Category Archives: Saudi Arabia

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab League, Arab Revolutions, GCC, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Theocracy

Tars Tarkas of Arabia: From Revolutionary Spring to Reactionary Sectarianism ……….

    

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“It seems a sorry outcome after the Arab Spring raised the cry of equal citizenship and democracy around the region………… The clearest support for rebellion in Syria has come from overtly anti-Shia, militant Salafi groups that have been gaining strength in Lebanon for many years. Based originally in Palestinian camps, especially Ain el-Helweh in Sidon, they have been hardened by battle experience in Iraq and have expanded operations, especially in Tripoli. Mikati recently confirmed that the authorities had arrested a group within the army plotting to attack military bases; the Lebanese media reported that the militants were part of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Ahmad Moussalli, professor of political science and Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut, argues this may be only the beginning of the story. “It would be surprising not to uncover more al-Qaeda-affiliated Salafi terrorist cells,” he says. “Keep in mind that the Salafis do not recognize the legitimacy of the Lebanese state and its security and military personnel. Now, these groups are emboldened by the opposition in Syria, given that the opposition is largely composed of Islamic forces supported by Salafi Wahhabi states, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as other Islamic and Western states. The Salafi condition is going to be a major problem that the Lebanese government has to face before the north of Lebanon turns into a hotbed for al-Qaeda and other Salafists under the pretext of fighting the Syrian regime.”………….. “

If the history of the demise of the ‘Arab Spring” is ever written by an impartial person (unlike me), perhaps Tars Tarkas from Barsoom (Mars), he or she will note the following:

  • Early in 2011, the Iranian mullahs improbably and brazenly claimed that the uprisings were inspired by their own theocracy. Their claims were self-serving but wrong: if any Iranian movement inspired the Arab uprisings, it was probably the 2009 Green movement. Few Arabs want to be ruled by a theocracy, and that is also the case in majority Shi’a countries like Iraq and Bahrain. That is probably also true of the Saudis, who are already ruled by a theocracy.
  • The Arab uprisings started as mainly secular movements for freedom and equality and better economic conditions. As this piece I quoted notes, it has descended into sectarianism, by deliberate design and not by accident.
  • The Arab uprisings started at a time when three or four oil-rich Arab states dominated the League of Arab Potentates. With the unraveling of the stagnant regime in Cairo and the fall of the outspoken Qaddafi, with Iraq being deliberately kept out of the Arab circle, the field was open for the princes. 
  • Money is being used to support various Islamist groups that owe allegiance to different dynasties. The Salafis’ first and only true love are the Saudi princes (and their palace ulema and muftis). This is especially true of the Salafist movements on the Persian Gulf, basically a Saudi fifth column. It also extends to Egypt and the Levant and Libya. 
  • Money is also being used to softly blackmail countries like Egypt and Tunisia, possibly others, to keep them in line. Billions of Saudi and other aid money are promised, to Egypt for example, but none of it has actually been paid. Pending some policy ‘modifications’ vis-à-vis regional issues. The Egyptians have already complained of being promised aid without the funds actually materializing.
  • The Saudis have been ready, from a media and propaganda side, for the Arab uprisings. Over the past two decades, Saudi princes and their retainers and surrogates have been buying up and establishing vast Arab media networks. The names define an Arab media “Who is Who”: Alarabiya, Asharq Alawsat, Al-Hayat, MBC, LBC, Orbit, Rotana, etc etc etc. All that besides other media whose ‘services’ they purchase. All these outlets dominate Arab airwaves and satellites and they have had one message since at least 2003: sectarianism. The al-Saud princes know that sectarian tensions and divisiveness are the best way to divert attention away from real political and economic issues, especially on our Gulf of Sectarianism. 
  • Now the Arab Spring looks more like an Arab winter, with the most despotic, most regressive, most reactionary dynasties dominating the “Arab System’ as never before. The Saudis and Qataris and others call the shots, for now. They are even adopting their own Arab uprisings in places like Syria (as they did in Libya), calling for the Western powers to repeat the ‘liberation’ of Iraq. 
  • All this can be deceiving: once the Arab rebellions ‘win’, once some form of elected regimes are in place, the remaining depots, in the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain and other places, will begin to feel the pressure. Money can buy you love for a limited time: one hour, one night, one week, or maybe longer.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Religion, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, WTF

Paid Fatwa: Using Allah in Politics…………

    

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“She said: “Kings, when they enter a country, despoil it, and make the noblest of its people its meanest thus do they behave….…..” Holy Quran, Surat al-Naml (The Ants)

