The History We Don’t Know
Abeer Mishkas, abeermishkhas@arabnews.comA DEBATE on our school history curriculum has been going on in a local paper. The debate began in a column which stated that what students learn in our schools is mostly outdated, lacking in details and too selective. The writer gave a list of subjects that are not to be found at any level in our school history books. The list included ancient civilizations, geographic exploration, the industrial revolution, colonialism, major liberation movements and revolutions and a modern history of the Arab world. Looking at the list I began to wonder what remained of world history but then, I reminded myself that perhaps we have our own version of history and its significant events.
This is a very interesting article by the always interesting Abeer Mishkhas. She questions just what sort of history is being taught in Saudi schools, and to what end. It’s worth reading what she has to say, even if you don’t agree on every point.
Wife Rises to Occasion, Drives Husband to Safety
BISHA, 23 March 2005 — A woman had to get into the driver’s seat and speed to the nearest hospital to save her husband’s life after he suffered from a sudden rise in his sugar level while on their way from Riyadh to Taif, Okaz reported. The husband, who is diabetic, lost control of the car because of the problem but he managed to stop the car before causing an accident. The wife took control of the driving wheel and sped to the nearest petrol station where she gave him first aid until he got better. Women are barred from driving in Saudi Arabia. Traffic police always warn diabetic drivers against traveling alone.
The count is now three articles about women driving, reported over the past two weeks. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence; perhaps it’s another idea being run up the flagpole. Interesting, whatever it is!
Woman Leading Friday Prayers Condemned
JEDDAH, 23 March 2005 — The Islamic Fiqh Academy, an affiliate of the 55-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, has strongly condemned as “religious heresy†the recent incident of a woman leading Friday prayers in New York City.
“This is a misleading heresy and sedition,†the academy said about the incident in which Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, led prayers for a mixed-gender group.
The conservative Islamic “academy” has come out strongly condemning the leading of Friday prayers by a woman. According to the article, though, their grounds rest solely on one hadith, or saying attributed to the Prophet.
Even if the concept of female prayer leaders go nowhere in the Islamic world at large, the fact that the concept is being discussed is a breakthrough. Opening minds to new ideas is the most important issue right now.
Crown Prince Quashes Jail Term of Saudi Writer
Raid Qusti, Arab NewsRIYADH, 22 March 2005 — Crown Prince Abdullah has quashed a sentence of flogging and imprisonment imposed by a Shariah court on a Saudi writer, an informed source told Arab News.
Shariah court Judge Suleiman Al-Fantookh had sentenced Saudi Professor Hamza Al-Mizeini — not Ali as was reported by Arab News yesterday — to 275 lashes and a four-month imprisonment after his opponent, Dr. Abdullah Al-Barak, an Islamist who teaches in the same King Saud University as Al-Mizeini, filed a case against him accusing the writer of demolishing his image and saying Islamic textbooks taught at King Saud University were radical.
Prince Abdullah issued the decree to annul the court ruling. Al-Mizeini had also been told that he would be banned from writing in the Saudi media. The decree was in response to the judge’s violation when he issued a verdict against the writer despite his knowledge of a Royal Decree announced last week which states that all conflicts that concern publication matters must be dealt with through the Ministry of Culture and Information.
Well, the case I highlighted yesterday in noting that the Saudi media was going critical on the religious establishment has been resolved.
The writer won’t be jailed or flogged, but he has to give up writing for the Saudi media.
So what is this? Is it a compromise, with each party getting something it wanted? Is it copping-out by not coming to a clean, one-side-wins conclusion?
Either or both, is my appraisal.
But there is certainly one big loser here. The Saudi religious “establishment” has been told clearly that they will not be permitted to use the courts to strong-arm decisions that they cannot win on the merits of their arguments. They are not immune to criticism. That’s a pretty big win for reform, even if it costs one person his avocation as a part-time opinion-writer.
