Saudi Gazette reports—briefly—that a number of imams and khateebs have been removed from their jobs at Saudi mosques for preaching extremist beliefs. The article also alludes to some having been fired for being ill or negligent in their care of their mosques. No numbers or examples are provided, unfortunately, so it’s difficult to put this into context. That at least some who preach intolerance have been fired, though, is a good sign.
Mosque sackings for ‘extremist thought’ and ‘negligence’
Naeem Tameem Al-KaheemJEDDAH – The Chairman of the Imams and Khateebs Assessment Committee at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Azzam Al-Shuway’er, has said that a number of imams and khateebs (persons who give Friday sermons) have been dismissed from their positions citing as reasons “extremist thought, illness and negligence of mosques”.
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As the number of swine flu (A/H1N1) cases creeps toward 100 in Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organization finds that the government’s program of detection, monitoring, and reporting is a good one. As Arab News reports, there’s still a lot of hope being put on the development of a specific vaccine against the flu before the Haj season, however.
WHO commends measures against swine flu
JEDDAH: The World Health Organization commended Saudi Arabia’s elaborate preparations to prevent the spread of various infectious diseases, particularly swine flu, during the current Umrah season and upcoming Haj season.
A statement issued by WHO’s regional office in the Middle East yesterday, described the Saudi preparations comprehensive, methodical and transparent. The statement also lauded the willingness of the Saudi Ministry of Health to pass accurate information to international organizations.
The WHO’s report follows a visit by a team of its experts to Saudi Arabia to view the preventive measures against the H1N1 virus infection and other contagious diseases being implemented by the Saudi health authorities for the Haj and Umrah seasons.
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Arab News runs a piece on the culture shock some Saudi students meet while studying abroad. The story provides a couple of lurid examples; most Saudis know of others.
The writer identifies an inconsistent program of pre-departure orientation for students. Coming from a closed society that has many rules at variance with the prevailing global norms, Saudi students have to make some major adjustments. The ‘coding’ of behavior that they could read easily in their own society is no longer accurate. They need to learn to read behavior, customs, and mores with a very different eye.
A solid orientation program is necessary, but more is needed. Better vetting of scholarship students will have to play a role. In addition to high grades, applicants will need to be assessed for their flexibility of outlook—tolerance for difference. Sadly, because many Saudi schools tend to develop inflexible thinking, this will mean that a large number of potential scholars won’t make the flexibility grade. That brings its own problems, short and long term, that need to be addressed in the Saudi education system as a whole.
Coping with culture shock
Laura Bashraheel | Arab NewsJEDDAH: A 26-year-old Japanese exchange student was assaulted in February inside a YMCA co-ed student-housing complex in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
A man donning a mask turned out the lights of the laundry room and grabbed the woman from behind. She screamed and broke free. Other students came to the rescue and, according to local news reports, detained 19-year-old Khaled Al-Harbi. The student, who was in Canada on a Saudi government scholarship, was diagnosed with psychological problems and has been seeking counseling.
In another case in Bournemouth, UK, earlier this month, another Saudi student was sentenced to 24 weeks in jail. His identity has been registered for seven years on a local law-enforcement list of sexual harassers, according to the Daily Echo newspaper. In that case, the student, 23, was found guilty of public intoxication, stripping naked and chasing a 36-year-old woman through the streets. The woman punched the man and fled.
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Arab News runs this piece on a Saudi project to monitor its borders with a high-tech fence, electronic, and aerial surveillance. The project, estimated to cost $2.8 billion, is in addition to the current project on the Iraqi border. That project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
EADS wins contract for border security
JEDDAH: European aerospace and defense contractor EADS has signed a contract with Saudi Arabia to build a high-tech security fence on 9,000 km of the country’s border, the company said yesterday.
In a long-awaited deal, EADS Defense and Security, a subsidiary of the French-German conglomerate, is expected to create a system of security posts and surface and aerial monitoring of the Kingdom’s land and sea borders over the next five years, the company announced.
The project “will ensure border coverage is visible and managed at the sector level, while simultaneously providing situational awareness at the regional and national level,” the company said.
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Saudi Gazette/Okaz report, briefly, that an Al-Qaeda member arrested earlier this week by Saudi authorities was a financier and recruiter for the terrorist organization. The individual, yet to be publicly identified, was earlier reported to not be among the 85 ‘Most Wanted’. This piece suggests that police were led to him following the arrest and deportation of another Saudi Al-Qaeda member from Yemen last month.
