In Defense of the Prophet
Turki al-Hamad

It is both noble and commendable that Muslims would object to those who try to lower and tarnish the elevated status of the Prophet of Islam (pbuh). These insults implicate nations and people by deriding their prophet, religion and culture. Defamation is not an honorable act, whomever its subject may be, and it becomes more so when it is aimed at the noble prophet who is perceived as such even by those who do not believe in him, and by those who belong to mankind although they display little humanity.

Defending the Prophet (pbuh) and his message is a duty; there is no question about that. However, the question is; how can one go about defending his legacy and name? Trying to persuade others that there is a huge chasm between the Islamic religion and what is being practiced and exploited by a minority who are affiliated to it does not suffice so long as these forbidden acts persist, and hatred and the glorification of death dominate the hearts and minds of some. Huge demonstrations, vengeful acts of retaliation, demanding public apologies and expressing remorse are to no avail, and perhaps even incite more hatred, which is exactly what’s happening. In the aftermath of these demonstrations or acts of violence, it becomes clear that there are those who’s minds become entrenched with the idea that there is no hope for Muslims or their religion and culture. Others see Muslims as backward and fanatical, resenting any change and rejecting anything that is not Muslim, caught in a cycle of self-loathing. Can’t you see how they kill one another regardless of time and place? As for Islam, it is a religion of violence and swords that offers no room for freedom or choice within its foundation and teachings. It is either the sole dominating religion in this world, or else it’s at war with anything else that defies or disagrees with it. This is the worldwide prevalent image of Islam and Muslims in the minds of the masses today and they have nothing to judge with except what they see and unfortunately, what is happening is neither good nor a source of pride for Muslims.

Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Turki Al-Hamad has a strong commentary on what Muslims should be doing if they wish to save Islam from harsh criticism by non-Muslims: Walk the walk.

Al-Turki demonstrates that he’s quite aware of the variety and range of criticism being leveled against Islam and Muslims. He points out how the sometimes rabid reactions to these criticisms are both counterproductive and not well-grounded in Islam itself.

Very interesting piece coming from a Saudi journalist. He’s sure to catch a lot of flack over it.

Faith is dressed in tribal garb as Muslims debate British ruling on niqab
Mona Eltahawy

The niqab, or the face veil, terrifies me. I am a Muslim woman for whom the niqab says very little about religion but a whole lot about the erasure of a woman’s identity, her very existence as a human being in any society.

I am the first to admit that my views on the niqab are thoroughly grounded as much in my own very personal struggles with the hijab, which I wore for nine years, as they are more generally with the obsessive focus on how Muslim women dress – an obsession shared by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

An argument I had years ago – while I still wore hijab – on the Cairo subway with a woman who wore niqab helped seal for good my refusal to defend the niqab.

The woman, dressed in black from head to toe, began by asking me why I did not wear the niqab. I pointed to my headscarf and asked her “Is this not enough?”

I will never forget her answer.

“If you wanted a piece of candy, would you choose an unwrapped piece or one that came in a wrapper?” she asked.

“I am not candy,” I answered. “Women are not candy.”

Writing at Saudi Debate, Mona Eltahawy, of Egyptian origin, comments on the debate raging across Europe and the Middle East about the meaning of wearing a veil. She’s not very happy with it.

What she most strenuously objects to is the politicization of religion by those who can only see through a religious lens:

More or less Muslim

Needless to say Islamists, mostly in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, lambasted Saleh and the others who have spoken out against the niqab. But that was to be expected. What was unusual was to hear Saleh and Banna, who is much more liberal, agree that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam.

It is important to hear Muslim women and men take a stand against the niqab so that it doesn’t join the ever growing list of identity politics issues that is waved in the face of Muslims everywhere as a sort of litmus test. If we don’t check our agreement to every box on the list, we are somehow less authentic or less Muslim.

Such a list is both dangerous and disingenuous because those writing its contents are usually the most conservative in the Muslim community.

If we are not offended by the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed , if we are not enraged at the Pope’s comments on Islam and violence, if we are not up in arms over Jack Straw’s niqab statement then we’re portrayed as at best Muslims who don’t care enough or at worst sell-outs and self-hating Muslims. And it is even worse when non-Muslims make such accusations which at their core basically imply that they acknowledge only one kind of Muslim.

