Abdullah, Rice Discuss Global Issues
Raid Qusti, Arab NewsRIYADH, 23 February 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks here yesterday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on major regional and international issues and ways of strengthening bilateral ties.
This is a first report of Secretary of State Rice’s visit to Saudi Arabia. As such, it’s fairly anodyne, providing the main talking points of each side, with a few supporting quotes. Analysts and commentators will get to the story a little later and what they write should be a bit more interesting.
Questioning the Clerics
Saudi Clerics Criticized Following Death of Hundreds in Mecca Stampede: ‘We Must Stop the Disregard for Human Life Based on Rulings That Adhere [Strictly] to the Written Word’
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) provides a very useful translation of several articles appearing in Saudi Arabic-language media following the tragedy in Mecca during the Haj. Various Saudis are publicly remarking that clerical interpretations of religion are stuck in the past and are now dysfunctional. While the specific topic is the death in Mecca, the larger–and well-understood–issue–is whether or not the interpreters of Islam will be able to find ways to interpret religion for the modern world.
One criticism of the MEMRI piece, though. In a footnote to the “Special Dispatch,” MEMRI states that auto insurance was not available in the country before 2003. That’s not correct. When I purchased my vehicle in 2001, I obtained auto insurance from a local insurance company.
Saudis Bemoan Poor Image in U.S.
JIM KRANE — The Associated PressJIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — On Sept. 11, 2001, Sonia Puopolo, an American Airlines flight attendant, lost her life when terrorists, four of them Saudis, hijacked her plane and slammed it into the World Trade Center in New York.
Last week, Puopolo’s daughter Tita Puopolo spoke to a conference packed with Saudi business leaders and asked them to try and repair something else that died in the attacks: the U.S.-Saudi friendship.
“Many people ask me, ‘Why would you visit Saudi Arabia after what happened to your mother?’” said Puopolo, speaking at the Jiddah Economic Forum in a black abaya and headscarf that slipped from her blond hair.
But Puopolo said her mother, a former ballet dancer who was 58 when she died, told her to “leave the world a better place” than she found it.
Puopolo’s gesture of reconciliation was a rare occurrence for Saudis, who have watched with growing alarm as the kingdom’s image in America has plummeted.
Today’s Washington Post has a piece worth looking at. It talks about various efforts being taken by Americans and Saudis to improve relations between the peoples of the two countries. These, as this blog, tend to be “grass roots” efforts, undertaken without governmental funding.
It’s easy enough to find criticism of the “public diplomacy” efforts undertaken by the governments of both countries. The US has a hard time getting its message out–as I know from first-hand experience in Riyadh from 2001-2003. The Saudi government, too, isn’t having much success. Both, I think, go about it with “corporate thinking,” the belief that a few big and expensive media programs will turn the tide. That’s not the way it works.
What does work takes time, effort, and money. While the US Congress demands the effort, it isn’t very generous when it comes to money. Its time expectations are simply unrealistic. Nothing in the US arsenal resembles a tool that brings instant “enlightenment”. But by bringing or sending people to the two countries, as does The Saudi American Exchange, operated by Dr. Gregory Payne of Yale and Tufts Universities, the de-demonization can start.
The Post article also appears in todays New York Times
Saudi tabloid shut down for reprinting cartoons
Shroog Talal Radain — The Saudi azetteJEDDAH: SAUDI Arabia s first-ever Arabic tabloid Shams has run into serious trouble in just three months after hitting the stands.
It was shut down for an indefinite period by the Ministry of Information and Culture Monday for committing the journalistic stupidity of reprinting the blasphemous cartoons which have infuriated the Muslims all over the world.
It s a Saudi newspaper and we were the first country to set a boycott campaign against Danish products because of the cartoons. It wasn t a wise step for them to re-publish the cartoons, not in this time or any other time, said Abu-Bakur Baqader, consultant at the Ministry of Culture and Information.
The tabloid reprinted the cartoons about three weeks back next to articles urging Saudis to take action against Denmark where they first appeared. It justified the reprinting of the sacrilegious cartoons by publishing opinion from some clerics saying information which is offensive to Muslims can still be printed if it helps acquaint them with an issue. There is no such thing called justification when it comes to clear cut known things, retorted Sheikh Abdullah Al-Musleh, vice president of the Islamic studies college in Riyadh.