“The protests in Eastern Saudi Arabia have been ongoing for several years now; the protesters from the Saudi Shiite minority, a majority in the Eastern province, are only demanding end of all forms of discrimination in public and private sector jobs, improved housing (some live in shameful slums), and a ban on incitement against their faith. The hard-line religious establishment opposes any reforms, and continues to consider Shiites heretics. Recently, and when asked on the proper punishment for protesters, the Saudi Mufti cited the following verse from the Quran:
“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter“. (below, a photo of Saudi’s mufti)…………”

The royally-paid always-accommodating Grand Mufti said: “execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land“. Nice Effing Mufti, huh?
Yet that is what is being done in the kingdom without magic, except it is easier nowadays to shoot and torture and imprison them. Waging war against oppression and corruption is twisted as waging war against God. Of course, that Hadith applies more to the princes and their retainers, for it is they who wage war against God by disobeying Quranic and Hadith rules against oppression and corruption and hypocrisy. By their very existence they disobey Islamic rules against the rule of kings and princes.

FYI for my new readers only: His Muftiness Shaikh Abdulaziz Al Al Shaikh is
a relative of that other Shaikh Al Al Al Shaikh who heads the Saudi Commission
for the Propagation of Vice (religious police). They are both relative of that
other Shaikh Al AL Al Shaikh who used to be the Saudi Minister of Justice,
among others. All these Al Al Shaiks are descendants of Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab
of Nejd, after who the Wahhabi sect is named. They have been close allies of
the al-Saud clan, sometimes more than just allies if you get my drift. Mr.
Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab should not be confused with the late great Egyptian
musician and singer Mohammed Abdelwahhab, who was no Salafi, not even a
Wahhbai, but an Egyptian-style bon vivant.


Cheers
mhg


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Britain, Corruption, Culture, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

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

    

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“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


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Human Right, Middle East Women, Racism, Saudi Arabia

Holy Airlift! Two Ethiopian Maids in Every Saudi Home…….

 

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“Saudi Arabia plans to import 45,000 Ethiopian nationals into the kingdom every month in order to meet its requirement for domestic workers. Maids from the African nation have been in high demand since the Gulf’s most populous nation placed a ban on recruiting workers from the Philippines and Indonesia after those countries imposed stricter employment conditions, the Saudi Gazette reported. Noor Adeen Masfa, Vice Consul for Economic Affairs in Jeddah, said his department had met with committees from the Ethiopian Ministry of Labour in a bid to facilitate the transfer of Ethiopian workers to the kingdom. However, the lack of sufficient flights between Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and Saudi hubs has caused delays………..”

This after the Indonesians refused to export their women without adequate pay and better treatment. Indonesian women were the favorite in the kingdom, but some of them have been executed by beheading and there are reportedly some 21 of them waiting on death row in the kingdom. The Philippines also have put some conditions and limits on the abuse of their female citizens. Now it is the turn of Ethiopia. Forty five thousand per month. At this rate they’d need flights straight out of Addis Ababa dedicated for this type of ‘trade’. It would be quite an airlift, a ‘holy airlift’, no doubt general-ed by prince Khaled Bin Sultan, the defeated ‘hero’ of the  Huthi War.
They’d eventually have enough to provide every house with an Ethiopian housemaid. I suspect this must be part of their new Five-Year Plan: to have two foreign housemaids in every home.
I just hope they’ll allow these people to practice their religion freely (openly or secretly). This is, after all the domain of King Abdullah whom Western PR firms advised to sponsor a “dialog of faiths”. A dialog of faiths in Spain, France, Britain, Germany, Luxembourg, the USA, etc, etc, etc. Anywhere but not in Riyadh or Taif or any other place in Saudi Arabia, where there are no churches or synagogues or temples, where private group worship at homes is seriously frowned upon. ‘Seriously’ means public flogging, maybe some prison, then deportation. At least they don’t get beheaded, unlike sorcerers and witches and magicians. In the absolute Wahhabi Kingdom without Magic.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia

“Saudi Arabia helped ruin Bahrain…….”

 

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“Exactly one year ago, I was in Doha to speak at the Al Jazeera Forum, where a remarkable group of Arab politicians, intellectuals and activists had assembled to talk about the seemingly unstoppable momentum of the changes sweeping the region. Moncef Marzouki, then a human rights dissident and now President of Tunisia, told me about his hopes for crafting a genuinely democratic constitution — hopes which al-Nahda leader Rached Ghannouchi assured me he shared. Tareq el-Bishri gave a long speech about how Egypt’s 1952 revolution gave way to despotism and military rule; the youth activists in the audience could hardly mask their boredom with the old man, but perhaps should have listened more carefully. The Libyan revolutionaries at the conference were treated like rock stars, as were the youth activists from Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries. The mood was celebratory and electric, though tinged by anxiety over the atrocities in Libya and reports of Qaddafi’s forces moving towards Benghazi.
But in retrospect, the week of March 12 marked the precise turning point away from the “New Hope” of those dizzying Tahrir days towards the grimmer, darker political struggles to come. I never made my scheduled trip from Doha to Manama. That week, the Empire struck back: Saudi Arabia helped ruin Bahrain……….”
Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Human Right, Racism, Religion, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Hateful Scientific Grand Mufti and Salafis Call for Destruction of All Gulf Churches……….