Arrested man described as Qaeda financer
Abdullah Al-OraifijBURAIDAH – Sources have described the wanted man arrested in Qassim on Tuesday as an Al-Qaeda financer in his 30s who also recruited Saudi youths to the terrorist organization and facilitated their travel to troubled areas abroad. The arrest, which occurred following an exchange of fire in the south Buraidah’s Al-Sada District Tuesday, came around a month after the arrest of Saudi national Hasan Hussein Bin Alwan in Yemen. – Okaz/SG
Here’s an interesting piece of investigative journalism appearing in Saudi Gazette. It appears to be a translation of an article appearing in the Arabic language magazine Roaa. It tells the tale of a female reporter who went underground, posing as a maid, to see how Saudi domestic servants might be treated by Saudi employers.
An ugly story results.
Her conclusions are that while it may be fine for a Saudi woman to work as a maid, she should avoid working for a Saudi family. In her instance—and this is a single case she is reporting—the males in the family were suggestively predatory. The woman of the house, dictatorial and conspiratorial. The stories of other Saudi women who have worked as maids, as reported, tend to bear that out. Those working for foreigners fared better. The article does not shed much of a good light on Saudis as employers.
Saudi housemaids: Putting concept to test
JEDDAH – Resolved to go through with it, I had a last minute meeting with my editor-in-chief to discuss what would happen should anything untoward befall me, and he kindly responded by saying he would gladly publish my obituary on the first inside page of the next issue of Roaa magazine!
I had already approached an employment agency who found me a position, and having equipped myself with a tiny hidden camera and audio recorders mascarading as music devices I contacted the agency to obtain the address of my new workplace. They refused to give it to me, however, saying that instead the agency would take me there by car. The nervous refusal to go into any details disturbed me slightly. I went to the agency’s office and waited, and eventually a Saudi driver was arranged to take me to the unknown destination. As I set off with my photographer colleague Hayat secretly in tow I tried to get as much information from the driver as possible concerning the experiences of girls who had previously worked for the agency. His responses came with a sardonic smile.
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Now here’s a contest worth taking part in! Everything energy related, it seems, is being touted as “The Saudi Arabia of X”. The metaphor has grown clichéd and tedious. A blog from The New York Times is asking readers to come up with a replacement, not a moment too soon!
Contest: Replace the ‘Saudi Arabia’ Trope!
Kate GalbraithOn Monday, as I was listening to a press call with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Mr. Reid spoke some proud words:
Nevada, he said, is the “Saudi Arabia of solar energy.”
But is it? Indeed, with all due respect to Mr. Reid, claims for “the Saudi Arabia of solar energy” have already been made on behalf of Australia and Africa.
Forbes recently suggested that Saudi Arabia is the Saudi Arabia of solar power.
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Asian Times has a piece alleging that the Saudi government was not truthful in its investigation of the 1996 bombing of a US military barracks at Khobar Towers. The article (either part one of two or three) asserts that Al-Qaeda, not Saudi Hezbollah was responsible for the attack.
I’m curious why this piece is finding its way into print in Asian Times, not The New York Times or The Washington Post, or even The Washington Times which is certainly no friend of Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the later parts will tell…
Al-Qaeda excluded from suspect list
Gareth PorterWASHINGTON — On June 25, 1996, a massive truck bomb exploded at a building in the Khobar Towers complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which housed United States Air Force personnel, killing 19 airmen and wounding 372.
Immediately after the blast, more than 125 agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were ordered to the site to sift for clues and begin the investigation of who was responsible. But when two US Embassy officers arrived at the scene of the devastation early the next morning, they found a bulldozer beginning to dig up the entire crime scene.
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The northern Saudi city of Hail has come to be identified with corruption and scandal of late. It’s interesting that the situation is being reported upon in the Saudi media (here, Saudi Gazette). More interesting is that the police appear to be taking the matter seriously. We will have to wait to see what action the Governor of the province takes. I suspect quick action as the situation certainly doesn’t help his reputation.
Forgery, bribery, swindling rife in Hail
Mit’eb Al-AwwadHAIL – A report from the Control and Investigation Board (CIB) in Hail has shown that in the course of a single year 400 cases have been registered of forgery, bribery, embezzlement and administrative malpractice.