It’s not terribly surprising that the Saudi government would close a Saudi domestic paper for republishing the notorious Danish cartoons. What is a bit more illuminating is the fact that the paper wasn’t closed until after the cartoons ran. No prior censorship, but punishment after the fact.
What’s a bit surprising, too, is that it took the government three weeks to decide to close the paper. I’d have expected immediate response.
I didn’t come across Shams (The Sun) newspaper during my brief visit to the Kingdom last month, but I did hear about it. Young Saudis in particular were pleased with it. Saudi journalists with whom I spoke found it to be a refreshing change from traditional media, including their own. Let’s hope it’s back on the stands soon.
Saudi Women Breaking Into Politics
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press WriterDAMMAM, Saudi Arabia – A minor revolution has spread to this sprawling oil town, with six women running this week for seats on the local chamber of commerce in this deeply conservative country where Islam dictates strict segregation of the sexes.
Although winning won’t be easy — of the 12,000 merchants eligible to vote, fewer than 500 are women — the election is a marker of change in Saudi Arabia, where progress toward a more open political system, including greater rights for women, is measured in inches, not miles.
“We’re setting an example. Women and men can do things together,” said candidate Samia Al-Edrisi, an energetic 55-year-old wearing a jeans jacket under a black abaya, a pair of stiletto-heels poking from under the cloak. “It’s a very exciting time to be a Saudi woman.”
This AP article about Saudi women taking part in elections for the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce & Industry is worth a glance. Paired with women’s participation–and sucess–in November’s elections for the Jeddah Chamber, it does seem that women are making their way into the political structure of the country.
Editorial: ‘Free Speech’ in Trouble
Yesterday, an Austrian court sentenced a British historian, David Irving, to three years in prison. His crime? He dared to deny the Holocaust, the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis. Specifically, Irving has been accused of denying that the Nazis used gas chambers.
The case is, to put it mildly, unfortunate for all those governments, organizations and individuals who in response to the blasphemous Danish cartoons row have vigorously championed the right of free speech. The Irving case could not have come at a more inconvenient time for them since it exposes a fatal flaw in their argument. Free speech clearly has its limitations. It all depends on the subject and where you are. Deny the Holocaust in nine European countries and you could end up in jail; ridicule Islam in those same countries and you are exercising your right to freedom of expression. Free speech is clearly a highly subjective concept in certain areas of Europe and the West in general.
This Arab News editorial points to what looks to be rank hypocrisy on the part of European governments that extoll free speech while also limiting free speech.
The case of David Irving, the self-taught British historian who has gone blazingly into the world of conspiracy theories, is at issue. He has written books questioning the Holocaust, at least in its scale and scope, and is generally labeled as a Holocaust Denier.
“The Holocaust” is the term given to the murder of six million Jews in Nazi Germany’s camps. Whether or not the term includes non-Jews is problematic. Not everyone agrees that the term should be used to include the three million non-Jewish Poles, the Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, mentally defectives, and others who were also killed.
I tend toward an inclusive definition. This means that while the Holocaust most certainly had a religious dimension, it was not exclusively religious. It was a way of getting rid of people the Nazi state had no use for. For the sake of this argument, though, I will accept that the Arab News sees it as a exclusive to religion.
Denying the Holocaust–the fact of it, the scale of it–is a crime in several European countries. Irving has just been convicted of Holocaust denial in an Austrian court. This strikes the newspaper as applying a double standard: It’s okay to denigrate one religion (Islam), but not another (Judaism).
Because I do not see the Holocaust as a strictly religious event, I cannot accept the parallelism that the paper tries to establish. But I do understand how Holocaust Denial laws could be seen as such.
The problem is that criminalizing Holocaust Denial is itself wrong. It is an attempt to control thoughts. Arguments are made that certain European countries–those that were part of the Nazi regime in particular–have historical reasons to make Holocaust Denial illegal. That might have made sense 60 years ago. It no longer does. The law, to my mind, is morally wrong. Holocaust Denial laws, like “hate” laws, do not belong in a civilized legal system because they deny individuals the rights to write or speak as they themselves believe morally correct. That is not a proper role for state government.
David Irving should be free to publish whatever he thinks, no matter how odious, stupid, or insane it is. Equally, newspapers (Danish or otherwise) should be free to publish what they believe is newsworthy, no matter if it offends anyone.