 

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“The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has said it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region,” following Kuwait’s moves to ban their construction. Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, stressed that since the tiny Gulf state was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, it was necessary to destroy all of the churches in the country, Arabic media have reported. Saudi Arabia’s top cleric made the comment in view of an age-old rule that only Islam can be practiced in the region. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom. He is also the head of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas……….”

At least their hateful muftis do ‘scientific research’, but perhaps not the kind that deals with quantum physics or astronomy. These gentlemen deal in more useful types of research. Now the Grand Mufti (I can’t help it: this “Grand” always remind me of a piano, something His Muftiness hates) is close to the royal family. His Muftiness is appointed by the king and he issues fatwas that support the al-Saud policies at home and in the rest of the world.
About
this call for tearing down the churches: again this does not fit well with the narrative of the offshore “dialog of faiths” that the Saudis publicize in the West. Not when they and their Salafi agents around the Gulf are calling for such intolerance even as they invite millions of non-Muslims to come toil for them, to come and “defend” them. Then people like Geert Wilders, Pam Geller, Liz Cheney, and others will say: aha, we were right!

FYI

for my new readers only: His Muftiness Shaikh Abdulaziz Al Al Shaikh is a relative of that other Shaikh Al Al Al Shaikh who heads the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Vice (religious police). They are both relative of that other Shaikh Al AL Al Shaikh who used to be the Saudi Minister of Justice, among others. All these Al Al Shaiks are descendants of Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab of Nejd, after who the Wahhabi sect is named. They have been close allies of the al-Saud clan, sometimes more than just allies if you get my drift. Mr. Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab should not be confused with the late great Egyptian musician and singer Mohammed Abdelwahhab, who was no Salafi, not even a Wahhbai, was not a “bin” but an Egyptian-style bon vivant.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arabian Peninsula, Human Right, Saudi Arabia

Arabian Peninsula: in a Remote Gulag in the Desert………

 

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“At a small oasis far out in the desert, Abdulkarim al Khadr, a dismissed Professor of Theology, elucidates texts for his student Yusuf. He speaks the clear and ornate high Arabic of Islamic scholarship and cites the Koran and Sayings of Mohammed. The Prophet himself said that the struggle against vice in one’s own country is of greater merit than fighting against the unbelievers abroad. He says that it is the royal family that constantly speaks of bloody Jihad in order to discredit the justified demands for reform within the kingdom. The dissident and chairman of the unauthorized “Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association” demands reforms, yet he does not mean an opening of Saudi society. The uncompromising Islamist wants a transformation of the political system. He says that it is the royal family that constantly speaks of bloody Jihad in order to discredit the justified demands for reform within the kingdom. The dissident and chairman of the unauthorized “Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association” demands reforms, yet he does not mean an opening of Saudi society. The uncompromising Islamist wants a transformation of the political system. Most theologians in Saudi Arabia keep far removed from politics and follow the royal family like lambs, he says mockingly. They soil the memory of the most respected Companions of the Prophet by demanding blind obedience to the ruler, while at the same time ignoring the lack of rights for all citizens. He does not wish to talk of regime change, and even less so of terrorism. He thereby remains a troublesome adversary for the government. There are currently more than 5000 political prisoners from the Qassim Province alone. Most of them were jailed without due trial, claims the dismissed professor and he energetically rejects the assertion that these are Al-Qaida terrorists. His 17-year-old son has been sitting for two years in prison in order to silence Abdulkarim al Khadr. He nonetheless refuses to keep silent. His Internet site is regularly blocked and then quickly reopened under a new name..………”
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Media, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Saudi Arabia, Syria

About that Arab Water: al-Assad Longevity, Saudi Longevity, Prince Forever……..

 

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Syria’s official Tishreen newspaper has launched an attack against the Saudi clan. It is actually a counterattack, since the Saudis have been attacking the Syrian regime for some time now, especially this past year. Their target is life-long foreign minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal.

