is institutionalized in the bureaucracy and in the theocracy. At least all Iraqi sects get to vote in elections: nobody except the princes in their palaces gets to vote in Saudi Arabia. Besides, the percentage of Shi’as (among citizens) in the Kingdom Without Magic is close to the percentage of (Arab) Sunnis in Iraq, yet there is no minister, deputy minister, or even a deputy to an assistant to a deputy minister (possibly not even a proverbial official dog-catcher) who is Shi’a in the kingdom.



Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Islam, Saudi Arabia, Sectarian

A Religious Joke: a Gaggle of Sectarian and Exclusionary Muslims Meet in Jeddah and……

      

Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“The Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, representing more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, affirmed Thursday a commitment to unity in combatting “sectarian” policies. A two-day meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah affirmed that OIC members will stand “united in combatting sectarian, confessional, and exclusion policies that have led to sedition in some countries and threatened their security and stability,” said a statement read by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal……………..”

Irony may be dead. A meeting of countries with governments that are almost all sectarian and exclusionary. A meeting in Jeddah to fight against sectarianism and exclusionism, by governments that are now almost universally sectarian. Regardless of their sects.

Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi foreign minister for the past forty years, waxing poetic about the sectarianism and exclusion policies, in the heart of Sectarianism and Exclusion. This is like Al Capone railing against organized crime. It is like holding a meeting in 1938 in Berlin to combat Nazism. It is like holding a meeting in Riyadh to combat absolute monarchy. It is like holding a meeting at the U.S. Congress to combat lobbying influence. It is like holding a meeting in Tehran to promote open Internet access and freedom. It is like holding a meeting in Cairo to combat military influence in politics. It is like holding a meeting in Tel Aviv against Zionism. It is like, you probably get it by now………. ad nauseam.

Cheers

mhg

[email protected]

California, Islam, U.S. Politics

New Know-Nothing Party in the Land of Fruits and Nuts: Hindu candidate to Sneak Sharia into California………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


“GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly launched a blistering attack accusing Republican rival Neel Kashkari of associating with fundamentalist Islamic law. “BREAKING: Neel Kashkari supported the United States submitting to the Islamic, Shariah banking code in 2008 when he ran” the taxpayer-funded federal bank bailout, a Donnelly campaign associate wrote on the candidate’s Facebook page Monday. “Shariah is ‘the seditious religious-political-legal code authoritative Islam seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy.’ This revelation is spreading fast, as people … refer to Mr. Kashkari’s support of Shariah an ‘October Surprise.'”………..”

Kashkari oversaw the TARP program in 2008-09, under George W Bush. Imagine, warning California voters that a Hindu will sneak the Islamic Sharia as the law of the land of fruits and nuts. This is like saying the Pope and Obama are both secret Muslims.
This is only one example. In several Red States, legislatures have passed or tried to pass rules to “protect the states against Islamic Shariah”. And I believe many of them are serious about it. This strong move to Know-Nothingness was bound to happen to the Republican Party. Its roots where set in place decades ago, in 1968 when Richard Nixon opted for the Southern Strategy to get elected. It has accelerated with the intensification of the culture war and the spread of America’s Muslim Wars. Other factors, including economic, judicial, and political have contributed in recent years to move the GOP to the extreme right (extreme by American twentieth century standards, from Teddy Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter).

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Human Right, Iraq, Islam, Women

Human Trafficking: Iraqi Parliament about to Legalize Islamist Pedophilia………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“Iraq’s Council of Ministers should withdraw a new draft Personal Status Law and ensure that Iraq’s legal framework protects women and girls in line with its international obligations. The pending legislation would restrict women’s rights in matters of inheritance and parental and other rights after divorce, make it easier for men to take multiple wives, and allow girls to be married from age nine. The draft law, called the Jaafari Personal Status Law, is based on the principles of the Jaafari school of Shia religious jurisprudence, founded by Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq, the sixth Shia imam. Approved by the Council of Ministers on February 25, 2014, it must now be approved by the parliament to become law……………….”


This will be a crime against humanity because it will legalize and enable many multiple crimes of pedophilia in Iraq. Child marriage is a barbaric practice and a crime against humanity and it robs the victims of their childhood. It is an act of human trafficking, since the ‘bride’ is too young and has no power of decision and is effectively sold by her male guardian. Some Muslim states are hesitant, nay are afraid to enact laws against child brides, because of something that allegedly happened about 15 centuries ago. But that was then, this is now.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Islam, Malaysia, Sectarian, Terrorism, Wahhabi

A Dirty Open Secret of Malaysia: the Sectarian Angle, the Wahhabi Angle……

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter 

“In early August, Malaysia’s Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Abdul Rahim Mohamad Radzi announced the growth of the minority Shia population along with government plans to root out the movement. Radzi said, “The development of information technology is among the factors for their growth as the teachings are spreading through a range of social sites,” adding that as such, measures to curb Shia practices will “involve the Home Ministry, the police, Registrar of Societies, control of publications under the Printing and Publication Act, curbing the production of CDs and DVDs by the Film Censorship Board and monitoring by the Immigration Department.”…………..” 
This statement by a Malaysian bureaucrat titled Datuk Seri Whatever sounds like something uttered by Dr. Josef Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister of the German Reich.