To limit speech to the inoffensive means limiting speech utterly. In fact, it means not speaking.
The Impact of Liquidity on the Saudi Economy
Khalil Hanware, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 20 February 2006 — In a three-year long bull run since 2002, the Saudi stock market has created over SR2.1 trillion in new wealth for the Kingdom’s citizens. Perhaps another SR1 trillion or more of this wealth has been created in the real estate market. According to Riyad Bank’s Saudi Economic Review, the sheer size of the figures is mind-boggling and raises the question, “Where does this liquidity come from and what kind of impact does it have on the Saudi economy?
This is a good article on the Saudi economy, if a bit heavily laden with Economics jargon. The bottom line, according to the author:
Available Saudi economic and financial data suggest that the large increase in liquid wealth in the Kingdom in recent years has had the following impact on the Kingdom’s economic activities: (1) the country’s imports from abroad have increased greatly, (2) while the impact on domestic production (real GDP) has been more muted, (3) prices of local equity have risen tremendously (due to limited supply of shares), (4) real estate prices have increased greatly, and (5) prices of locally produced goods and services have increased.
What are the future challenges of liquidity to the economy?
According to the Riyad Bank report, the underlying challenge for the economy is to convert itself from a liquidity-driven to a demand-driven productive machine. This is the goal of economic reforms and the structural changes that the government is pursuing. From membership into the World Trade Organization (WTO), to the new capital market law; from privatization to increasing market access and competition; from providing jobs to citizens to enhancing their skills and education; from empowering consumers to energizing investors — the goal is to make the country a lean, mean productive machine.
“For many other countries around the world, the problem is that they do not have the money needed to finance consumption, investment and economic growth. For the oil-rich countries of the Middle East like Saudi Arabia today, money is not the problem. The issue is how to use this money properly to finance real investment in factories and businesses that are the real drivers of economic growth,†said Zahid.
Truffle Hunters Test Borderline for Treasure
Khaled Al-Awadh, Arab NewsHAFR AL-BATIN, 20 February 2006 — Saudi police keep a close eye on the Kingdom’s border with Iraq. Most of the year they’re simply on the lookout for bad guys, but now they have to handle Bedouins intent on harvesting the borderline’s truffle treasure trove.
“It’s forbidden to come close to the border,†a Saudi policeman on border patrol tells a group of Bedouins who try to cross a sand barrier near the border. “Keep away.â€
Truffle hunters in the northeastern region go as far as the Saudi-Iraqi border to collect the precious delicacies, which can be found in large quantities near Hafr Al-Batin.
“There are truffles aplenty in these restricted areas,†Abu Badr, a Bedouin for whom truffles are big business, told Arab News.
Arabian truffles are an oddity. Like their better-known European relatives, they grow underground and are associated with particular plants. They’re found without the assistance of dogs or pigs (both considered unclean in Islam), instead using only the hunter’s eyes. They’re actually pretty easy to spot as they push up the surface of the earth. You look for cracked mounds near certain plants and you’re likely to find a truffle underneath.
Unlike their European (or North African or Turkish) counterparts, they’re not particularly fragrant, but they’re much esteemed as a traditional food. I never found that they had much flavor, a perception enhanced by the fact that back in the 30s and 40s, unscrupulous merchants would adulterate their potato piles with faqa.
They do abound, seasonally, in the northeastern part of Saudi Arabia, near the Iraq/Kuwait/Saudi border. I’ve hunted them near Khafji in late winter. But that area is now under strict security designed to prevent would-be jihadis from crossing into Iraq. They’re currently going for about $25/pound, but in years with poor crops, the price can go as high as $100/pound. I suspect that prices will move higher if the Bedouin can’t harvest them widely.
There’s an interesting article about desert truffles, complete with a recipe, in ARAMCO World, published by Saudi ARAMCO back in 2002. You can find pictures of them here.
Earlier this month Prince Turki al-Faisal talked to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about a number of issues of the day including the cartoon controversy, the tragic loss of a ferry sailing from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and other concerns shared by Americans and Saudi Arabians. This week Prince Turki returned to American television, this time on Public Broadcasting’s Charlie Rose interview show. It was just one of a number of recent public appearances that permitted him to, as he put it, “try to explain what Saudi Arabia is, where it comes from and where it is going.” [Check the SUSRIS.org web site for transcripts of other public remarks.]