Do read her whole argument.

‘Saudi Shi’a wait and see as new light falls on Islam’s old divide’

Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a population has long-been at the centre of demands for pluralism and an equitable sharing of the kingdom’s wealth. The 1993 Accord which was intended to reach an accommodation between the government and the Shi’a political opposition, served to divide opinion within this substantial minority without producing a result satisfactory to all. The economic growth of the oil-rich Eastern Province – home to most of the kingdom’s Shi’a population – has both entrenched divisions within this
community, and for some served only to heighten the distance the kingdom needs to go before demands for better treatment are met. Mahan Abedin discussed these and many other issues affecting Saudi Arabia’s Shia in a wide-ranging interview with the activist and author Fouad Ibrahim, who has long-played a key role in articulating Shia demands.

As I’ve noted in earlier posts, Shi’ism isn’t a monolithic block, even within Saudi Arabia. Here, Saudi Debate offers an interview with Fouad Ibrahim, from one of the Shi’i groups in the Eastern Province. He’s probably speaking accurately for at least part of the ‘Usuli group, though I think he’s not quite accurate in his rendition of Iranian influence in Saudi Arabia or in Bahrain. But do read what he has to say as it’s an interesting look at something that is poorly covered in Western media.

Saudi youth bored in model Islamic state -blogger
Andrew Hammond

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi youth are chronically bored in a country that can’t provide them with jobs and restricts their personal freedoms, one of Saudi Arabia’s most well-known Internet bloggers says.

Ahmed al-Omran, aka “Saudi Jeans”, says Saudi Arabia may be a model state for powerful clerics who oversee the strict application of sharia, or Islamic law, in society but for young people life can offer bleak choices.

“We are watching movies and serials from outside, and we are saying ‘why are we different, why can’t we live the way they do?’,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“OK, we are a little different, we have our traditions and lifestyles, but we also don’t see the big difference, especially compared to neighbouring countries, like Bahrain or Kuwait.”

In Saudi Arabia, strict gender segregation means there are no cinemas, women are not allowed to drive, single men are often banned from shopping malls, and trendy coffee shops — which have become hugely popular in big cities — are men-only zones.

None of those restrictions are in place in Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Arab neighbours, which are culturally similar to Saudi. In the relatively liberal Saudi city of Jeddah, there are some mixed cafes and easy access to the malls.

If he wants to experience the cinema, Omran says he drives to neighbouring Bahrain, which many Saudis head to on the weekends to escape the stifling social mores of the clerics’ Islamic state where religious law rules supreme.

The New Scotsman run this Reuters piece, an interview with Ahmed Al-Omran, who blogs at Saudi Jeans. It gives a good look at the constraints within which young Saudi males live and what they’d like to see changed. Worth reading, as is Saudi Jeans!

Arab world’s dearth of ideas lets ‘dour Islamists’ ransack the attic of history
Fawaz Turki

“We cannot remain rigid while the surrounding world is changing,” King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told an audience recently. “Thus we will continue, God willing, in the development process, strengthening the national dialogue, liberalizing the economy, fighting corruption, uprooting monotonous habits, and increasing efficiency of government institutions. We will enlist the efforts of all workers, both men and women. All that will be done incrementally and moderately.”

The audience was the Kingdom’s Consultative Council, and the statement, delivered in measured tones, was intended to lay out the government’s priorities and the pace at which they will be addressed.

Reform introduced incrementally – reformers who want it brought about in a sweeping manner notwithstanding – does not diminish its significance. Surely, strengthening “the national dialogue,” uprooting “monotonous habits,” enlisting the efforts of male and female workers alike, and “liberalizing the economy” is muted diplo-speak, respectively, for energizing the public discourse, doing away with ancient fears, ensuring that society becomes more productive, and culture more zestful, by according women equal rights and equal opportunities, and finally, by liberalizing the economy, saving the kingdom from its crushing problems.

Fawaz Turki, whom I tend to dislike intensely for his antediluvian reliance on a neo-colonialist critique of the West, has a worthwhile piece appearing on Saudi Debate.

