I really don’t understand why the Saudis insist on calling confidence rackets ‘black magic’. I’ll grant that sometimes the cons attempt to use religious terminology or symbols to effect their ‘magic’, but they’re ordinary attempts to defraud people, either through greed or desperation. This Arab News article gives an example of both approaches.

Black Magic Practitioners in Police Net
Badea Abu Al-Naja & Muhammad Al-Juaid, Arab News

MAKKAH, 28 September 2007 — In the past three months, a team of Makkah police, led by Col. Muhammad Al-Minshawi, arrested three men, who swindled thousands of riyals from people alleging they were black magicians.

In the first operation, police arrested two men from Cameroon. Both had arrived in the Kingdom on Umrah visas and overstayed. Secret police in Jeddah found out about their illegal activities and monitored them for some time. Eventually a plainclothes police officer was sent to gather further evidence.

“The officer approached them at an apartment in Jeddah. One of the men asked for a large sum of money and claimed he could increase the amount through magic,” said a police spokesman.

“Our officer said he would bring SR500,000. The magician said he could multiply it to SR5 million. The officer managed to convince them that they needed to come to Makkah and that they would get the money there,” said the spokesman.

The magicians arrived in Makkah and were arrested. They were then transferred to the Al-Kakeeya police center for further questioning.
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According to this Saudi Gazette article, some judges in Saudi Arabia don’t think that Sharia law permits class action suits. Lawyers for residents of a district in the city of Madinah disagree and cite a section of the Saudi legal code that permits ‘collective action’ to address a problem that affects many similarly.

Class action suits in the US are wrought with complications, starting with getting a class certified, that is, showing that the members of a class have, in fact, demonstrated like injuries from the same cause. I’m sure it will take some time for this question to work its way through the Saudi courts, a process complicated by the lack of uniform, codified laws in most aspects of life in the Kingdom.

Judge Dismisses Madina Lawsuit
Khaled Al-Salami

JUST five minutes after the hearing session of the pollution case filed by the inhabitants of Hamra Al-Assad District in Madina against three factories and some government agencies, the judge rejected the case on the grounds that the inhabitants’ class-action suit violates the Shariah legal proceedings.

In his decision, the judge, Suliman Al-Dewash, adjourned the case until Nov. 4 and ordered the plaintiff’s lawyer to file separate cases for each plaintiff, explaining that the extent of the damage differs from one plaintiff to another.

The judge said he will also look into the case under the name of the inhabitant Abdul Raheem Awad Al-Metraffi because he filed the case in his name on behalf of the district’s inhabitants.
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Abeer Mishkhas, writing in Arab News, has this pointed commentary about how Saudi women (and women in Saudi Arabia) are being treated as less than second-class citizens. It’s pretty clear that the problem is not women, but the men who can’t seem to avoid being discombobulated by being in the presence of women. If their problem could be seen to, it’d make life a lot easier for at least half the population.

Citizens Not Question Marks
Abeer Mishkhas, abeermishkhas@arabnews.com

ARE WOMEN intruders in this country? This is a question that never stops buzzing in my head. Two stories in this week’s local press made me wonder repeatedly about the respect that women as citizens should be treated with.

But we have to remember that we always say that Islam treats women fairly and that they are equal to men and we hold the Hadith “the best of men are those who are the best with their families” as a slogan.

However, despite all our religious discourse, it seems and it feels that the discourse is there just for public consumption only, to be repeated in books and on television programs, but not applied in real life. And, unfortunately, we are never short of examples of our rhetoric not matching our actions.

The authorities at the Holy Mosque in Makkah have asked Saudi Television to be careful when positioning their cameras on women worshippers, after some viewers complained that women were being focused on too much. The complainants, who were quoted in local papers, added that the cameras concentrated on women’s faces and that this might “reveal their beauty”. Television officials answered that the cameramen and producers move the cameras over the crowds, picking single shots that reflect deep emotions and spiritual engagement whether in men, women or children.

Despite what the TV producers say, we should soon expect a restriction on filming women in the Holy Mosque. One should ask here, if those women are in the middle of a mosque praying next to men, why then is it very unusual to transmit their images on TV? What should those women do? They are in the Holy Mosque, wearing their full hijab and praying, what is it in their appearance that critics think inappropriate?
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This Agence France Press article is making the rounds.

Nothing much new, though. The Saudi government is maintaining a consistent policy that it prefers negotiations over the use of force.

