Category Archives: Salafi

When the Saudi Mufti Al Attacked Egypt’s Revolution, a Late Egyptian Musician….

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One year ago, just before Mubarak was forced out in Egypt, the Mufti of Saudi Arabia got his orders and issued a fatwa against protests. Here is how that post starts:
 
The Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Shaikh Abdulaziz Al al-Shaikh severely criticized those who protest and demonstrate in Arab cities. He said the demonstrations are part of a plot to weaken Arab and Muslim countries and, get this, to transform them from big strong nations to weak backward nations. Shaikh Al said these protesters are spreading lies….. He said that security and stability are most important, using the example of Saudi Arabia, which he said follows the word of Allah and has become an example cited all over the world. (Somehow I had missed the part about it being cited as an example to be followed, unless Angela Merkel is now proposing to behead sorcerers and magicians in Germany, for example)

The Mufti, besides being intellectually the equivalent of a Neanderthal, is also a keen propagandist for Wahhabism and for the absolute royals. But that is okay, they appointed him. Besides, he had no choice: the Saudi king himself publicly called the Egyptian youth who started the revolution “foreign infiltrators”. For the king, these youth are foreigners since they are not Saudis.

FYI: Shaikh Al is a direct descendant of Shaikh Mohammad Bin Abdulwahab, an early ally of the al-Saud after whom the strict Wahhabi doctrine was named. They got to name a whole country after their family, and the shaikh got to name a whole sect after his family. Shaikh Mohammad Bin Abdulwahab should not be confused with the late great Mohammed Abdelwahab, the Egyptian composer and singer who was never a Wahhabi nor a fundamentalist.
Cheers
mhg



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On Arab Uprisings and Crazy Illusory Iranian Ideas, Salafi Money vs. Salafi Opium………

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The recent popular uprisings and revolutions in the region and massive popular protests throughout the world have been inspired by the Iranian nation’s Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said……. In a statement released on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the IRGC said that Iran’s revolution has presented the discourse of the Islamic Revolution and the Iranian nation to human communities, Muslim nations in particular. “The Islamic Awakening and popular revolutions in North Africa and the Middle-East and collapse of tyrants and dictators in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and, God-willing, in other lands and also the waves of awakening in the heart of Europe and the United States and the confrontation between Anti-Capitalism (Occupy) movements with criminal and Zionist rulers in the West are undoubtedly among the achievements of the Islamic Revolution and the Iranian nation’s leadership in promoting awareness (of the other nations) and in the campaign against the arrogant powers, the statement said……………..

Maybe

the Iranian media publicize these incredible reports as propaganda, which is okay, it is normal. The danger is if Iran’s leaders actually believe this stuff they publish, that the Arab revolts look to imitate an Iranian system. Yet that is against all the evidence. The rebellion in Egypt led to a Muslim Brother and Salafi parliament. Salafis are the sworn enemies of Shi’a Iran and of all Shi’as anywhere. Salafis hate Shi’as and Jews and Methodists and Hindus and Mormons and Episcopalians and even pagans. Salafis worship Mohammed Bin Abdulwahhab the Nejdi cleric (not the late Egyptian singer Mohamed Abdelwahab). They also nearly worship Saudi princes (especially the Gulf Salafis do). They agree with the Iranian mullahs on one thing (in addition to the Five Pillars of Islam): they both hate and fear Barbie Doll.
In all other Arab states the uprisings were started by young secularists but were hijacked by Salafis or other fundamentalists who are also not eager to have an Iranian style system. In fact, the Salafis admire the Saudi system more than any other system in the whole wide world (well, the Taliban are a little more puritan now than the Saudis, but they have no money to give away; they only have opium).