I think he correctly notes that reform doesn’t happen overnight, no matter how loudly advocates of reform call for it. Reform can be encouraged from the top, but it must happen from the bottom. The Iranian revolution of 1979 provided a severe object lesson for the Saudi government: reform imposed from the top, before society accepts its values, doesn’t lead to happy endings. Similarly, the first attempts at democratization in the Gulf, in the 1960s in Kuwait and Bahrain, led to the closing of both countries’ parliaments within a few years as the parliamentarians were not ready to govern democratically, but instead sought to take advantage of new positions from old positions of tribal or group strength.

Turki continues:

And this brings me to the crux of the matter, which in turn brings me to John F. Kennedy.

John F. Kennedy?

Yes, the late American president who, in his inaugural address, enjoined Americans against being dependent on the state to adjudicate their interests. “Ask not,” he thundered, “what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

A flippant or flighty notion to bring up in this context? Not quite.

Intellectuals or malcontents?

What can the reformer do for society; what will the intellectual’s role in that society be? Are we, as ideologues, theoreticians and thinkers – not just from Saudi Arabia but indeed from elsewhere in the Arab world – driven by a kind of moral and rational optimism about the potential for progress and transformation in our part of the world? Are we active participants in the movement to thrust society beyond its fixed meaning, or are we passive observers of the scene who, like hermitic literary critics, live at second hand, who come after, who write about?

Are we, in other words, to borrow from Antonio Gramsci’s idiom, “organic intellectuals” or mere intellectual malcontents?

The problem, I say, is not unique to Saudi Arabia but extends to our entire social world in the Middle East and North Africa, a world that remains devoid of elan, lacking means and meaning to define itself.

More than symbols of democracy—such as elections—there is a dire need for a civil society, complete with rule of transparent law, the ending of corruption, transparent government, that needs to come first.

This means overturning or at least modifying social systems and structures that have worked passably well for over 1,000 years. It means getting people to realize that just because the “old way” worked does not mean that it will continue to work. Changed circumstances require changed responses. Change is hard, even in ‘modern’ societies—witness the outcry from the developed world to the changes brought about through globalization. Change is even harder in traditional societies. While the situation is disrupted, there is plenty of room for mischief:

Modern-day “Islamists”, who have moved in with their regressive ideology to fill the void, do not comprise an alternative community of ideologues. Not by a long stretch. Theirs is a cult. It’s Jim Jones in Guiana writ large. It’s the choked psyche of individuals, gasping for air, giving massive echo to the despair they feel about their world, a world that remains – well over half a century after ‘independence’, broken in body and spirit.

“Modernity is not subversive,” Turki points out. The history of the Arab, Islamic world has plenty of examples of the various states adapting to circumstance and adopting new means of dealing with new problems. Today, though, and for the past 60 years, it’s been “old wine in new bottles” across the Middle East.

The real issue of reform, whether in Saudi Arabia or Lebanon, Palestine or Egypt, or wherever else in the Arab world, does not hinge then on revolution – spare us, please, those military coups over the last half century that masqueraded as such, and spare us, equally, the revolutionary model of the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 and of the Mullahs in Iran in 1979 – but on the promulgation of progressive, modernist thought – and that includes the notion, not so novel to the rest of the progressive, modernist world, that the Arab citizen is not only entitled to a bigger slice of the cake accruing from the resources of one’s country, but that he should have a say in how the bakery is run.

Saudi plans to launch web site to help fight extremism
Habib Shaikh

JEDDAH —The Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs plans to launch a web site aimed at fighting extremism and to reform individuals with extremist views.

The web site, which will have sections in Arabic and in English, is aimed at Muslim audiences worldwide. The site is to be operated by the Al Sakinah Campaign, an independent Saudi initiative supported by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

The campaign will initiate dialogue with extremists on the Internet with the aim of preventing the spread of extremist views. In an interview with the Arabic daily Al Riyadh, the public relations director of the Al Sakinah Campaign, Khaled Al Mushawwah, said the web site will contribute to the war on extremism. “We decided to set up the site in response to requests from all over the world,” Al Mushawwah said.

