Well, it hurts less that way. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia
Australia: Islamic ‘Peace’ = exterminating Jews
Suppose they held a Peace Conference and nobody came? Continue reading
Saudi Arabia: If you can keep your head when all about you…
…Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…
…there’s a job for you in Saudi Arabia! Continue reading
Saudi Arabia: Islamist cleric rapes, tortures, kills 5-year-old daughter…
But it’s OK — they made him pay a fine. Continue reading
Saudi Arabia: God Squad decides dinosaurs are just plain rude
A lady in Dammam, the hub of the oil industry on the kingdom’s Gulf coast, tweeted a complaint from a local shopping mall. Agents of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), she said, were causing an unpleasant scene. The government-salaried vigilantes, a bearded auxiliary police force familiarly known to Saudis as the Hayaa, had marched officiously into an educational exhibit featuring plaster models of dinosaurs, turned off the lights and ordered everyone out, frightening children and alarming their parents.
But the people are starting to take notice:
Within minutes of the incident, a freshly minted Arabic Twitter hashtag, #Dammam-Hayaa-Closes-Dinosaur-Show, was generating scores of theories about their motives. Perhaps, suggested one, there was a danger that citizens might start worshipping dinosaur statues instead of God. Maybe it was just a temporary measure, said another, until the Hayaa can separate male and female dinosaurs and put them in separate rooms. Surely, declared a third, one of the lady dinosaurs had been caught in public without a male guardian. A fourth announced an all-points police alert for Barney the Dinosaur, while another suggested it was too early to judge until it was clear what the dinosaurs were wearing.
Saudi Arabia: Just when you think ‘they can’t possibly get any worse’…
…they come up with this.
A Saudi Arabian imam, who is a very influential cleric in jihadist circles, has issued a fatwa (religious edict) that essentially allows all jihadists fighting in Syria to rape women.
Muhammed al-Arifi, a Wahhabi religious cleric, officially calls this act an “intercourse marriage” that can last only a few hours – “in order to give each fighter a turn” — and restricts the men to Syrian females at least 14 years old, widowed or divorced.
Al-Arifi, expressed his annoyance at the “warriors of Islam” being denied sexual pleasures while fighting in Syria “alongside the armed opposition forces” for the past two years. He said this fatwa “solves [their] sexual problems” and “boosts the determination of the mujahideen in Syria and is considered a duty to enter paradise for those females who enter such marriages.”
The Arabic language news site Tayyar.org reports that critics of Al-Arifi have expressed anger about the fatwa, saying that it permits the exploitation of Syrian women through rape.
Not to mention being vile, fatuous, bestial and moronic.
Saudi Arabia: Are you an ape or a swine?
“A pig is an animal with dirt on his face…”
Consider yourself lucky: atheists don’t even get a mention!
A ninth-grade textbook published by the Ministry of Education states, “The Jews and the Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims.” An eighth-grade textbook says, “The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians.” These are just two examples of a long list of hate-filled passages.
Children who are indoctrinated with such hatred are susceptible to engage in bigotry and even violence. Hate speech is the precursor to genocide. First you get to hate and then you kill. This makes peaceful coexistence difficult, if not impossible.
The Daily Beast – appropriately enough.
Saudi Arabia: One eye good, two eyes bad
A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.
Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.
What was that about ‘the country of the blind’?
Saudia Arabia: No women, please, we’re Muslims!
Our spokeswoman had this to say: ” “
Swedish furniture giant Ikea has landed itself in hot water in its home country after women and girls were airbrushed out of some of the pictures in its Saudi Arabian catalogue.
A local version of Ikea’s yearly catalogue, published on its Saudi website, shows images that are identical to those in other editions save for one detail: the women are gone….
The removal of women from the pages of the Saudi edition, including a young girl who was pictured studying at her desk, has prompted a strong response from Swedes, who pride themselves on egalitarian policies and a narrow gender gap.
“You can’t remove or airbrush women out of reality. If Saudi Arabia does not allow women to be seen or heard, or to work, they are letting half their intellectual capital go to waste,” Trade Minister Ewa Bjoerling said in a statement.
Her sentiment was echoed by Swedish European Union Minister Birgitta Ohlsson, who branded the incident “medieval” on social networking site Twitter.