I think I shall tweet Ayatollah Khamenei (I follow him on Twitter) and correct this Iranian misunderstanding before they go too far with it. All this does is terrify the Saudi potentates who “might” be naive enough to believe it, then they will redouble their efforts to get their American and Israeli allies to attack Iran. It also makes them crack down harder on the oppressed people of Bahrain and Qatif.
Cheers
mhg



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Pictorial Egypt Parliament: One Saudi Guy, Three Sleeping Guys, Two Browsers, no Partridge on a Pear Tree

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This above picture of members of the new Egyptian parliament at the opening session. It shows a bunch of bearded guys, all duly and freely elected. Yet what I see are:

  • one skinny Saudi guy (bottom left with the red shmagh ghutra) who looks like Osama Bin Laden’s former driver or a flunky of some prince,
  • three sleeping guys (possibly polygamists),
  • two guys pretending to be awake,
  • one bearded guy (in the back) who is probably a fan of Beyoncé browsing YouYube.
  • One can’t judge a book by its cover, not most of the time.
  • Still: WTF is the Saudi guy doing in the Egyptian parliament?Why can’t he run for the oxymoron-ic Saudi parliament?


Cheers
mhg



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Saudi King Orders: a Gentler Religious Police, Witchcraft and St. Valentine’s, Chopped Lamb Heads……….

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“A long, long time ago…….. On graduation day
You handed me your book …… I signed this way:

Roses are red, my love……  Violets are blue. 
Sugar is sweet, my love……. But not as sweet as you.


Roses are red, my love…….  Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet, my love……  But luck may
god bless you…..
Bobby Vinton


The newly appointed general president of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh said Thursday that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah had ordered him and his fellow colleagues to be lenient when dealing with people and to show good will and respect to them. “The king gave me these clear orders when I went to greet him after my appointment,” he told local daily Al-Eqtisadiah in an interview. Al-Asheikh said King Abdullah advised him to always have a fear of Allah when tackling religious issues concerning the public and to treat citizens and foreigners with respect and leniency………….

So the Wahhabi religious cops (Commission for Protection of Vice) are ordered by the king to be respectful and lenient as they harass people for trying to, or pretending to, have fun. (Actually having fun is very hard in the Kingdom and that is why almost anyone who can do so flies, drives, swims, walks, rides a donkey, or hitches a ride out of the Wahhabi utopia). I am puzzled by this, and I have a few questions:

  • Why do they need an order from the king? Doesn’t the kingdom have rules and laws and by-laws regulating how people are to be treated by the regime and its secret police and enforcers? Like almost every other country outside North Korea?
  • And what about people who talk politics and vanish in the prison cells of the regime? When will the “king’s” mercy touch them? 
  • Does this also mean that people who dabble in sorcery and magic, as well as people who deal with them, will not have their heads chopped off in a public square just before the Friday lunch? 
  • Does this mean the religious cops will not entrap people into offering or buying magic and sorcery with the goal of getting them sentenced to have their heads chopped off in a public square just before the Friday lunch? Just before the spectators head back home for a lunch of lamb and rice? [I don’t think Saudis eat bacha or pacha (boiled spiced sheep’s head) like we do in the Gulf and Iraq and Iran].
  • Is all this, as I suspect, a ploy to open the door for the unthinkable, the legalization of red roses next February? Maybe on this St. Valentine’s Day red roses and heart-shaped balloons will be allowed in the shops. Maybe the religious cops (the Haia) will be encouraged by the king to buy red roses for each other, for their wives, for all their multiple wives, even the very first ones who may be long in the tooth. Anything is possible.

Cheers
mhg



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Mullahs, Princes, and Islamist Potentates: Prince Turki and Fitna……….

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Prince Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the board of the King Faisal Center for Islamic Research Studies called on Iran to stop spreading sectarian divisions (Fitna) among Gulf GCC citizens. He emphasized that these countries are not part of any dispute with the “international community” about its nuclear program. He made his statement in a speech to the Conference on National Security and Regional Security in the GCC, held in Bahrain………..”