Saudis worried Iran nuclear issue headed to ‘confrontation’

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said here Wednesday that Iran’s standoff with Western powers over its nuclear program is heading toward a “confrontation.”

Saudi Prince Saud al-Faisal met in New York with other Gulf foreign ministers as well as the chief diplomats of Jordan and Egypt, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“We talked certainly about Iran with the Secretary Rice,” Prince Saud told reporters.

“Definitely what we are seeing is a confrontation in the making,” the prince said.

“And we have pressed in our mutual discussions with the Iranians the question on them: ‘Why such a precipitous move toward confrontation, what is your intent in this?’ And their answer was that they are not looking for confrontation or building nuclear weapons.”

He said Saudi Arabia is “very concerned” about Iran’s nuclear program, which Western powers charge is a cover for building an atomic bomb. Tehran rejects the charge, saying it only seeks to produce energy.

Prince Saud said Tehran must prove its program is peaceful.

“We hope that, if anything, that this will be settled through negotiations,” he said. “The region is volatile and a conflict in that region is the most dangerous thing to conceive and therefore we hope it can be solved diplomatically.”

Asharq Alawsat runs this report (which also shows up in the Wall Street Journal) on the improved business climate in Saudi Arabia. Following reforms initiated by King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia’s joining the World Trade Organization, direct foreign investment in the country—a measure of how others view the economy—has increased nine-fold over the past two years.

And while foreign investment is flooding in, the Saudi economy is also growing through oil sales. In an AFP report, also carried in Asharq Alawsat, it’s noted that the Saudis have a budget surplus of $77.5 billion and a positive trade balance of $99 billion. Government spending has increased to a record $105 billion, spent largely on infrastructure and paying down debt. Inflation, though, is at 3.8% and rising.

World Bank Recognizes Saudi Arabia’s Economic Reforms

London Asharq Al-Awsat- The World Bank recognized Saudi Arabia Today as one of the world’s top reformers in its annual ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report.

Recent reforms in Saudi Arabia improved the Kingdom’s position from 38th to 23rd out of 178 countries in the World Bank rankings.

The report ranks Saudi Arabia as the best place to do business in the entire Middle East and Arab World, ahead of Kuwait (40th) and the UAE (68th). The report also ranks Saudi Arabia ahead of advanced economies such as France (31st) and Austria (25th). Commenting on the improvement, Jamal Haidar, co-author of the Doing Business Report 2008 said, ‘This year Saudi Arabia made bold business reforms making it one of the world’s leading reformers. Saudi Arabia is now the top ranked economy in the Middle East. We expect these reforms will continue to position Saudi Arabia as a business-friendly economy.’

Driven by King Abdullah’s vision for economic reform Saudi Arabia has become the number one recipient of foreign direct investment in the Middle East. Inflows have increased from $2 billion USD to $18 billion USD in the last two years. These figures are expected to increase with the development of Saudi Arabia’s Economic Cities.

The Saudi economy — which remains largely reliant on energy revenues — has boomed in recent years on record world oil prices. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter, but is trying to diversify its economy, especially in petrochemicals.

Likely because the number of those executed in Saudi Arabia is vastly higher than last year, the Saudi government has re-established a ‘Reconciliation Panel’ to try to reduce the numbers. Under Saudi interpretation of Sharia law, the families of victims of homicides can waive the death penalty levied against the one found responsible. They can, in a sense, offer ‘executive clemency’ to the condemned. This is usually done through the payment of ‘blood money’. Not all families are willing to take a cash payment in return for the loss of their loved one, however. This is where the Reconciliation Panel steps in, trying to persuade families to extend mercy toward the condemned.

According to this Arab News piece, the Panel has had some success in the past, having gotten pardons for 120 persons condemned to death. More, please.

Reconciliation Panel’s Board Reconstituted

JEDDAH, 26 September 2007 — The board of directors of the Reconciliation Committee in the Makkah region was reconstituted under the chairmanship of Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal at a meeting held at the governor’s office here yesterday, according to Nasser Al-Zahrani, executive president of the committee.

The committee undertakes humanitarian and charitable activities such as securing pardon for prisoners awaiting execution for murder. According to the Shariah, the close relatives of a murdered person may pardon the murderer. The pardon is often the result of offering blood money to the heirs of the murder victim.

