Category Archives: KSA Saudi Arabia
Michael Coren and CLare Lopez speak on women and Saudi Arabia, the Burka etc.
Saudi woman allowed to compete in hijab
If they can’t destroy everything we do, they have to transform it to ‘accommodate’ Islam and ideally, give it an advantage, or equally as good, a clear victim status.
Each time we give in and change one of our own institutions to suit Islamic demands, we lay a brick in our own mausoleum. Perhaps more than just one.
H/T Bear
Yahoo
Two men arrested for “forced conversion” of a young woman (They gave her religious books)
Of course, the real crime was a woman dared to have free will.
ASIANEWS:
07/27/2012 11:25
SAUDI ARABIA
Girl’s father denounces act. She is now in Lebanon and refuses to return and abandon Christianity. Two colleagues charged, one Saudi and one Lebanese.
Riyadh (AsiaNews) – Two men have been arrested in the Saudi Gulf city Al-Khobar, on charges of “forcible conversion” of a girl to Christianity. They are guilty of giving her books on religion and inviting her to follow a chat room about religious matters.
According to Al–Eqtisadiya newspaper the girl’s father laid charges against the two men, one Saudi and one Lebanese, after he failed to convince the young woman to return home from Lebanon and abandon her new faith.
According to the local Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP), the story dates back to when the young woman, who works in a bank, struck up a friendship first with her Saudi colleague and then the other Lebanese colleague. The three would meet up from time to time, the girl fell in love with the young Lebanese who gave her books and invited her to follow a religious chat room.
In the complaint, the father says that man influenced her, inspiring misconceptions about Islam and had “shaken her convictions.” He claims that the girl also left the country illegally. Under Saudi law, in fact, a woman can not have a passport without the permission of her “guardian” that is, father, husband or brother.
The girl, speaking from Lebanon where she currently is, defends her new faith and says that the Church is her only home.
SRI LANKAN BUDDHIST DOMESTIC AID WORKER IN SAUDI ARABIA FACES BEHEADING FOR PRACTICING HIS RELIGION
Islamic supremacism all day and every day.
Saudi Arabia, a place where one can still visit the seventh century and not be in a museum.
H/T: Cecilie Gamst Berg
Swedish summer nights, a problem for moslems
Translation by Michael Laudahn
From AVPIXLAT:
BIOLOGICAL DISCRIMINATION: In three days from now, it’s time again for this year’s ramadan rigmarole, along with adverts in arab and other languages in swedish newspapers that come with it. However, those [relatively] bright swedish summer nights cause a problem for moslems living in Sweden.
The fact that it has become economically viable to woo separate minority groups as target groups may be the clearest indication that mass immigration has gone very far. Now, even halal goodies [in swedish halalgodis, see
are available, the only thing still lacking are prayer calls throughout the rik [= german reich], then the circle closes and the future is here.
In northern Sweden, where the sun hardly goes down during summer, moslems have extra big problems.
‘This here is a big problem, it is no fun to face it every year. Those coming to our friday prayers say that they need to know, but I cannot say them anything’, says Mohamed Amri, imam at Luleå’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lule%C3%A5 ] moslem congregation.
Those who could tell us, the scholars in Mekka, do not seem to be interested, thinks Amri.
Omar Mustafa, speaker at Islamiska Förbundet i Sverige, informs that the problem has been solved in different ways, throughout the country. The issue is topical in all of northern Europe, and it is being discussed at the European Council for Fatwa and Research.
Already in 2011, Amri complained that Sweden was situated in the wrong location.
British banking giant linked to terrorists and drug lords: US Senators accuse HSBC of ‘letting Mexican gangs launder $7 billion and working with Saudi bank linked to terrorism’
Daily Mail:
- HSBC moved huge sum from Mexico into the U.S. between 2007 and 2008
- Provided services for Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank linked to financing terrorism
- Senate investigation suggests they also moved money tied to Iran
- Accuses bank of ‘pervasively polluted’ culture
- Another hammer blow to the credibility of British banking system after Barclays was fined for allegedly rigging LIBOR interest rate
PUBLISHED: 13:23 GMT, 17 July 2012 | UPDATED: 15:15 GMT, 17 July 2012
HSBC has been accused of handling money from Mexican drugs cartels and working alongside a Saudi Arabian bank with links to international terrorism following a probe by the U.S. Senate.