The Nabobs of Negativism
Khaled Almaeena, almaeena@arabnews.comUnfortunately, the response to voter registration in Jeddah was pathetic. According to available figures, only 32 percent of eligible voters bothered to register. Only on the last day was there a rush and there were even reports of some unruly scenes at registration centers as the deadline drew near. What does so low a turnout say about us?
Well, for a start, we don’t care, are not serious, lack initiative and give in to inertia. It is hardly news that we are not active people, preferring to wait and see rather than to act. We in Jeddah who had observed the process of voter registration in both Riyadh and the Eastern Province should have learned from our observations and gained some insight. Register first. A month was given to do so. Even those who had always intended to register, left it until the last two or three days. Why not do it early and get it over with? We never do.
Borrowing a riff from Richard Nixon, via Pat Buchanan, the Arab News Editor-in-Chief complains angrily about the lack of foresight and involvement evinced by the low voter registration in the Wester Region, and in the country as a whole.
He believes that things are changing in the country, but that if people want to direct that change, they need to play an active part in the country. Making the best the enemy of the good doesn’t wash, he says. Yes, there were flaws, but they can be corrected. Yes, there’s not a lot of power being shared in these elections, but it’s a start. He’s pretty unhappy with the majority of his countrymen at present.
Old Woman Goes for Drive in Hail
Arab NewsHAIL, 22 March 2005 — Motorists were stunned to see an old woman driving a car in the streets of Hail in the middle of Saudi Arabia’s traffic awareness week. Her husband and their grandchildren accompanied the old woman in the car. And when her car broke down, many people came to her help. People were surprised at her driving skill and knowledge of traffic rules, and they wondered if she knew about the traffic week before she embarked on her adventure in a country where women are barred from driving.
Something must be happening in Saudi Arabia! This is the second time in two months that the Saudi media has reported on women driving in the country. This one is even more noteworthy because Hail, the city she was driving in, isn’t a rural village. It’s a fair-sized city and the former home of the Al-Rasheed family, the last contenders with the Al-Saud for supremacy in what was to become Saudi Arabia. It’s also one of the more notable centers of Islamic conservatism.
One or two data points–female drivers–are just interesting facts. A third instance, though, can start to become a trend. Let’s follow this one, too!
For Arab Writers, New Lines in the Sand
Young Authors Push the Limits of Social and Political Freedom
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page C01RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Each day she sits alone, scribbling thoughts on scraps of paper. She stuffs them in a bottle given to her years earlier by her grandmother, who said it should serve as a place for private feelings that Arab society would not tolerate from a woman if uttered aloud.
The bottle fills, the woman ages. The life it holds on a million pieces of paper remains undiscovered, stifled and secret.
The story is the work of Yousef Mohaimeed, a Saudi author, who, like many in a new generation of rising fiction writers here, is taking on some of the most divisive subjects in the Arab world. The work is drawing attention, here and abroad.
This is an interesting Washington Post article on Saudi writers. It goes into the difficulty of censorship that Saudi (and other Arab) writers face, but also notes that even when the government approves a book, there are those who try to stop its sale, through threats of violence. It’s a good overview of the current situation and worth reading.
Ministry Intervenes as Writer Sentenced to 275 Lashes
Raid Qusti, Arab NewsRIYADH, 21 March 2005 — The case of a Saudi writer who was sentenced by a Shariah court in Riyadh to 275 lashes and four months imprisonment after being accused of being “corrupt†by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has returned to the Ministry of Culture and Information yesterday after the intervention of the ministry, Arab News has learned.
The case is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia.
This is a huge story!
The Saudi media is going toe-to-toe with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, aka the religious police or Mutawaain. There are laws that regulate which courts hear what kinds of issues and an attempt is being made to try a journalist in a religious court when it properly belongs in another court.
This article is certainly worth reading. Note the complicated chains of authority that oversee them, but also what protections they have. Note as well that the journalists involved in the issue are writers for Arabic language papers, not just the English ones.
I’ll be following this case closely.
