Category Archives: KSA Saudi Arabia
Saudi Grand Mufti Calls for “Destruction of All Churches in Region”
From the Middle East Forum:
by Raymond Ibrahim
Jihad Watch
March 14, 2012
According to several Arabic news sources, last Monday, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.”
The Grand Mufti made his assertion in response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait: a Kuwaiti parliament member recently called for the “removal” of churches (he later “clarified” by saying he merely meant that no churches should be built in Kuwait), and the delegation wanted to confirm Sharia’s position on churches.
Accordingly, the Grand Mufti “stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it.”
As with many grand muftis before him, the Sheikh based his proclamation on the famous tradition, or hadith, wherein the prophet of Islam declared on his deathbed that “There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula,” which has always been interpreted to mean that only Islam can be practiced in the region.
While the facts of this account speak for themselves, consider further:
Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah is not just some random Muslim hating on churches. He is the Grand Mufti of the nation that brought Islam to the world. Moreover, he is the President of the Supreme Council of Ulema [Islamic scholars] and Chairman of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas. Accordingly, when it comes to what Islam teaches, his words are immensely authoritative.
One Muslim journalist in the US welcomes the surveillance programs
At last. This is what I would expect from any group who was the source of anti-government terror and actually wanted overall to be members of society.
Saudi national on student visa planned to blow up white house. Jan 2012
An interesting post at an unknown source
No idea who this is and where he got this story from but it doesn’t seem any less likely than the dozen or more stories I do post every day from well known media sources.
Diana West issues the ‘FOX NEWS Challenge’
Click on over and take her up on it. For once, the anti-fox left and many of us are on the same side. Shame on FOX. If Diana is right, and it certainly seems so, then FOX is ignoring a critically important news story as politically inexpedient to a share holder.
Hamza Kashgari: threat of death over tweet
A warm multicultural story of a Canadian girl, her friend, a Saudi man and a New York hotel
New York Post:
A Brooklyn woman today said the “biggest mistake” of her life led to her being raped at The Plaza hotel by a Canadian businessman.
The 28-year-old former bartender sobbed on the witness stand in Manhattan as she recalled accepting Mustapha Ouanes’ invitation to join him for breakfast in his suite at the Central Park South landmark.
OIC to hold conference in Brussels to protect ‘beliefs’ “beyond mere rhetoric”
This is interesting. And endorsed by Hillary Clinton who I thought was a lot smarter than this.
Here are a few gems from this article:
“The workshop will represent a quantum leap in media action, as it discusses, beyond rhetoric, the practical steps to address the phenomenon of Islamophobia,” the OIC said.
and…
Resolution 16/18 aims to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatisation of discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief.
Well of course this is preposterous. The idea that one cannot discriminate based on belief. In essence this means that Islam and only Islam will have the right to preach genocide, war, discrimination and apartheid as it is central dogma to the belief system, while any attempt to point this out will result in a criminal charge at best. A visit from the local sharia-brownshirts at worst.
The second quote is by necessity self contradicting. Clearly the Muslim belief that only Muslims may enter Mecca or Yathrib (Medina) will be sacrosanct while say, someone else’s belief that no Muslims should work, visit or live somewhere will be illegal.
So no, it will not be a protection for persons based on religion or belief. It will be a shield for Muslims to commit any discriminatory act they wish, say whatever they wish, force complicity for whatever policy they wish while anyone else will be criminalized for having their own views. This will be the practical outcome. One only needs look at any nation where Islam has over 10% of the population and is anywhere close to “the whip hand” (as Enoch Powell is noted for reading from a constituent’s letter.)
In other words, it is highly unlikely that my firm belief in freedom of speech. In the right, no; the responsibility to mock, chastise, and criticize both anonymously (as is my right by law as a central tenet of democracy) and openly totalitarian and authoritarian and indeed, ultra conservative systems like Islam and other theocracies which remove my individual rights will not be protected under this new bill. If it did, it would be redundant by U.N standards itself according to Eleanor Roosevelt’s charter.
In fact, the Muslim nations are so very far out of bounds of this charter that it utterly boggles the mind that any UN or official from any civilized nation would entertain any sort of ‘rights’ law suggested by a Muslim nation and perhaps least of all Saudi Arabia. (although that would be highly debatable) It is critical to remember that people have rights. Beliefs do not. This should be said as a mantra by all and daily. One cannot give rights to a political system, a belief system or an alternative physics. People can have rights so long as we are prepared to fight for them. Belief systems are to be promoted or opposed as people see fit and in their own enlightened interests.
I hope all people carefully asses the risk-benifit equation of freedom and liberty vs. what they think they might lose by opposing the rapid encroachment of Islam and it’s barbarous and horrific laws on all of us.
And so for those who will defend freedom of speech, and also for those who believe in a totalitarian theocracy, I dedicate this video:
Saudi Arabia used Interpol’s system to get journalist arrested
It seems the Saudis can use European and other law enforcement agencies to enforce sharia law in other countries.
From The Guardian:
Interpol accused after journalist arrested over Muhammad tweet
Saudi Arabia used Interpol’s system to get journalist arrested in Malaysia for insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter
Police in Kuala Lumpur said Hamza Kashgari was detained at the airport following a request by Interpol on behalf of the Saudi authorities. Photograph: Ahmad Yusni/EPA
Interpol has been accused of abusing its powers after Saudi Arabia used the organisation’s red notice system to get a journalist arrested in Malaysia for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
Police in Kuala Lumpur said Hamza Kashgari, 23, was detained at the airport “following a request made to us by Interpol” the international police cooperation agency, on behalf of the Saudi authorities.