Over the past few years the committee has succeeded in obtaining pardons for at least 120 persons condemned to death. The committee also improved the strained relations between members of more than 5,000 families, Al-Zahrani said.
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Writing in Financial Times, Roula Khalaf takes a look at the Saudi Ramadan TV series ‘Tash Ma Tash’. The episode she focuses on goes after the ‘liberals’ who are afraid to stand up for the reforms they want out of fear of repercussions. They’re all talk and no action according to one of the series’ writers. Unlike the Islamists, the liberals do not stand up for what they claim to believe. Interesting piece, well worth reading.

Saudi comedy writers turn gaze on liberals
Roula Khalaf

Tash Ma Tash, the hit Saudi comedy series that runs during the holy month of Ramadan, has been poking fun at local life for the past 14 years, targeting the kingdom’s stifling religious rules and ridiculing those who support them.

For the first time this year, however, the show has also taken aim at Saudi liberals, a growing but still shy minority that has been struggling to compete with the more powerful Islamists.

Nasser al-Qassabi, a creator of the series and lead actor in the show, which is aired on the Saudi-owned MBC channel, says he is counted as a liberal, but that “the liberals are not serious, they are not committed, they are not practical. They just talk.”

Although in recent years voices calling for social and religious reform in Saudi Arabia have multiplied, they have failed to coalesce into a coherent movement to compete with Islamists.
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The New York Sun indulges in a piece of Saudi-bashing this morning with an opinion piece from Youssef Ibrahim. Apparently in an effort to provide some criticism of the new Mearshimer-Walt book critiquing the Israel Lobby in the US, he waves a red et tu quoque (and you too!) flag claiming that the Saudis do the same—or worse. His piece, however, doesn’t actually provide any examples beyond the deeply investigated case of a number of Saudis who were flown out of the US soon after 9/11 and the fact that money goes to ‘Saudi-funded mosques and theological enterprises, to America’s academic institutions….’ He points out that 15 of the 19 killers of 9/11 were Saudi as though they were acting as agents of the Saudi government. Never mind that the Saudis have ended their proselytizing efforts in the US. Never mind that the Saudis might have legitimate defense needs against a militant Iran. Never mind that the Saudis have worked to clean up a fetid school curriculum. For Ibrahim, if it’s Saudi-funded, it must be evil, or at the very least, suspect.

I don’t know what Ibrahim’s problem with the Saudis is. He generally writes cogently on the Middle East, but when it comes to Saudi Arabia, he twists up attitude with very few facts.

Israel Lobby’s Pull Pales Next to Evil Saudi Input
YOUSSEF IBRAHIM

It’s been a while since a book about American Jews has elicited as much controversy as “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” in which professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard University argue that America’s Israel lobby exercises “undue” influence and blocks other views on the Middle East.

In the noisy debate that has sprung up among its many critics and few advocates, the issue has been unfortunately narrowed to the obvious: how powerful the lobby is or isn’t, and whether it is appropriate to discuss it in such terms. All but lost has been an opportunity to examine it in a broader context.

That there is a Jewish lobby in America concerned with the well-being of Israel is a silly question. It is insane to ask whether the 6 million American Jews should be concerned about the 6 million Israeli Jews, particularly in view of the massacre of another 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. It’s elementary, my dear Watson: Any people who do not care for their own are not worthy of concern.

And what the Israel lobby does is what all ethnic lobbies — Greek, Armenian, Latvian, Irish, Cuban, and others — do in this democracy. It is a natural outgrowth of the melting pot that makes this country what it is and helps to provide us with a bridge to our origins.
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This Associated Press story reports on two Saudi women who sprayed a religious policeman when he was chastising them for wearing makeup in public. While the supposed ‘crime’ of wearing makeup is inane, spraying someone with tear gas seems a little over the top, too.

Woman sprays religious police agents with tearing irritant, ME
BDULLAH SHIHRI

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) _ Two Saudi women called agents of the feared religious police terrorists and one sprayed the men with a tearing irritant after the agents stopped them because they did not conform to the kingdom’s strict dress code, the religious police said Monday in a statement.

One of the women filmed the incident, which took place in the Eastern Province on Thursday, the statement quoted Muhammed bin Marshoud al-Marshoud, head of the Eastern Province branch of the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice as saying.

The commission employs the police unit that enforces the kingdom’s strict Islamic lifestyle. The police patrol public places to ensure women are covered and not wearing make up, the sexes don’t mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.

“Two members of the commission were attacked, cursed and sworn at by two women who were blatantly dolled up,” al-Marshoud said, meaning the women were wearing makeup.