For some years, Saudi official and semi-official media and their Gulf surrogates have been attacking the Syrian regime, mostly for being an ally of Iran and aiding Hezbollah. That has shifted in past few months, the vast Saudi media have been attacking the Syrian regime for various things, one of them for being undemocratic and oppressive and repressive. They have also started to use the favorite weapon of the Saudi regime: sectarianism. Nobody in the Arab world, Islamic world, or the whole wide world can use the poison of sectarian divisiveness better than the al-Saud and their huge media and their Salafi surrogates. The Syrians have mostly held their fire, for some odd reasons, maybe hoping for another reconciliation, for future financial reasons. Now, with the regime in deeper trouble, and the Saudi regime calling for Western intervention in Syria, the gloves are off, sort of. Here are excerpts of what Tishreen said today:

“Prince Saud al-Faisal, nicknamed the forever foreign minister has been in office since 1975, like a life sentence. We call it 35 autumns since there is nothing that has to do with a “spring” in his ministry”.

“Now, in the autumn of his years, he has decided for his ministry to ride the wave of Arab Spring, but only in Syria…..”

“Saud al-Faisal has a face that does not inspire trust or safety. His looks are not easy to understand, until he starts talking in heavy Arabic that is not understood until his ministry issues its explanatory statements…” This one is below the royal belt, and childish; worse than some of the stuff I blog here.

“Saud al-Faisal, who lived for years with a sectarian face toward some regional neighbors as well as some regions in Saudi Arabia, has suddenly remembered his Arab nationalism and only in our country. He forgot it when his troops where shooting and killing Saudis in the Eastern Province, he forgot his nationalism when his country sent forces to suppress an uprising calling for justice and freedom in Bahrain……. “

All this is still mild compared to the nasty job Saudi media is doing on Bashar al-Assad. They have their many palace shaikhs issuing fatwas every week sending Bashar al-Assad (and Asma al-Assad) to hell; you’d think the late King Fahd is the doorman, admissions officer, to heaven these days.
 
Also, in fairness: when they talk about longevity in office, the Syrians forget that the late Hafiz al-Assad ruled for nearly thirty years, as long as the Saudi kings. Or that Bashar never had any intention of leaving office voluntarily, just like any Saudi prince. It must be something in the Arab water that makes potentates and bureaucrats and minions cling to power. Till death do them part.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria

Year of the Baathists: Iraq and Syria, Nasser and the Kings………….

 

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“On the surface, in fact, the Syrian affair was much milder and less bloody than most Arab revolts. In the past 15 years, the Middle East has been continually shaken like a kaleidoscope, constantly falling into new patterns. There have been two sizable wars and fully two dozen armed uprisings and rebellions………  It was quite clear last week that the latest shake of the kaleidoscope resulted in new patterns and alignments overwhelmingly favorable to Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Syrian revolution was the third in six months by rebels pledged to make common cause with Egypt. Flights of new leaders poured into Cairo for tear-stained embraces with Nasser and nightlong conferences on the future course of that misty concept called Arab unity. Nasser stands at the pinnacle of prestige, if not of power, and the shadow he casts has never been longer. Today, it falls over the entire Arab world from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean………….For the first time in 500 years, the three key Arab states of Egypt, Iraq and Syria have a similar political posture and are on close and friendly terms……….  The monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Jordan—close friends of the West but hated enemies of the Arab nationalists—face the threat of uprisings at the hands of powerful local friends of the man in Cairo…………”


The Iraqi Ba’athists had a taste of power for the first time that year, but it did not last. They were kicked out of the government by their allies, the  Aref brothers who established their own dynasty. The Arefs had been pardoned by leader of the 1958 revolution, Za’eem (General) Abdel Karim Qassim after they had tried to overthrow him. He saved their lives from the executioner, but they went on plotting against him in freedom. He was overthrown by a Ba’athist and Aref alliance that initiated its own bloodbath in Iraq. Aref did not return the favor to Qassim but had him machine-gunned without a trial. Soon he managed to get rid of the Ba’ath, and when he died in a helicopter crash (a favorite way for Iraqi potentates to die) his brother took over until 1968. The second Aref was overthrown by the Ba’athists who killed off almost anybody who could challenge them and they ruled until April 2003.
The Syrian Ba’athists never lost power after March 1963. They had several strongmen who led the Party that ruled Syria. Bashar al-Assad’s father was the last one and the strongest of them, and he arranged for his son to take over when he died. What will happen to Bashar? We shall see: the consensus in the West and among many Arabs was that he was a gonner, but that was last month. The outlook may have changed these past two weeks. The era of the absolute Arab dictator is finished, soon to be followed by the end of the absolute tribal monarch (do you hear me, your majesties?.
Cheers
mhg


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

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

 

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“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


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