A source from the CIB said the 20-page report, issued Monday, cited the largest act of embezzlement in a government body, recorded by a government office working in air transport worth SR70 million in air tickets sold at a Hail branch over a period of five years.
The source said the case had been referred to the Administrative Court. The CIB also conducted a two-year investigation into the embezzlement at Hail Health Affairs of SR700,000 in which seven employees were involved, according to the same source. The case is due to go before the Administrative Court next week.
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Saudi Gazette reports on a pretty nice idea: a satellite TV channel aimed at children that will teach them about their rights.
It’s not a perfect idea, however, as Saudi children are loath to contradict their parents. Knowing what is their due but being unable to attain that is not a formula for happy times. Perhaps another TV production company could come up with public service announcements to be played during televised sports programming and women’s shows, too. Parents are the ones who need to learn of the human rights of children just as much as the children. Perhaps even announcements during religious programming would help.
New Saudi TV channel to focus on rights of children
Nouf Hassan GhaznawiJEDDAH – The first Saudi TV channel dedicated to educating children about their rights in society will start broadcasting this month.
Sana, the new satellite channel which will broadcast in Arabic 24 hours a day from Cairo, will feature cartoons and songs designed by international child behavior specialists in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Information’s Children’s Rights Awareness campaign.
The campaign, which began three years ago, aims to use the media to make children and the general public aware of the 10 basic rights of all children.
“Sana will be the first Arab TV channel to broadcast songs and cartoons to explain Arab children’s rights,” said the channel’s director in Jeddah, Mohammed Al-Aggad.
The Children’s Rights Awareness campaign has identified 10 basic rights of all children, namely, growth and development, respect for the child’s identity and culture, rest and leisure time, access to appropriate financial conditions, the right of disabled children to live a happy life, the right to housing, education, to express their opinions, the right to care and guidance, and health care.
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As Saudi Arabia registers six new cases of swine flu, the international experts who were in country to discuss the dangers the flu represents to the Haj have come out with their recommendations. They are advising the government to advise some would-be pilgrims—the elderly, pregnant women, children, and those with chronic diseases—to stay away this year.
Haj, for most non-Saudi Muslims, is a once-in-a-lifetime event. It is a conditional obligation upon all Muslims, one of the ‘Five Pillars of Islam’, that they undertake the pilgrimage, if they are able to do so. Ability is contingent upon wealth, but also health. Nevertheless, some save up their money throughout their lives in order to perform Haj. Being discouraged from doing so will come as a blow.
Pregnant women and elderly urged to skip Haj
JEDDAH – International experts have recommended that children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with chronic diseases stay away from the annual Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia to prevent catching swine flu. The recommendations come at the end of a four-day meeting in Jeddah that examined Saudi measures to prevent the spread of swine flu during the Haj in December. The workshop included experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
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Saudi Gazette also reports that Saudi public health authorities are cautioning all who live in Mecca and Madinah and those who deal with pilgrims, to make sure they get regular, seasonal flu vaccinations.
Swine flu isn’t the only public health issue in Saudi Arabia. Arab News runs a piece that reminds us that Dengue Fever is still a problem:
Here’s a strange story from the Arabic website Lojainiat, via Saudi Wave.
It’s reported that there’s a serious falling out between Pr. Khaled bin Talal and his better known brother, Pr. Al-Waleed. It’s so serious that Khaled is calling on the Saudi state to seize his brother’s rather considerable assets as he views Al-Waleed as a ‘corrupting influence’ on Saudi society.
Khaled objects to things like film and music. That puts him squarely in the camp of extreme Salafists. I suspect he’s not his reformist father’s favorite son…
Prince Khaled calls for the freezing
of the assets of his brother, Waleed bin Talal
Habib TRABELSIIn an unprecedented appeal Prince Khaled bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud has called for the freezing of his billionaire elder brother al-Waleed’s assets, who he has accused of “spreading depravity and lust” throughout the Kingdom with his “corrupting projects”.
“Al-Waleed is challenging society with his corrupting projects. Prince Al Waleed’s behaviour does not conform to Islamic morals”, Prince Khaled recently pointed out in a long interview granted to the website Lojainiat.
He calls for the “freezing of Prince al-Waleed bin Talal’s assets” and has also demanded that his brother be prevented from travelling until “he rectifies his behaviour” which according to Prince Khaled, “does not conform to the morals of the [Saudi] rulers”.
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