Malaysia is more than just a country of incompetent feuding officials as we have seen from the fiasco of the MH370 tragedy. It is also another bi-polar Muslim state, while it tries to present a fake tolerant face to the outside world. Yet the country has been Wahhabi-ized over the past few decades. A couple of years ago in Malaysia, the Malaysian Islamic body, the regime’s National Fatwa Committee, went totally Wahhabi and announced that it is not permissible for Muslims to participate in any gathering or demonstration intended to oust a government. That is straight out of the playbook of the Saudi princes who use regime muftis and religious fatwas to stifle dissent.

Malaysia is now a fully officially a sectarian society: it does have a Wahhabi problem which also has led to its “Shi’a” problem. In the sense that Shi’as are persecuted and are forced to practice their faith in secret. They usually have to practice their faith in privacy, and often these gatherings are raided by regime security police and people are actually arrested. Apparently the religious establishment in Malaysia is dominated and managed by Wahhabi hardliners. Which also means the ruling regime, the establishment, has become more intolerant and Wahhabi. It is as sectarian as, say, Egypt has been under Mubarak and Morsi and Sisi combined. 

Even though Malaysia is so far away from the Wahhabi heartland of Riyadh. Very few in the West are aware of that. This also means that Malaysia has a “Wahhabi” problem: since it is Wahhabi influence and ideology of hate that has led to its Shi’a “problem“.

 
The country’s rulers, a bunch of Datuks and Seris, also treat its citizens, especially the women, quite different from how they treat Westerners. A few years ago there was the case of the native woman who walked into an establishment that legally serves alcohol: she reportedly ordered a beer and ended up being sentenced to death. Apparently she needed to become a foreign tourist and dye her blond to legally qualify to poison her mind and body.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arab Politics, Iraq, Islam, Media, Muslims, Saudi Arabia

Canned Media and Self-Appointed Leaders of World Muslims, Rome in Najaf……..

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter



“The visit was initially designed to mend fences with the Saudis, who claim leadership of the Sunni Arab world and, like other Gulf states, are upset about the thaw between Washington and Shiite Iran. The president hopes to smooth relations with one of America’s oldest allies in the Middle East and to better explain his Iran diplomacy to Riyadh and its neighbors. But now there are many new and – surprisingly, for the ultraconservative region – even young power players in the Gulf. And enmities between the kingdoms, emirates and sheikdoms are bubbling to the surface while their once fairly cohesive regional alliance, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is unraveling………… ut, as a Western diplomat who often visits Riyadh and other Gulf capitals told me, the Saudis, like the Qataris, consider Assad an Iranian puppet and Iran remains their chief enemy…………….”

Interesting how Western media, especially U.S. media, have bought into this Saudi propaganda bit about them being leaders of the Sunni world. Often they claim they are the leaders of the whole world Sunnis, not just Arab Sunnis. And like the mindless zombies the ‘canned’ media often tend to be, they insist on repeating it. They get this legend from the vast Saudi media and from some other Gulf media that cater to them. Ask any Sunni Arab from Amman through Cairo and Tunisia to Morocco if they consider the Al Saud princes their leaders. You would get a big laugh, at best; maybe something worse. What they are is the absolute unchallenged ruling family of the world’s Wahhabis (and Salafis).

FYI: Similarly, Saudi media often also hints (occasionally openly claims) that Shi’as give allegiance to Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran. Which is a deliberate untruth: he
is not the leader of world Shi’as, in either a religious or especially in a political sense. Not that he claims to be (well, not openly anyway). Almost certainly the religious authority is someone in Najaf, Iraq rather than in Iran. Rome is in Najaf not in Tehran or Qom.



As for Mr. Obama’s coming visit to Riyadh, I have already posted on it once before when I mentioned the 1912 Olympics, King of Sweden, and American Gold Medal winner Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was born in Prague (Oklahoma not Czech), and became a versatile athlete. He famously told the King of Sweden who hung the gold medals around his neck and praised him as the greatest athlete in the world: “Thanks, King“. Very likely what he said was: “Gee, thanks King“.