SUSRIS is pleased to present a transcript of Charlie Rose’s interview with Prince Turki. The broadcast originally aired February 13, 2006. The ambassador discussed the bilateral relationship, Saudi Arabia’s role in the production of much of the world’s energy supplies (Part 1), developments in Iraq and Iran, the partnership between the US and Saudi Arabia in the war on terror (Part 2) and the situation between Palestinians and Israelis (Part 3). It is presented in three sections due to its length.
The Saudi-US Information Service (SUSRIS) has a transcript of Amb. Al-Faisal’s interview that’s worth looking at. Take a look, particularly, at the section of Part 2 which discusses a recent visit by US Treasury Department officials to the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia: Islam Vs. Bluetooth
Here’s an interesting piece form Forbes magazine noting that even within age groups there’s room for strong clashes of cultural values. Take a look at it.
Arabs to Resist Rice Isolating Hamas, Iran on Trip
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will face resistance from Arab allies on a trip this week to enlist their support for a campaign to isolate two U.S. adversaries, Hamas and Iran.
Rice, who will visit Egypt on Tuesday and travel to Saudi Arabia and to a regional meeting in the United Arab Emirates, will lobby states to deny aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government and push Iran to curb its nuclear plans.
Arab powers such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia oppose Hamas’ rejection of peace talks with Israel and fear a nuclear-armed Iran.
But they are reluctant to explicitly support America in the Middle East, where U.S. backing for its top ally in the region, Israel, angers many Arabs and clouds governments’ cooperation with Washington.
“Arabs will turn round and point out the United States gives billions of dollars to Israel,” said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. “It’s just an area where they will have to agree to disagree.”
Complicating her mission, Rice will also make her appeal against a backdrop of deadly anti-Western protests in the Muslim world over cartoons published in Europe of Prophet Mohammad.
On Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, Rice has led a faltering campaign to cut off diplomatic ties and aid to the anti-Israel Islamic group since it won a parliamentary election last month.
This wire story, via The New York Times pretty well sums up what Secretary of State Rice will be facing this week.
Saudi Arabia–both government and people–distinguish the two arms of Hamas: the militants and the social service agency. While they have serious questions about the first, but tend to see it as legitimate in its fight against an “occupying power,” they have few questions about the latter. The US government, and most Americans, see Hamas as a single agency that uses terror as a tool to achieve its aims.
This is a difficult area. For decades, both the US government and the American people, for instance, drew a line between the Provisional Irish Revolutionary Army, which engaged in terror, and Sìnn Fein, its political and social arm. The first was bad; the second was good. At least good enough to be invited to the White House and legally engage in fund-raising in the US.
Now, the US government isn’t so friendly toward Sìnn Fein and has formally labled the IRA a terrorist organization. Politics on the ground are going to have to shift sufficiently for the Saudis to make this congnative change. It will be a huge success if Rice can get the Saudi government to acknowledge a difference between the two wings of Hamas.
Depending on what Rice has to say about Iran, she may find a more willing audience. The Saudis are well aware of Iran, sitting about 90-seconds flying time from its eastern coast. Due to a variety of historical, social, political, and religious differences, Saudi Arabia and Iran are not the best of friends. But they are neighbors and have to live with each other. Saudi calculus on the matter has differences from the American one as a result.
Reuters AlertNet – Saudi papers publish Danish paper’s cartoon apology
RIYADH, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabian newspapers on Sunday printed an apology by the Danish paper whose cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad have sparked deadly protests around the world.
“Allow me in the name of Jyllands-Posten to apologise for what happened and declare my strong condemnation of any step that attacks specific religions, ethnic groups and peoples. I hope that with this I have removed the misunderstanding,” wrote Carsten Juste, the editor of Jyllands-Posten.
The full-page advertisements appeared in Asharq al-Awsat, which is printed around the Arab world, as well as the local al-Riyadh and al-Jazira.
They were dated Feb. 5, but an advertising spokesman at al-Riyadh said it may have taken time for the papers, which are close to the government, to approve the announcement.
I’m not sure of the reasoning behind that last paragraph quoted, but it’ll be interesting to see how this apology plays out.
Of interest, too, is the op-ed piece by Jyllands-Posten editor Flemming Rose, Why I Published Those Cartoons, which appears in today’s Washington Post.