An explosive report claims a ‘pervasively polluted’ culture at the bank led it to act as financier to clients seeking to route shadowy funds from the world’s most dangerous and secretive corners, including Mexico, Iran, the Cayman Islands, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
The Senate probe detailed how sweeping the problems have been, both at the bank and at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a top U.S. bank regulator which the report said failed to properly monitor HSBC.
Powerhouse: HSBC headquarters in the City of London. The bank has been accused of laundering money for the Mexican mob
‘The culture at HSBC was pervasively polluted for a long time,’ said Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a Congressional watchdog panel.
The report comes at a troubling time for a banking industry reeling from a multi-country probe into the manipulation of global benchmark rates.
Last month, rival British bank Barclays Plc agreed to pay a $453 million fine to settle a U.S.- British probe into the rigging of the benchmark interest rate known as the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.
Saudi Arabia considers law against insulting Islam, including in social media
Ottawa Citizen.com
Muslim pilgrims pray at Mecca’s Grand Mosque on November 17, 2009.
Photograph by: Mahmud Hams , Getty Images
Saudi Arabia is studying new regulations to criminalise insulting Islam, including in social media, and the law could carry heavy penalties, a Saudi paper said on Sunday.
The potential regulations come five months after a Saudi blogger and columnist Hamza Kashgari, 23, was arrested for tweeting comments deemed as insulting the Prophet Mohammad. Kashgari said there were things he liked and disliked about him.
“Within the next two months the Shura Council will reveal the outcome of study on the regulations to combat the criticism of the basic tenets of Islamic sharia,” unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter told al-Watan, adding that there could be “severe punishments” for violators.
Criticism penalised under the law would include that of the Prophet, early Muslim figures and clerics, it said.
Saudi police arrest prominent Shi’ite Muslim cleric: brother
Reuters:
Sun Jul 8, 2012 6:48pm GMT
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – A prominent Shi’ite Muslim cleric who was wanted by the police was detained in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province on Sunday over calls for more rights for the minority Muslim sect in the Sunni monarchy, his brother and an activist said.
Early reports of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr’s arrest, which spread online on Sunday, prompted demonstrations in the village of Awamiya where Shi’ites have clashed with security forces several times since early last year, said Tawfiq al-Seif, a Shi’ite community leader.
Activists from the Eastern Province, where most of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ites live, posted pictures on the Internet of the grey-bearded Sheikh Nimr in a vehicle covered with what appeared to be a blood-stained white blanket.
An Interior Ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment after several attempts by Reuters.
Sheikh Nimr’s brother said the cleric was detained by police while driving from a farm to his house in al-Qatif.
Saudi Arabia’s Princess Sara claims asylum in the UK
H/T OxAO
Telegraph:
Saudi Arabia’s Princess Sara bint Talal bin Abdulaziz is claiming political asylum in the UK over fears for her safety back home. She tells Hugh Miles and Robert Mendick why she doesn’t want to return.
Saudi Arabia’s Princess Sara bint Talal bin Abdulaziz
By Hugh Miles and Robert Mendick
9:00PM BST 07 Jul 2012
She was Saudi Arabia’s “Barbie” princess; the pampered granddaughter of the Kingdom’s founder and daughter of one of his most powerful and favoured sons.
Princess Sara bint Talal bin Abdulaziz, however, is claiming political asylum in the UK over fears for her safety back home.
The claim, the first ever made by such a senior member of the ruling family’s inner circle, will embarrass the Saudi dynasty and threatens a diplomatic row.
Princess Sara, 38, accuses senior Saudi officials of plotting to kidnap her and smuggle her back to Riyadh, having subjected her to a “well orchestrated and malicious campaign of persecution”.
She currently occupies a suite and several rooms in a five-star London hotel with her four children and two dogs, guarded by a private security team.
The “King Abdullah Center” allowed to be located in Vienna
Translation Hermes:
From DiePresse.com
The FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party) and the Greens voted against it. They argued that there’s no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. The former justice minister Bandion-Ortner is supposed to be the deputy general secretary.
The “King Abdullah Center” for interreligious and intercultural dialogue” is welcomed in Austria. The national assembly reached an agreement on Friday afternoon against the negative votes of the FPÖ and the Greens to provide this center with the status of legal personality, which is to be established in Vienna. This is controversial mainly because it is financed by Saudi Arabia.