He said the agents stopped the women to give them advice and guidance after they noticed they were wearing makeup.

“One of the women took out a black container and sprayed a tearing substance at them while the other filmed what happened with her phone camera while making improper comments,” al-Marshoud said.

He said commission members “took control of the situation with help from security patrols.”

“During questioning, the women apologized for attacking the two commission members, signed a statement and were released,” he added.
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Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Mshari Al-Zaydi talks about an episode of the ‘Tash Ma Tash’ Ramadan TV series, broadcast on MBC satellite and Saudi TV-1 terrestrial station. The program talked about how, in the belief that it is acting to protect women, Saudi society actually condemns them. Definitely worth reading.

Defending the “Condemned”
Mshari Al-Zaydi

The popular Saudi television series, ‘Tash Ma Tash’, could be representative of daily events in Saudi, the prevailing mood in that country and issues that preoccupy Saudi society and could help any future historian understand “the-then” Saudi Arabia and its people. Therefore, ‘Tash Ma Tash’ is a collection of works about Saudi Arabia, just as poetry was for the Arabs, deemed representative of social and cultural works before it became mere poetry.

In an episode called ‘The Condemned’, we watched as a serious problem within Saudi society, namely, the condemnation of women was highlighted. In the episode, the condemned one was a divorced woman named Al Anoud. Her siblings tried to force her to marry a man who they had chosen for her in order to get rid of her. Her elder brother, Rashed, had said that she is a “burden”. The wise girl had only the support of her elderly father who was not harsh towards women and who was, in fact, proud of his daughter.
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For some reason, both The Washington Post and Financial Times and the wire services are picking up the story noted here and here earlier this month about a new women’s organization’s formally petitioning the Saudi government to permit women to drive.

Each of the articles interviews different of the founders of the organization as they explain their intent. Both pieces note that the Saudi Arabic daily Al-Watan, which originally published on the issue, has been inundated with reader response. According to the Post, letters have been about evenly divided. Financial Times, quoting the paper’s editor, says a slight majority continued to support the ban. Both linked articles are worth reading.

Saudi Women Petition for Right to Drive
Challenge Poses Risks in Sole Country Where Only Men May Take the Wheel
Faiza Saleh Ambah

Saudi women petition for right to drive
Andrew England and Heba Saleh in Cairo

Review: The Kingdom

Watching the trailers for ‘The Kingdom’ over the past several months, I was curious about how the film would portray Saudi Arabia and Saudis. The film could have taken the low and easy road, pandering to stereotypes, and shown the Saudis as slavering jihadis looking forward to killing the infidel. It could have taken (and did to some extent) follow the trail of ‘Syriana’ [see my review here and Amir Taheri's here], claiming on the basis of old and mistaken stereotypes that ‘it’s all about oil’.

Instead, I was pleased to see that the film—opening in the US on Sept. 28—showed that while there are bad Saudis, there are also good and decent Saudis who care about their country, their religion, and justice. As the film was to be built around the terrorist bombing of an American residential compound in Riyadh, I was curious to see how close they would come to the reality I saw while working in the US Embassy in 2003.

The film carries a very strong sense of authenticity. The researchers did their homework when it came to finding the right imagery to convey the sense of time and place. Much of it was shot in Abu Dhabi, with some B-roll materials from Riyadh spliced in. The rest was filmed in ‘non-denominational’ deserts in the American Southwest and Washington, DC. The film was mostly realistic when it came to the bombings, but they are not the same as the compounds, really bombed in 2003. Then, my job had me visiting those compounds within 12 hours of the explosions. Bodies were mostly removed; there were still body parts and blood, shattered homes and cars, and glass and rubble everywhere. The film catches most of this but generally spares us the body parts.

‘The Kingdom’ is accurate in its portrayal of a sharp-elbowed FBI investigation team running headlong into the reluctant Saudi police. As the crime happened in Saudi Arabia, the police were not about to simply hand over the investigation to the FBI. The image of Saudis as obstructionists, with something to hide was developed in the aftermath of the 1998 bombing of the Saudi Arabian National Guard building in Riyadh, where US military advisors were assigned. Similar was the 1996 Al Khobar Towers bombing, when the FBI were kept out of the loop. The local police did not welcome the FBI’s attempt to take over the investigation, a reaction not unknown to American local police departments and itself the subject matter of other films.

In order to avoid spoilers, the rest of the review is below the fold. I haven’t compromised major plot development, but some of the early set-up is discussed.

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