I don’t know about this. No doubt the Iranian mullahs have pursued their own goals toward influence through interference in some Arab states: mainly in Iraq and Lebanon. Like all theocrats, the mullahs are no sweethearts in the pursuit of their goals. But the prince is being deliberately unfair and misleading toward the Shi’a citizens of the Gulf states. Prince Turki is hinting here that Iran is responsible for the popular uprisings in Bahrain and in Qatif. He is using the discredited al-Khalifa excuse of painting the peoples of Bahrain and Qatif as Iranian agents simply because they refuse to accept the current apartheid policies of the al-Saud and the al-Khalifa despots.
Yet no regime in the Middle East is as sectarian as the Saudi and Bahraini regimes, no regime has resorted to as much sectarian divisiveness and hatred as the Saudi Arabian. The vast semi-official Saudi media (all owned by princes and their retainers and tribal in-laws) has waged a campaign of several years spreading sectarian hatred wherever they could. No other regime in recent history has spread so much suspicion and hatred. Especially in the Gulf GCC states, but they have also tried well beyond the Gulf from Syria and Lebanon to Egypt and North Africa. All with the help of their local Salafi fifth columns and their Muslim Brotherhood tribal allies. (Most Gulf Muslim Brothers are very close to the Saudi princes, unlike those in Egypt and other places. Some like the demagogue Yusuf al-Qaradawi are close to the Qatari shaikhs, a few others are close to the UAE Abu Dhabi shaikhs).
It is the old divide-and rule policy once attributed to the British imperial power.

Cheers
mhg



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Legalized Bribery, Western Terrorism vs. Islamic Terrorism, a Most pro-Israeli Administration…………

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In the peculiar American system of legalized bribery, AIPAC has bought most US congressmen by organizing thousands of Jewish and Christian Zionist groups to give money to Congressional campaigns. AIPAC ought to have to register as an agent of a foreign country, but is allowed to so function without any let or hindrance, by the FBI, which really ought to intervene here. The hypocrisy is so thick you could drown in it. The Israel lobbies have managed to configure the Hizbullah party-militia of Lebanon as a “terrorist” organization, when Hizbullah’s major military operations were defensive, aimed at expelling occupying, aggressive Israeli troops from Lebanese territory on which they had unlawfully squatted. But when Mossad (pretending to be Americans) buys Baluchi agents to blow up innocent worshippers in mosques in Zahedan, that is defined away as not terrorism…………

Also sprach Juan Cole, not unreasonably; in fact quite reasonably.
All these revelations only reinforce deeply ingrained Iranian suspicions that go back almost six decades. Jundullah have committed some gruesome murders against Iranian civilians, like beheadings and slitting throats, Salafi al-Qaeda style crimes. It is not clear yet if it was the CIA that recruited the Salafi terrorists or the friendly Israelis in American disguise (nice friends, no?). But it all reminds the mullahs and ordinary Iranians of the American-British plot that ended their democracy in August 1953. That plot, Operation Ajax, handed absolute power first to the shah, then it lay the seeds for the 1979 revolution, the embassy hostage-taking, and the ongoing crisis.
As for the Israelis, if they were behind it, they certainly will not be punished, not even reprimanded. Not when they have the American Knesset running the show in Washington DC, and a terrified Democrat administration turning a blind eye in a way George W. Bush would never have allowed. This is truly the most pro-Israeli administration in American history. Unfortunately, pro-Israeli also means extreme pro-right-wing Likud.

Cheers
mhg



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Saudi High: Spelling Hypocrisy in Arabic (and in Latin)………….

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Statements by a Saudi preacher, Mohamed al-Areefi, about the consumption of alcohol and drugs by international students and his calls that they be subjected to tests at the airport upon returning home stirred much controversy, especially among academics, who rejected what they regarded as a sweeping statement with no scientific basis…….. 
“With all due respect to Areefi, there are no accurate statistics that prove what he is saying,” he told Al Arabiya.
Oud added that Areefi, who posted his statements on his Facebook page and Twitter account, is a man of religion, but he cannot issue judgments on matters related to statistics and medical tests.
“He is not supposed to interfere in drug tests and propose that they be done in airports, since this is not only a medical issue, but also one related to security measures.”…….

