Saudi Gazette reports that a group of Saudi women have been fired from their jobs while expatriate women kept theirs. This appears to be a case where certain other Saudis believe that certain kinds of labor—i.e., cleaning—are beneath the dignity of Saudi women. The fact is that many Saudi women need to work. If they are willing to take jobs, finding that they do not affect their personal dignity, then the busy bodies should mind their own business.

Maintenance Firm Fires 25 Saudi Female Workers
Faleh Al-Thibyani

MAKKAH – Over 25 female Saudi employees of a maintenance company working in the Maternity and Obstetrics Hospital here were dismissed without prior notice.

The terminated women have resorted to the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR). NSHR Makkah branch director Al-Shareef Abu Rayyash promised to intervene to resolve the case.

Director of Helath Affairs in Makkah Dr. Khaled Al-Sumairi also promised to investigate the matter.

The terminated women said the company was retaining over 100 female expatriate employees. They also sought the intervention of the Ministry of Health.

The holy sites in the city of Medina have been a point of contention for many years, starting with the definition of ‘holy site’. For strict fundamentalists, places like the Prophet’s tomb reek of idolatry, occasions for the faithful to elevate the Prophet above human kind toward some sort of divinity. Other Muslims don’t quite see it that way.

In any event, this Arab News article reports, the Saudi religious police are being told to behave themselves when dealing with Muslims who don’t observe strict, Salafist views. That’s a good start….

Be Polite to Pilgrims, Commission Members Told
Yousuf Muhammad, Arab News

MADINAH, 27 December 2007 — Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have been praised for their politeness while dealing with pilgrims visiting various historical sites in Madinah.

Abdullah Al-Zahrani, head of the commission’s Madinah branch, said the members had strict instructions to deal with pilgrims in a friendly manner. “Commission members are also required to respect the cultural and denominational differences of pilgrims. They are not allowed to behave in a manner that does not agree with the noble principles of Islam,” Al-Zahrani told Arab News.

With the Haj finished, a huge number of pilgrims are in Madinah visiting sites that figured prominently in the lives of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his Companions.
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Abeer Mishkhas from Arab News takes a look at suicide and Saudi women. In the KSA, unlike in the US, women predominate in the number of attempted suicides. She suspects that this is because of the pressure women face in dealing with a society that often does not take them seriously at all, but is willing to toss them around as so much baggage. Interesting piece.

What Drives a Woman to Think of Suicide?
Abeer Mishkhas, abeermishkhas@arabnews.com

In a recent study, a researcher from King Saud University tackled the often-unmentioned subject of suicide in Saudi Arabia. In her study, which concentrated on failed suicide attempts in 2006, the researcher found out that 96 percent of the cases involved women. She told Reuters that in the hospital where she works, they receive around 11 cases every month of women who have failed in their suicide attempts.

So far, we are talking about survivors, but if the figures are correct, then we must assume that there are as many, if not more, who actually manage to kill themselves. The report says that most of those cases are filed at hospitals as drug overdose.

In a recent op-ed, widely cited in many media, former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali decried what she described as a lack of moderation among Muslims. Kareem Elbayar, a student at George Washington University’s law school provides a response, here republished in Arab News.

Be the Moderate Muslim You’re Looking for
Kareem Elbayar, Arab News

“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, though it may be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor: for God can best protect both. Follow not the lusts of your hearts, lest ye swerve, and if ye distort justice or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that ye do.” (Qur’an 4:135)

In a Dec. 7 Op-Ed in The New York Times, Ayaan Hirsi Ali asked where the moderate Muslims were, and concluded that the very notion of a moderate Muslim majority was “wishful thinking”. Ali’s claims are echoed by many prominent commentators on the American right, and judging by the comments left on The New York Times website, by many average Americans as well. But the popular idea that mainstream Muslims either do nothing to condemn (or worse, secretly applaud) the outrages perpetrated in the name of our religion is not only reductive and misinformed — it is dangerously wrong as well.

The vast majority of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are indeed moderate, peace-loving people who reject violent extremism and terror. Moderate Muslims are all around us, from the attorney and husband of the rape victim from Saudi Arabia; to the delegation of British Muslims who traveled to Sudan and worked with Sudanese member of parliment Ghazi Suleiman to secure the “teddy bear” teacher’s release (and prove that the entire controversy was more about distracting international attention from Darfur than it was about Islam); to the literally hundreds of thousands of Muslim individuals and organizations in the United States and around the world that expressed shock and disgust at the events which Ali cites.
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American Bedu blog has an informative piece on the complications that obtain when a foreigner and a Saudi wish to marry. The Saudi government does require prior permission for the marriage to take place, though that’s not always the way things work out. The post points out the problems with an unregistered marriage.