Kashgari, a newspaper columnist, fled Saudi Arabia after posting a tweet on the prophet’s birthday that sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats. The posting, which was later deleted, read: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you … I will not pray for you.”
More than 13,000 people joined a Facebook page titled “The Saudi People Demand the Execution of Hamza Kashgari”.
Clerics in Saudi Arabia called for him to be charged with apostasy, a religious offence punishable by death. Reports suggest that the Malaysian authorities intend to return him to his native country.
“No Saudi women will go to hell, because it’s impossible to go there twice.” Saudi writer faces charge of blasphemy after tweets about Muhammad
Thankfully there is at least one, rather was at least one, rational voice in the KSA.
From WAPO:
By David Keyes, Published: February 9
David Keyes is executive director of the New York-based organization Advancing Human Rights and co-founder of CyberDissidents.org. His e-mail address is da*********@******************ts.org.
Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari was detained in Malaysia on Wednesday night and is likely to be extradited soon to Saudi Arabia, where he will be tried for blaspheming religion. Kashgari, 23, had fled the kingdom Monday after he received thousands of death threats. His crime? He posted on Twitter a series of mock conversations between himself and the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
“On your birthday I find you in front of me wherever I go,” he wrote in one tweet. “I love many things about you and hate others, and there are many things about you I don’t understand.”
…oh and sorry about that whole, ‘tried to kill your ambassador in Washington’ thing. Hey would you mind…
Here is your laugh of the day. The IRI asked OPEC nations to not raise oil output to compensate for Iran’s lost sales to Western nations. They even asked the KSA!
That must have cracked faces all through Riyadh as the Saudis tried to learn to smile.
Saudi Arabia: Christians Arrested at Private Prayer
HRW.ORG
- More Coverage:
While King Abdullah sets up an international interfaith dialogue center, his police are trampling on the rights of believers of others faiths. The Saudi government needs to change its own intolerant ways before it can promote religious dialogue abroad.
Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – Thirty five Ethiopian Christians are awaiting deportation from Saudi Arabia for “illicit mingling,” after police arrested them when they raided a private prayer gathering in Jeddah in mid-December, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Of those arrested, 29 were women. They were subjected to arbitrary body cavity searches in custody, three of the Ethiopians told Human Rights Watch.
The Ethiopians gathered to pray together on December 15, during the advent of Christmas, in the private home of one of the Ethiopians, when police burst in and arrested them, three jailed members of the group, two women and one man, told Human Rights Watch.
“While King Abdullah sets up an international interfaith dialogue center, his police are trampling on the rights of believers of others faiths,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The Saudi government needs to change its own intolerant ways before it can promote religious dialogue abroad.”
In October, Saudi Arabia, together with Austria and Spain, founded the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, located in Vienna, and funded by Saudi Arabia.
The Ethiopian men spent two days at al-Nuzha police station in Jeddah, after which the police transferred them to Buraiman prison. The women had already been transferred to Buraiman prison. Two of the women said that officials there forced the women to strip, and then an officer inserted her finger into each of the women’s genitals, under the pretext of searching for illegal substances hidden inside their bodies. She wore a plastic glove that she did not change, the women told Human Rights Watch. Officers also kicked and beat the men in Buraiman prison, and insulted them as “unbelievers,” the jailed Ethiopian man said.
Raped teen killer needs $1.8m to escape sword
How do you solve a problem like sharia?
h/t EDL Buck
247.com
Published Thursday, January 19, 2012
A teenage Saudi boy is facing execution unless he pays seven million Saudi riyals ($1.8 million) to the family of a friend who he murdered after the victim raped him, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom reported on Thursday.
A criminal court in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah sentenced the unnamed boy to death for stabbing his elder friend after the victim raped him at his house nearly nine months ago.
The boy told court that he was at the victim’s home when he was asked to take his clothes off. But he refused, prompting his knife-wielding friend, who is bigger in size, to force him to strip off before raping him.
Just after he finished, the victim apologized to his friend and “took oath on the Koran” that he would never do it again, Alhayat newspaper said.
But two months later, the boy was returning home late night when he found his friend waiting outside. He told his friend to go home but the man insisted on taking him to his house to have sex with him again.
1330AMWEBY interview with Raphael Israel: Arab Spring brings Islamic “Democracy”
This WEBY interview previews a talk by Israeli on Thursday evening, January 5th at B’nai Israel Synagogue in Pensacola. The subject of his talk will be Jews and Christians in Muslim Lands. As Mike Bates of WEBY opined at the start of the interview, the sub-text is “has the Arab Spring turn wintry for Jews and Christians in the Middle East.”
A native of Fes, Morocco who immigrated to Israel in his teens, Professor Israeli is a graduate of Hebrew University in History and Arabic Literature and earned a PhD in Chinese and Islamic studies from the University of California at Berkeley. Author of 30 books and some 100 scholarly articles in the fields of Islamic radicalism, Islamic terrorism, the Modern Middle East, Islam in China and Asia, and the Opening of China by the French.
Among the topics discussed during the WEBY interview with Israeli were:
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the Arab Spring “democracy” is a vote for authoritarian Islam, not the Western liberal version;
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the Obama Administration engagement and outreach policies could result in appeasement of fundamentalist Islamic religious autocracies;
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the plight of persecuted Christians in Egypt and Iraq could parallel that of Jews in Europe who failed to escape the Nazi Holocaust during WWII;
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the rumored Obama Administration retention of Muslim Brotherhood Spiritual Guide Yusuf al Qaradawi to assist in negotiating a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban indicates possible abandonment of the country to Islamic fundamentalists; and,
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The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is denigrating Israel and Antisemitism by making Islamophobia the core of its global Caliphate agenda.