This prominent Saudi cleric has proposed that Saudi students be tested for alcohol and drugs upon return, when they land at the airport. The premise is that they consume alcohol and smoke pot while in the West (especially just before flying home?). And I had thought most Saudi students are supposed to get drunk, nay get high, by listening to garbled speeches by the king and senior al-Saud princes. Some of them may get high listening to Wahhabi clerics.
The cleric declined to suggest the same tests for the Saudi princes who fly in and out of the country a lot, at public expense. They are the most likely consumers of banned substances outside the kingdom and inside the kingdom (very likely within the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah). I mean alcohol in Mecca and Madinah  could be deemed almost as bad as pedophilia inside a church. Wooops, your graces, sorry about that.

Cheers
mhg



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Egyptian Cinema: What Next? Salafi Cinema?………….

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The sweeping victory of Islamists in the first two rounds of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections after the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak’s regime raised liberals’ concerns over a variety of issues, on top of which was the future of the film industry under a conservative government. The debate between a prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader and a prominent liberal director served to give an insight into the aspects of the problem. Head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Film and Drama Committee Mohamed al-Naggar started with objections to the labels liberals sometimes give to types of films to distinguish between what is conservative and what is not. “There is nothing called a Brotherhood film or a leftist film or a Nasserist film,” Naggar told Al Arabiya’s Parliament Race. Naggar explained that unlike what many people think the Muslim Brotherhood are not against cinema and do not believe that it is against Islam. “On the contrary, cinema like any art is an integral part of human nature.” What the Brotherhood cares about the most, he pointed out, is the production of movies that represent the values of society. “We cannot reduce a movie into a couple of sex scenes because this does not reflect the reality of women in Egypt.”………

Egyptian Cinema had its golden age during the 1940s, the 1950s, and the 1960s. It started to decline with the beginning of the 1970s. There have been a few good films in the past four decades, but most of the films have been lousy and I have avoided them. The golden age of Egyptian cinema was also the period of social freedom. With the advent of the Sadat and Mubarak regimes, Egyptian society began its descent into quasi-Wahhabi restrictions and decline. This was also reflected in the arts and in culture in general, from novels to plays. There have been some good Egyptian writers since, but nobody like Mahfouz, Toufiq al-Hakeem, Taha Hussein, among many others.
Egyptian cinema was not too far behind international films in those days. Great actors like Yosuf Wahbi, Fareed Shawqi, al-Mileegi, Hussein Riyadh, Omar Shareef, and many many others. Great comedians like Naguib el-Reehani, Adel Khairi, Ismail Yasseen, Mary Muneib, and others. Not to forget great actresses like Fatin Hamama, Fatma Rushdy, Hind Rustum, among others.
Look for the Egyptian cinema to decline further under the new regime, especially as it seems almost certain now that the Salafis will be part of it. Yet Islamic rule does not have to mean decline of the cinema: there is one example of the opposite happening. I think I will do my next posting on that.

Then the Salafis may want to bring Egyptian cinema to the level of Saudi cinema, meaning non-existent since there is no cinema industry or cinema theaters in Saudi Arabia (alles verboten).

Cheers
mhg



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Wahhabi Cinema: Blasphemous Performing Arts, a Cerebral Haia………..

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Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow cinemas (movie houses) to open. It goes against the Salafi Wahhbai doctrine of the country to have cinemas or theaters or dances. All types of performing arts and fine are either banned or seriously frowned upon. There is only one type of dancing that is allowed: that is when the al-Saud princes get together and swing plastic Chinese-made swords in the air as they “get down” to it. Then it is okay: they are filmed and photographed. They even once got George W Bush to join them in the ‘Ardha (he looked stiff, but then if it had been Tony Blair he would have looked dead). The Nabati Poets Diwaniyyia also allowed, but these guys don’t dance, although they do some acting. Another exception is the annual al-Janadriya festival which is not very festive.