Saudi Marriage Restrictions to Foreigners

When it comes to a Saudi marrying a foreigner government permission is required and the marriage must be approved, recognized and registered with the government in order for the couple to have full rights and benefits. If the Saudi wishes for his wife or her husband to live or travel to the Kingdom it is essential to have a sanctioned approved marriage. Otherwise, among other things, the husband would not be viewed as a legal ‘mahrem’ (guardian) and therefore prohibited from being publicly together. Even if a couple marries outside the Kingdom they should still want the marriage registered with the Saudi courts for inheritance reasons as well as other rights. Saudis who wish to marry a foreign spouse are supposed to obtain government approval PRIOR to the marriage. In numerous cases it does not work out that way. Many couples face difficulties and rather than be apart or “live in sin” they will marry either in an Islamic, civil or other type of marriage ceremony without waiting for the official government approval. However, until government approval is obtained and the spouse has an iqama which identifies the Saudi spouse as the sponsor, forget about coming to the Kingdom.
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I came across the Kaloy Panahon blog written by a Filipino resident in Saudi Arabia, Karlo. I don’t follow Filipino affairs, but he posts a page of photos taken during a recent flight between King Khalid Airport in Riyadh and King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah.

Some of the photos on the page are simply snapshots that mean more to him than anyone else. The aerial photos are taken through the window of a Saudi airplane, so the quality is something less than sterling. Nevertheless, his pictures of the harran area east of Jeddah, filled with lava fields, volcano cones, and road building are worth a look.

I particularly liked the photo of a string of volcanoes, reminiscent of a Martian landscape, except for the color.

I’d like to wish the readers of Crossroads Arabia who celebrate this holiday a very Merry Christmas.

Blogging will be on the light side today, but I’ll be putting up pieces as time permits.

It’s not just Saudis who are irked at the terror plots directed at the Hajj, according to this article from Dubai’s Gulf News. The piece grabs quotes from pilgrims from Sudan, Egypt, and Iraq expressing their displeasure as well as their gratitude for the Saudi government’s success in stopping the plots.

Imams and pilgrims denounce planned attacks on holy sites
Mariam Al Hakeem

Makkah: A number of Islamic personalities and pilgrims have denounced the failed terrorist plan to attack holy sites outside Makkah.

Yesterday, the Interior Ministry said police arrested 28 men for allegedly planning to attack holy sites around Makkah and Madinah. The ministry said 27 of the men were Saudis and one was a foreigner.

“Thanks to God, the security forces managed to detain members of the deviated group who have links with elements outside [the kingdom] while planning to carry out criminal acts inside,” a statement by the Interior Ministry statement said. “For security interests we will not divulge more details at present.”

In press statements on Sunday, Mohammad Bin Yahya Al Nujaimi, head of research and civil studies at King Fahd Security College and member of the Interior Ministry’s Counselling Commission, said such plots are the outcome of deviated ideologies.
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Saudi residents of the Red Sea city Jeddah have been complaining about failing infrastructure over the past several years. Bad water distribution, overflowing sewage, crumbling roads, and overflowing (and burning) trash facilities have added up to misery for many. This Khaleej Times article says that the Jeddah authorities are trying to get a handle on the trash problems. What’s new is that in addition to setting up a new project (something the Saudis are very good at), the municipality is also setting up monitoring of the new project. Whether it succeeds in reducing the misery, only time will tell.

Jeddah Municipality working to increase level of cleanliness
Habib Shaikh

JEDDAH — ‘How clean is my city’. Those are the words that Jeddah Municipality would like to hear from residents and visitors, and is doing its utmost to succeed.

According to Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakieh, under SR900 million cleaning projects, which include a citywide public awareness campaign, the civic body expects to increase the level of cleanliness in Jeddah by 80 per cent. The government has increased the municipality’s five-year budget of SR450 million to SR900 million.

Khalid Aqil, deputy mayor for services, said that for the first time the city will be divided into three separate areas: northern, central and southern. “Each section will be handled by an independent company to ensure competency and easy monitoring,” Aqil said addressing a two-day Cleaning Projects Forum held here recently.

He added that the number of dumpsters would be increased to more than 45,000, and the number of workers to 7,000. “Each company would be responsible for collecting five million cubic metres of garbage in an area of 15 million square metres,” he said and added that the new contracts include cleaning private land, development of beach cleaning methods, and washing sidewalks, underpasses and bridges.

He said that the new contracts would reorganise trash collection in a positive way. Aqil said that the municipality has put in place guidelines for cleaning companies to ensure they provide services in a highly specialised way through experienced people.
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Saudi terrorists have again shot themselves in the foot, according to this article from The New York Times. The piece notes that average Saudi is fed up with his compatriots who are trying to destabilize the government. Given that recent polling show that 95% of Saudis support King Abdullah, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula might want to recalibrate its goals.