The FPÖ wants among others the renaming of the center, which is to be named after the saudi king, for the nature of the regime in Saudi Arabia is not compatible with an institution for religious dialogue. The FPÖ also considers that this institution is financilly not sustainable on the long term. However. they spoke in favor of the centrum while being in the committee. The Greens had been always against it, with their representative Alev Korun saying that it would be to put the fox in charge of the henhouse, if one sees how human rights and freedom of religion are trodded upon
The SPÖ and the ÖVP defend the decision
The ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party) defended (the plan for) the centrum and rebuked these arguments saying that dialogue is indispensable, and Vienna should remain a city of dialogue. Representative Reinhold Lopatka said that the wahhabis (the leading group in Saudi Arabia) should also not be excluded. The SPÖ (Austrian Socialist Party) representative Hannes Weninger understood concerns that the center could be used as a cover for the regime in Riyad, but the general declaration of human rights and freedom of religion in the preamble of the institute’s declaration is also to be taken into consideration. The BZÖ (Alliance for the Future of Austria) based its positive vote in the neccesity of dialogue.
The directorate of the institution will have representants from 12 religions, including judaism. The former justice minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner (ÖVP) is supposed to fill the post of deputy general secretary. The opening of the center is scheduled for the end of November.
German police working with Saudi religious police in operation noone thinks will end well
I recommend watching this video a couple of times. Some of the most stunning bits kinda drift by the first time.
Thank you Hermes for this one. I really hope it goes viral. I also notice that Amnesty International at least acknowledges that the Saudi Religious Police are grotesque abusers of human rights in the real sense of the word, before the OIC and the Muslim Brotherhood changed the meaning to the sharia.
Kenya official: Iranian agents planned attack against Israeli, U.S. targets
Haaretz:
Keyan officials say Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad, Sayed Mansour, who were arrested with 15 kilograms of explosives, are members of the elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
By The Associated Press | Jul.02, 2012 | 8:42 PM | 
3
3
A Kenyan policewoman escorting two Iranian nationals Sayed Mansour Mousavi, left, and Ahmed Abolfathi Mohammed, right, in the Nairobi magistrate court in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, June. 27, 2012. Photo by AP
RELATED ARTICLES
By The Associated Press | Jul.02,2012 | 8:42 PM | 1
1By Reuters | Jul.02,2012 | 8:42 PM | 10
10Officials in Kenya said on Monday that two Iranian agents arrested with explosives planned to attack Israeli, American, British or Saudi Arabian targets inside Kenya.
The officials said that the plot appears to fit into a global pattern of attacks or attempted attacks by Iranian agents, mostly against Israeli interests.
Saudi religious police integrated into german border security project
Translation by Michael Laudahn
From MDR.De
Part of the controversial assignment of german federal police in Saudi Arabia are also [saudi, I assume] religious police. This is the result of investigations carried out by the FAKT [tv] magazine [hosted by MDR]. According to these investigations, religious police control the work in the command centres of the high-tech border, which is being constructed by the EADS armament concern. Thereby, religious guardians get into contact with federal police, for they are there to train saudi border agents.
According to FAKT, it is religious police who decide, together with the commanding officer at the surveillance centres, what will happen with those persons detained at the border. Saudi religious police is being held responsible for massive human-rights violations. They impose forcefully the islamic legal system, sharia, and are co-responsible for public punishments and executions. As FAKT reports, german federal police have been present during public punishments in the capital Ryad. This is being described by participants of the project who were active in Saudi Arabia.
The presence of religious police in the saudi border security project is not expressly denied by the federal interior ministry. A speaker for the ministry declared that some members of the saudi border patrol were also religious police members. The training courses for the modernisation of saudi border protection are only being attended by border patrol members, not members of other authorities. Religious police were not trained by federal police. Asked by FAKT, the federal ministry of the interior disapproved the participation of federal police officers in public piunishments.
[…]
Found at E. J. Bron
SAUDI ARABIA HAS GOT TALENT: MEN IN SHEETS AND RESTAURANT TABLE CLOTH HATS RECITE POETRY
Now that’s entertainment!…..Not
Saudi Arabia, a place where on can still visit the seventh century and not be in a museum.
THE SAUDI NOOSE
TSN: We’re keeping our female chattel with the cattle.
Saudi ‘Got Talent,’ but no women or music
By AFP
Published Monday, June 11, 2012
A Saudi city has created its own version of the “Arabs Got Talent” television reality show, but with no music and women banned from taking part.
Instead, competitors will be permitted to perform religious chants, recite poems and engage in sports events.
The contest is being held north of the capital in the city of Buraydah, known as a centre for Wahhabism, a strict interpretation of Islam that is followed in the desert kingdom, Al-Hayat daily reported on Sunday.