There was one attempt in 2005 to start by showing only cartoons during holidays and only for children and women (apparently children and women are considered cerebrally equal by the Wahhbais although I know they are both much smarter than the men). More than two years ago (2009) there was another attempt by a prince to start the move toward opening cinemas. He started film screenings in two major towns. Rotana entertainment, a group owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, showed a film of its own production. That attempt was killed by a royal order (I think Prince Nayef issued the order), after the Commission for Promotion of Vice, the religious police (Haia) headed by Nayef, strongly objected.

Now there are new murmurings about Saudi cinema, or rather cinema in Saudi Arabia. In fact there is a Saudi fatwa against cinemas. It would be interesting how the Mufti and his shaikhs change that once they are ordered to do so by the ruling family. What can they say? That the king had a holy vision that it is okay now? That the crown prince dreamed of a conversation with Steven Spielberg or maybe Bugs Bunny that convinced him it is now kosher and halal? Sorry, forget Spielberg: Salafi muftis aren’t supposed o converse with Jewish film-makers, not even in dreams. Bugs Bunny, however, remains kosher, but only for men.
Cheers
mhg



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ANHRI: Saudi Religious Police Celebrate New Year’s, Santa Claus at Large…….

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ANHRI condemns the ongoing severe deterioration of freedoms in Saudi Arabia, as well as the arbitrary detentions of citizens and expatriates. Most recently, the Saudi Morality Police detained an expatriate in Riyadh in the New Year’s Eve as he was walking on a street holding balloons on which it was written “happy new year 2012″. It is forbidden to celebrate this holiday in Saudi Arabia, and thus the Morality Police arrested him and handed him over to the competent authorities for investigation. The balloons have been seized. Severe restraints are imposed on freedoms in Saudi Arabia, as international organizations say that the authorities continue to detain dozens of people without a charge or trial. Torture and other forms of ill-treatment while in custody are widespread. Non-Muslims are still not allowed to practice their rituals publicly. Shiites are continuously suffering from discrimination. Expatriate workers and their families are deprived of their most basic rights. “Saudi Arabia is on top of the list of countries hostile to freedoms which use repression in the name of religion. The policy Saudi Arabia pursues is nothing but a desperate apparatus that will not work out, the same way it did not with other despotic regimes in the Arab world when the winds of change and freedom crossed over them. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia apparently has not learned the lesson” said ANHRI……………

You’d think New Year’s or Christmas are Shi’a (Shiite) religious holidays, the way the Wahhabi Salafi religious police crack down on them. Yet these are the main holidays of the allies of the Saudi princes, the ones with whom they share such cherished (at least by me if not by the current U.S. Congress) American values as freedom and justice and equality. I suspect if
Prince Whatishisface were not a Wahhabi Muslim, he’d be given a standing
ovation in the U.S. Congress for sharing American values. I mean after a
hustler and serial bull-shitter like Bibi Netanyahu was granted the
honor last year, who is left?

That is not all: the baboons have also regularly raided private homes where “the wrong” people celebrate these occasions privately. “Wrong people” means people of little or no means and influence in the Kingdom without Magic (you can get beheaded for having anything to do with magic or maybe even Disney). Yet the religious cops of the Commission for the Propagation of Vice (affectionately called the Haia by the princes) turn a blind eye to “not-so-private” parties by the potentates where alcohol flows like water does outside the Arabian Peninsula, where alcohol is not the only thing flowing freely.

In December, the country’s top Muslim cleric and mufti Shaikh Abdel-Aziz bin Abdullah Al Al Shaikh, aka Al, fatwad that all celebrations of the New Year, birthdays and marriage anniversary are un-Islamic (aka un-Wahhabi). He did not, however, fatwa against observing the King.s anniversary.
Cheers
mhg



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