Saudi Arabia: Sure, women can do sport, as long as they don’t
Dr. Mohammad al-Arifi, an influential cleric who preaches at Al-Bawardi Mosque in Riyadh, is on faculty at King Saud University, warned Prince Nawaf against sending Saudi women to the Olympics:
“Women practicing sports … is fundamentally allowed … but if this leads to mixing with men … or revealing private parts … or men watching her sometimes run, sometimes fall down … sometimes laugh and sometimes cry or quarrel with another female athlete … or mount a horse … or practice gymnastics … or wrestling … or other sports … while the cameras film and the [television] channels broadcast … then there can be no doubt that it is forbidden.”
Because, hey, Saudi Arabia is on the UN Women’s Rights Agency committee… it’s not as if they could be viciously bigoted and misogynistic, is it?
Oh…
Saudi Arabia: Female human to compete in Olympics! Oh, wait…
“There! Let’s see her ride THAT!”
…western media such as the BBC reported that a 20-year-old equestrian would compete for Saudia Arabia and light up the London Olympics with her talent, charisma and – most important of all – faith in feminist progress. Not only is Dalma Malhas a fine horsewoman, but she apparently believes in the potential of autocratic Islamic monarchies to adapt and change. Or, as a gushing profile by one journalist put it, Dalma is ‘‘now emerging as a torch for women in Saudi Arabia by showing how freedom to perform can allow women to achieve their goals’’…
Such euphemisms fail, unfortunately, to convey the full horror of the female condition in a country defined by ultra-conservative Wahhabi Islamic orthodoxy and equally patriarchal tribal customs. Saudi women are currently barred from voting or standing for office, are not allowed to expose any part of their body beyond eyes and hands, and have to have a ‘‘male guardian’’ with them at all times. They have separate entrances for public buildings and are not allowed to drive a car. The black humour that underpins state policy was inadvertently summed up in a recent speech by King Abdullah, who said: ‘‘I want women to drive when society is ready for it.’’
Which perhaps makes it less surprising that less than 24 hours after the BBC reported Malhas’s inclusion in the team, the Olympic federation denied that she would compete. In fact her horse has been out of action for weeks.
I had to leave that last sentence in, in case it was a coded message to our oppressed sisters: “Psst, Fatima! The horse is out of action, but the red chicken still flies.”
Saudi Arabia: Man executed for ‘witchcraft and sorcery’
Saudi justice in action?
Because he weighed as much as a duck? I imagine this to be a pretty good indication of how Sharia law works.
A Saudi man has been beheaded on charges of sorcery and witchcraft, the state news agency SPA says.
The man, Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, was found in possession of books and talismans, SPA said. He had also admitted adultery with two women, it said.
The execution took place in the southern Najran province, SPA reported.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned executions for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia.
Last year, there were reports of at least two people being executed for sorcery.
Saudi Arabia: It’s called ‘capitalism’, princess — deal with it!
A Saudi princess was caught trying to leave the Shangri-La hotel in Paris without settling a six million euro ($7.7 million) bill for her rooms, police said on Saturday, confirming a report in the daily Le Parisien.
Maha al-Sudani, the former wife of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz, tried to walk out at 3.30am on Thursday without paying for her suite and those of her 60-strong entourage, prompting staff to call in police, Le Parisien reported….
The princess has already had previous run-ins over unpaid bills. In 2009, fashion chain Key Largo went to court to obtain 89,000 euro owed by the princess…
Jamila Boushaba, who ran the O Caprices De Lili store, said she was told by a visiting envoy from the Saudi royal family in 2009 when she tried to claim a 70,000 euro bill from the princess, “I’m afraid we can’t go around settling bills for the princess’s knickers.”
Boushaba added: “When I called last one of her staff asked why I went to the media. I said it was to get my money. He replied: ‘What, you’ve caused all this trouble and you still want your money?”‘
“It was all a misunderstanding.” the princess later explained. “I said I was going to pay for the items, and they thought I was telling the truth. But I don’t understand — if they want money why don’t they just sink an oil well?”
Update: The Princess has had her assets seized.