Khaleej Times provides more detail about the website being set up by the Saudi government to counter jihadist websites already in existence. The site will not be aimed at jihadis—they’re already a lost cause. Instead, it will be focusing on those still sitting on the fence. The site will have several sections:

The first section will introduce the (Al Sakinah) Campaign. The second will contain an audio library that the campaign has been compiling for a long time. There will also be a library containing over 10,000 pages of books and studies, and a library of video clips featuring interviews with individuals who have renounced their extremist views, including TV interviews with them and the conversations that the campaign activists conducted with them on the Internet.

There will also be a media section, containing reports about the campaign and its goals, and it will monitor the media for articles by columnists and intellectuals about issues of terrorism and extremism. There will be a section for fatwas by ‘ulema, and a special section devoted to individuals who have returned to the right path. This section will include clips from TV interviews with these individuals as well as the dialogues conducted by the campaign workers with some of them.

Saudis resist efforts by clerical ‘class’ to create nation of fashion slaves
Khalid Al-Dakhil

Every society has its ‘clerical class’, and Saudi society is no exception. The distinctiveness of the Saudi clerical class is easy to recognize. Its members are distinguished mainly by being specialists in Shari’ah sciences, which is now an academic discipline in its own right. It has its own curriculum, educational institutions and references that set it apart from other disciplines in both the social and natural sciences.

The clerical class is also distinguished by a ‘language’ of its own. By ‘language’ I mean a discourse with its its own vocabulary and vernacular, its own way of thinking, its vision, tastes, concepts, expressions and phrases. For example, they adopt the ‘chain method’ as a reliable means of authentication of historic reporting. Thus, they use phrases such as, “we were ‘told’ or ‘informed’ by so-and-so”, and “so-and-so informed so-and-so”. They use exclusive titles such as “His Loftiness” and “His Eminence”, as in “His Loftiness, Father, Sheikh so-and-so” and “His Loftiness, the Mufti” or “His Eminence, Sheikh so and so”.

These are special titles denoting religious status, and specific rankings within the clergy hierarchy. This ranking is not only a recognition of knowledge or academic qualification. It also expresses social and spiritual status. Such titles differ from those given to princes, ministers, professors or tribal sheikhs, which are titles denoting social status and are totally unrelated to religious rankings or values despite the adherence of their holders to the same religion.

Khalid Al-Dakhil gives interesting and useful insight into the way clothing is used as code in Saudi Arabia. Writing at Saudi Debate, Al-Dakhil gives a survey of how Saudi men dress and how religious figures—or at least those who wish to be seen as religious—modify the national dress. He notes that the religious groups avoid wearing an iqal—the black cords, originally a camel hobble—over the ghutra or shumagh head covering.

He points out, too, the way in which religious authorities of a certain type try to suggest that because they are ‘in the know’ about religious propriety, then they should be emulated. And if everyone emulates them, then that must be—through some strange twists of logic—they way people interpret their religion, i.e., correctly.

It’s a good piece, both amusing and informative. Take a look at it, along with its accompanying illustrations.

Arab News also happens to have an article on ghutras and shumaghs.

There’s also an article on traditional clothing, for men and women, that notes the differences between winter and summer versions.

State of Denial

Book Review by Amir Taheri

Back in the 1970s, Bob Woodward made his name as one of the two reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal that ultimately ended Richard Nixon’s presidency. What was not noticed at the time was that Woodward and his fellow-reporter Carl Bernstein also invented a new genre in literature, mixture of fact and fiction. (Some call it faction.) The genre is simple: you take a set of facts related to actual events and weave a story around them by using the techniques of the novel to portray the people involved, complete with distinct tones for each and detailed dialogues. For the past three decades, Woodward has practised this art with much profit for himself and some amusement for readers. Bernstein, on the other hand, opted for the straight novel and all but faded from markets and memories.

Woodward’s new “faction”, “State of Denial”, is supposed to be about the way the Bush administration has handled the Iraq war after the fall of Saddam Hussein. In a sense, “State of Denial” is the third part of a trilogy that started with Woodward’s “Bush At War” in 2000 followed by “Plan of Attack” in 2003.