New Shoura Members Expected to Be Named in a Month
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 21 March 2005 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd is expected to appoint 97 new Shoura members within a month after reports that their total would be increased from 120 to 150 in the upcoming reshuffle.
Sixty members of the existing Shoura could be replaced as they have already completed three terms. Seven members have left the council after their new appointments as ministers and top government officials.
There were reports that a number of prominent women would be inducted to the Shoura for the first time. But Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Saleh Bin-Humaid has ruled out that possibility.
This is a good article taking a look at what might happen in the reshuffle of the Consultative Council. There is great pressure on the government to appoint women to the Council, and it’s being reported regularly in the Saudi media. One doesn’t see as much reporting on opposition to that suggestion, but that certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Again, this is a story that needs to be followed.
Broken in the Kingdom, Al-Qaeda Goes Gulf
Saad Al-Matrafi, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 21 March 2005 — The suicide bombing in Doha, Qatar took place three days after the airing of the taped speech of Al-Qaeda leader Saleh Al-Aufi. The target was a Western institution.
Some analysts say Al-Qaeda is losing its strong image of power in Saudi Arabia and is breaking up. Terrorism specialist and researcher Faris ibn Hizam said that one could sense from Aufi’s speech that he was not aware of what was going on in the country. “He did not talk about the recent events in Riyadh, nor did he elaborate on the attack on the Ministry of Interior last December,†said Hizam. He said that that was a clear message that Al-Qaeda was breaking up and dissolving.
An interesting report from the Arab News that serves to confirm other reporting that Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia has been seriously damaged by counter-terrorism efforts.
Editorial: A Summit for Reform
In two days time, Arab leaders will meet for their annual summit — this year in Algiers. There is an electricity running through the Middle East unlike anything in the past. The death of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian elections, a new Palestinian government, the apparent willingness of the Israelis to move toward a settlement, President Bush’s declaration last month of a settlement being his “immediate goalâ€, the agreement by Palestinian militant groups to maintain a truce against the Israelis, plus elections in Iraq, moves to give women the vote in Kuwait, constitutional changes proposed in Egypt, the development of democracy in the Gulf, and mass political demonstrations in Beirut all add up to a paradigm shift in the region. Transformation has begun — and the Arab League has a role in making sure that it continues on peaceful tracks.
This is another good editorial from the Arab News. In noting the many issues that will face the Arab League when it meets, it also addresses the need for reform within the organization itself.
The Arab League has been not much more than a mouthpiece for the lowest common denominator in Arab politics. Because it relied on concensus decision-making, nothing very bold would ever be decided. In fact, the last big thing the Arab League did decide was to support the Saudi Crown Prince’s proposal for peace between the Arabs and Israelis. That passed only because several states abstained.
Now, though, the Arab League is looking to change itself, getting rid of concensus and instead moving toward a more parliamentary system that decides issues by majority vote. While that will not instantly project the Arab League into the top ranks of international organizations, it can only help it become pertinent. The article is worth reading in its entirety.
Helping the Poor … in Saudi Arabia
Dr. Khaled Batarfi, kbatarfi@al-madina.comAs the coordinator of a newly formed charity, I was invited to a meeting in Jeddah Chamber of Commerce.
Representatives of charities were trying to form a coordination committee under the supervision of Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed. High on our agenda were: Starting a cottage industry for needy families to work from home, providing training courses and finding jobs for less-skilled persons, and micro financing for small projects.
The idea is that we could help more if we think small and specific. The government can build larger projects, implement grand solutions, and throw a wider net.
For us, we should focus on smaller, neglected areas, and come up with creative, practical, sustainable solutions.
Dr. Batarfi, Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic daily Al-Madina, offers a useful call to Saudis to get involved in their own country, their own communities. This article reports on several different efforts, including his own, to bring the Saudi poor–and there are poor Saudis–into the realm of the stake-holder. A good article to read to get a gimpse of the complexity of Saudi society and how Saudis themselves are working to fix the problems, not relying on the government to do it all.