Middle East: Misogyny, thy name is Islam
Why Do They Hate Us? – By Mona Eltahawy | Foreign Policy
But let’s put aside what the United States does or doesn’t do to women. Name me an Arab country, and I’ll recite a litany of abuses fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend. When more than 90 percent of ever-married women in Egypt — including my mother and all but one of her six sisters — have had their genitals cut in the name of modesty, then surely we must all blaspheme. When Egyptian women are subjected to humiliating “virginity tests” merely for speaking out, it’s no time for silence. When an article in the Egyptian criminal code says that if a woman has been beaten by her husband “with good intentions” no punitive damages can be obtained, then to hell with political correctness. And what, pray tell, are “good intentions”? They are legally deemed to include any beating that is “not severe” or “directed at the face.” What all this means is that when it comes to the status of women in the Middle East, it’s not better than you think. It’s much, much worse. Even after these “revolutions,” all is more or less considered well with the world as long as women are covered up, anchored to the home, denied the simple mobility of getting into their own cars, forced to get permission from men to travel, and unable to marry without a male guardian’s blessing — or divorce either.
I’m guessing that Mona is not an accommodationist.
Saudi Arabia: Our religion is so obviously true…
…that we can’t handle anyone saying otherwise.
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.
My daughter’s school has a Mufti Day now and again. The kids haven’t burnt down any churches yet, though.
Saudi Arabia: If you’ll be my valentine…
…I’ll be serving five to nine.
Saudi Arabia’s religious police have arrested more than 140 people for celebrating Valentine’s Day.
The Organisation for Promoting Virtue and Discouraging Evil says officers have punished those caught so far, and that its campaign of arrests is continuing.
In a six-page statement, the religious police said they were saving women from “deceiving men”, who used the day to give the fake impression that they loved a woman while pretending to be a “harmless lamb”.
The religious authorities say Muslims who take part in Valentine’s Day are in fact weak, lacking imagination, and far removed from the “sublime and virtuous” objectives of their religion.
The organisation has also confiscated all red roses from shops.
Can you even begin to imagine the level of paranoia which motivates this kind of behaviour?
Malaysia: Colluding with craziness
Malaysian authorities have deported a Saudi journalist accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet.
Police confirmed to the BBC that Hamza Kashgari was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday despite protests from human rights groups.
Mr Kashgari’s controversial tweet last week sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats.
Sending a man back to his probable death because he was rude about someone who died 1500 years ago… truly, religion is an inexhaustible well of lunacy.
Saudi Arabia: Kill the Tweeter!
Hypersensitive? US?
Hamza Kashgari, a young journalist, was banned from writing in Saudi Arabia by the Saudi Minister of Information and has reportedly been forced to flee after being accused of blasphemy, atheism, and apostasy and following calls for his head.
His crime? Tweeting about Mohammad, Islam’s prophet, including about how he’s equal to him and how he hates some of Mohammad’s characteristics… (Only some?)
The Saudi Minister of Information ‘wept’ upon reading Hamza’s tweets ‘offending’ the prophet (and not as you might expect when he heard that someone must flee for his life for merely tweeting and despite having had to apologise)…
‘Saudi Ministry of Information’ — it’s right up there in the oxymorons with ‘Military Intelligence’ and ‘Jumbo Shrimp’.
Saudi Arabia: 500 lashes for ‘insulting companions of Mohammed’
Hide your eyes from the evil companion-insulter!
A Victorian man has been sentenced to 500 lashes and a year in jail in Saudi Arabia, with his family fearing he will not survive the punishment.
Mansor Almaribe, from the Victorian town of Shepparton, was found guilty of blasphemy by a Saudi Arabian court yesterday.
The 45-year-old father of five was arrested in the city of Medina on November 14 while making the Hajj pilgrimage and accused of insulting companions of the prophet Mohammed.
Time for a tourist advisory, perhaps? Something along the lines of: Beware! These people are fucking insane!
Almaribe may be a serial offender: neighbours report that he has said some very unkind things about Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great.
Saudi Arabia: Good news or empty words?
Saudi King Abdullah has granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections, in a historic first for the ultra-conservative country where women are subjected to many restrictions.
“Starting with the next term, women will have the right to run in municipal elections and to choose candidates, according to Islamic principles,” he said in speech to the Shura Council carried live on state television on Sunday.
And when does the ‘next term’ start?
The first elections were held in 2005, but the government extended the existing council’s term for two years.
Whenever they want it to.
Saudi Arabia: Islamic oppression drives women to …driving
By mid-afternoon a handful [of women] had driven in Riyadh, a few in the southern port city of Jeddah, a couple in Dammam in the east, perhaps 30 or 40 overall in a country with a population of 27 million including migrant labourers.