Saudi Police Arrest 28 in Foiled Plot During Hajj
KATHERINE ZOEPF

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The number of men arrested late last week in a suspected plot to attack Muslim holy sites around Mecca and Medina during the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage, was put at 28 in a statement issued Sunday by the Saudi Interior Ministry.

Over the past several years, the government has announced that it has foiled several domestic terrorist plots but has provided few details. This time, the news that almost all of the men were Saudi and that the supposed plot was to have taken place during a religious holiday caused widespread consternation.

The statement, issued through the official Saudi Press Agency, came two days after Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a ministry spokesman, said security forces had foiled a terrorist plot “aimed at harming security and damaging the hajj.”

The press agency did not say whether the arrests were linked to the announcement on Friday of the foiled plot, but it noted that 27 of the 28 men arrested were Saudi citizens, and that they were part of a “deviant group,” a common official euphemism for Al Qaeda. The two statements during the weekend at the end of the hajj were widely reported in local news media.
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American government legal cases against alleged terrorists have taken another hit as Switzerland cleared Yassin Al-Qadi from links to Al-Qaeda and has unfrozen his bank accounts. The US government has had great difficulty in making its cases stick in US courts where several cases have ended in acquittals or hung juries, as well as in foreign courts where prosecutors have relied on US-provided information.

With understandable concern immediately after 9/11 that such an attack not be repeated, it appears to me that governments spread too wide a net at times, relying on partial information, similar names of individuals, and information taken without any context or possibility of verification. While this is understandable—who, after all wants to be responsible for another 9/11 because he made a mistake?—it has the serious downside of bringing into question all similar cases, even those with rock-solid evidence.

Yassin Al-Qadi Exonerated
P.K. Abdul Ghafour

JEDDAH, 24 December 2007 — The six-year-long saga of Saudi businessman Yassin Abdullah Al-Qadi, who was accused by US authorities of funding terrorism, has ended with the Swiss federal prosecutor exonerating him of all charges.

According to a report carried by Al-Watan newspaper yesterday, judicial authorities in Switzerland have closed the case against Al-Qadi after investigations that lasted for six years and two months.

The judgment issued by a court in Geneva on Dec. 13 said it had not found any basis for the accusations leveled against Al-Qadi. “This statement in Swiss law means clear exoneration,” the paper said quoting a lawyer for the businessman.

The lawyer, who requested anonymity, said the court verdict would lead to unfreezing Al-Qadi’s accounts in Swiss banks and the Geneva-based Faisal Bank.

According to the lawyer, the American accusation against Al-Qadi was based on two facts. First, a picture of Al-Qadi that was taken while he was in Afghanistan in the early 1990s and second, his transfer of $1.25 million to an organization that constructed a student hostel in Yemen, the Arabic daily said.

Al-Qadi, who was listed by the FBI among individuals allegedly linked to the Al-Qaeda organization, said the inclusion of his name in the list without any evidence was tantamount to a human rights violation. “I don’t have any connection, be it close or distant, with Al-Qaeda or its leader Bin Laden, either directly or indirectly,” Al-Qadi said in a previous statement.
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Was it three million or only two million? This Asharq Alawsat piece notes that international media have been coming up with their own figures, but the Saudi Central Department of Statistics has put the number a just under two-and-a-half million.

Hajj Media Reports and Conflicting Figures
Ayman al Khaddaf
Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat – There have been a number of discrepancies within media reports on this year’s Hajj pilgrimage regarding the number of pilgrims taking part. The total number of pilgrims according to some media reports has reached three million. This issue has gained much attention from correspondents covering the religious event.

Despite that the Saudi Central Department of Statistics had announced Wednesday that the total number of pilgrims from this year’s Hajj reached 2,454,325, (1,707,814 from outside of Saudi Arabia and 746,511 from within the kingdom), a state of confusion within the media prevailed over the past few days.

In one Gulf newspaper, the headline read, “Here I am Lord, here I am: Repeated Three Million Pilgrims,” and this was the largest figure used in the media.

On one of the satellite channels, reporters differed over the number of pilgrims with one claiming that it exceeded two and a half million whilst another argued that there were no more than two million pilgrims.

This annual estimate of the total number of Hajj pilgrims is a statistical crisis for reporters with over 180 international, Arab and local media organizations within the holy areas. These organizations rely on official figures that are announced from the beginning of the pilgrimage until the day of “Woqouf” [standing] on the plain of Mount Arafat that takes place on the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah and that signifies the completion of the pilgrimage.
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