Here is how the formula works: you take the war in Iraq and narrate some of its major episodes. Then you identify the individuals who played key roles in the events. Next, you imagine what those individuals might have said to one another with reference to real or imagined issues. Always remember to add some seasoning by quoting real or non-existent secret papers leaked to you by unidentified sources.

Amir Taheri doesn’t think much of Robert Woodward’s latest opus. Among other failings, he thinks Woodward doesn’t lay enough blame on the Iraqis themselves for the situation they’re now in. The US goals in invading Iraq, he says, were three: ‘to topple Saddam Hussein, to dismantle his machinery of war and repression, and to allow the Iraqis an opportunity to write a constitution of their own and form a government of their choice. All tree objectives have been achieved in an amazingly short time’.

He doesn’t think much of Woodward’s method, either. Interviewing aides, finding classified documents (whose veracity can’t be established for 25 years or more) to support his argument, then drawing broad conclusions don’t make for solid enough research.

Do read the whole review.

Saudi riyal rises but revaluation unlikely

London (Reuters): The Saudi riyal surged to a 5-1/2 month high against the dollar yesterday amid speculation it will be revalued over the Eid holidays but economists say politics as well as economics make such a move unlikely for now.

With Saudi and Gulf markets closed for Eid Al Fitr holidays for much of this week, all dealings in the currency were offshore and traders said thin liquidity was exaggerating moves.

The riyal traded up to 3.7420 per dollar, its highest since early May when investors bet Saudi Arabia would revalue its currency in line with a move by Kuwait. The gains follow an even bigger move on Friday, which saw the biggest one-day riyal rise in eight years, according to Reuters data.

That move was just 0.16 per cent but is significant for the riyal, which is tightly pegged to the dollar at 3.75. Analysts said that if it firms beyond 3.74 without a response from the central bank, speculation about a revaluation may gather steam.

this Reuters piece—published in the UAE’s Gulf News—contradicts a report yesterday by that paper’s business editor. No revaluation is likely, it says. Whatever blips the money markets are seeing now is due to regional banks’ being closed for the extended holiday.

There will be light posting at Crossroads Arabia over the next week.

I’m traveling on family business (to visit my son at university) later this week and will be attending the National Council on US-Arab Relations conference in Washington, DC early next week.

The site won’t go dark, but there may be a day or two in which no new posts appear.

Saudi students try to fight stereotypes
Rick Wills

Salim al-Sulaiman thinks the 9/11 hijackers were “psychos.”

But his disdain for the terrorists who attacked New York and Washington, D.C., and crashed a jet in Somerset County doesn’t help him avoid suspicious looks when he’s out in public.

“Before 9/11, everyone thought my country was the world’s largest sandbox. Now many people think we are all terrorists,” said al-Sulaiman, 28, a University of Pittsburgh student from Dharan, Saudi Arabia, whose father is a machinist for Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company.

Government officials from the oil-rich country acknowledge Saudis have an image problem.

Here’s a nice piece from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about Saudi students’ out-reach efforts in the Pittsburgh area. Person-to-Person contact remains the best way of learning about other peoples and cultures and in breaking noxious stereotypes. Check, too, this picture of one out-reach effort.

Revaluation of Saudi riyal during Eid speculated
Andrew Shouler

Dubai: Speculation is rife that Saudi Arabia will revalue its currency, the riyal, during the Eid holidays, according to Standard Chartered Bank economist Steve Brice.

A move of 15 per cent has been mentioned, which “would be a huge shift of policy”, he said, adding that a 5 per cent upward adjustment might be more plausible instead.

Questions arose last Thursday and Friday when the riyal/dollar rate moved below 3.75, ending at 3.7430. That is “historically very rare”, Brice noted. No price was seen yesterday.

Word of potential revaluation came from both business and financial communities, and “from sources to which we attach some credibility”.

“We don’t really believe it’s going to happen”, Brice said, “but we’re a bit nervous that it might.”

Gulf News out of Dubai has this article. Currently, the Saudi Riyal is firmly pegged to the US Dollar at an exchange rate of USD $1.00 = SR 3.75. With very strong economies in the Gulf, there is pressure to increase the value of the Riyal.