But it was a breakthrough. In the closed and authoritarian kingdom, such open and premeditated dissent is extremely rare. Under the spotlight of international attention, Saudi Arabia’s rulers had clearly decided to allow the protest to go ahead.
…
Last month seven women were arrested for driving. Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old who had posted a video on the internet of herself at the wheel, was held for 10 days, made to sign a pledge not to drive again and banned from talking to the media.
In this week’s Dukes of Riyadh: can Fatima make the county line in her souped-up Camaro before Boss Q’hogg realises the burqua’d figure in the cell is really Emmy the goat?
Update 2011-09-28: Another woman has been arrested for driving and sentenced to ten lashes. Maybe the religious police are trying to get all their jollies in before women get the vote.
Saudi Arabia: ‘Not ready’ for democracy
SMH.
The head of the electoral committee charged with preparing for next month’s municipal polls said the kingdom was not ready to allow women to vote.
“We are not ready for the participation of women in these municipal elections,” said Abdulrahman al-Dahmash, while at the same time renewing promises that authorities would allow women to take part “in the next ballot”.
He didn’t mention that the next ballot is for the royal harem.
Bahrain: Hundreds shot as Sunni Islam defends its privilege
SMH.
At least 200 people have been shot and wounded in a Shi’ite village south of the Bahraini capital, a medic says, as the king imposed a state of emergency after bringing in Saudi and Emirati troops to help quell anti-regime protests.
Bahrain — no longer Sunni side up?
Saudi Arabia: Police kill shooter dressed as woman
SMH.
Saudi security forces have killed a suspected militant dressed in women’s clothes after the man opened fire at them at a checkpoint, the interior ministry said.
Two men, one wearing a woman’s all-black abaya with the face veiled, were stopped at a checkpoint in the early evening on Friday in Wadi al Dawasir, about 600km southeast of Riyadh, said interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki.
Saudi Arabia: Women exploited by compulsory male ‘guardians’
Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar describes male guardianship as “a form of slavery.”
“A Saudi woman can’t even buy a phone without the guardian’s permission,” said al-Hawaidar, who has been banned from writing or appearing on Saudi television networks because of her vocal support of women’s rights. “This law deals with women as juveniles who can’t be in charge of themselves at the same time it gives all powers to men.”
and yet
Saudi Arabia has just secured a seat on the governing board of the new United Nations Women’s Rights Council …
Guess which way they’ll be voting?
Saudi Arabia: fatwa against women cashiers
SMH.
Saudi women activists expressed outrage and confusion on Tuesday at a new fatwa challenging a government initiative to allow women to work as cashiers in supermarkets and department stores.
Because God obviously wants women to be poor and stupid. Otherwise he would have made them — well, cashiers or something.
London: Saudi prince kills servant in UK hotel
SMH.
A gay Saudi prince beat and strangled his male servant to death in a frenzied sexual assault at their luxury London hotel suite, a British court heard yesterday.
Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir al Saud, 34, who is a grandson of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, killed Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz on February 15 after abusing him for weeks, the court heard.
God’s delegates on Earth act just like their role model.
Saudi Arabia: A spine for a spine…
A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday.
A Saudi newspaper Okaz reported that a leading hospital in Riyadh — King Faisal Specialist Hospital — responded that it could not do the operation. It quoted a letter from the hospital saying “inflicting such harm is not possible,” apparently refusing on ethical grounds.
And also that it’s really really stupid. But it’s a theocracy, so that goes without saying.
Saudi Arabia: man ‘possessed by genie’ chained up by father for over six years
‘When he has fits he has convulsions and his entire body twists and his eyes become completely white,’ said the father of the 29-year-old man who has been identified only as Turki.
‘Then the voice of a woman can be heard coming from him.’
…
When Turki first began behaving bizarrely, his father took him to local Muslim clerics to recite the Koran over him.
‘But most of them became scared when they heard the female voice telling them that she was a royal jinn (genie) and that no-one can exorcise her unless Turki dies,’ his father said.
One cleric advised him to shackle his son’s arms and legs in chains and read the Koran to him.
Why the hell is this cretin being allowed to ruin the life of his mentally ill son? Didn’t any of those ‘clerics’ suggest seeing a doctor?
Saudi Arabia: TV ‘psychic’ sentenced to death for sorcery
How dare he make absurd unfounded assertions in public! Doesn’t he know that’s the government’s job?
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