Here’s an interesting piece in Asharq Alawsat from Diana Mukkaled on the current disruptions occurring at Islam on Line, an ostensibly moderate Islamic website. Sorting out the problems is taking place behind closed doors, she says, as various groups try to define Islam, moderation, extremism, and jihad. She argues that these are extremely important questions, so important that they need to be argued and answered in public, with full transparency.
IslamOnline: What Moderation
Diana MukkaledThe future of the IslamOnline website [IOL] remains unclear. The assurances made by the website’s administration, as well as those by its spiritual guide, Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi, have failed to dispel the ambiguities that have arisen as a result of the latest crisis. The IOL staff staged a sit-in at the IOL offices in Egypt in protest against unfair managerial decisions that they described as unjust. This protest was aimed at the al-Balagh Cultural Society, which is the Qatar-based financial sponsor of IOL.
Analysis on the background and causes behind the crisis at the world’s most popular Islamic website vary. Some believe that behind the crisis is an Egyptian-Qatari dispute over the management of the website. While others believe the crisis is due to the disturbance over the site taking a more hard-line and conservative approach. A third group even believes that this may have something to do with the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the US has played an undisclosed role in this crisis.
Whatever the case may be, this is a crisis that raises a question that relates to all aspects of Islam in the post-9/11 era; what kind of media for what kind of Islam after more than a decade of crises where politicians, philosophers, and activists have explored and analyzed everything connected to Islam to the point that the media is leaning towards irrational fear rather than towards research and knowledge?
It goes without saying that we live in a world that has grown more obsessed about religion and its interconnection with politics. Perhaps Islam, following the spread of armed Jihadist groups, has become the chief but not the sole subject of such controversy. Religion has become a global obsession as religious groups and sects have started to bring all their concerns to the internet. The internet, which is the most important invention in modern times, has allowed for the revival of religion. Religion is no longer about outdated ceremonies and tales that have no connection to their surroundings. The internet has increased the opportunity for there to be meetings and dialogue between groups, which we never imagined before and the internet has also contributed to the isolation of groups and trends that have become overly focused and centred on their websites.
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Saudi Gazette runs several articles on anti-terrorism efforts in Saudi Arabia, focusing on the ‘Al-Munasaha’ rehabilitation program. The piece notes that those enrolled in the program—arrested for attempts to take part in, or taking part in, or providing support for terrorist activities—had a very poor knowledge of Islam. The were seduced into their activities by rhetoric that picked certain aspects of the religion while avoiding others. Addressing that ignorance is one of the keys to the program’s success, the article says.
Al-Munasaha detainees accuse themselves of being ‘infidels’
MADINA – Abdul Salam Bin Salem Al-Suhaimi, a Madina coordinator on the Al-Munasaha Committee which runs the terrorist rehabilitation program targeting “deviant thought”, has said that detainees in the program not only accuse others of being “infidels”, but also themselves. He also revealed how some persons in the program have turned their backs on terrorism after their experiences abroad.
In an interview with Al-Madina Arabic daily this week, Al-Suhaimi, who is also a teacher at Madina’s Islamic University, gave details of the program’s progress and further insights into the thinking of individuals enrolled, saying that some detainees accused themselves “at least once a day” of being infidels “because they noticed in their superficial thought contradictory views concerning Islam”.
“Some detainees used to swear by God that they had never heard of some Islamic rulings by which the Al-Munasaha program has made them aware of their misunderstandings and the errors of their ways,” Al-Suhaimi said.
“Some of them were unable to differentiate between the moral side of jihad and their violent methods because they didn’t have the necessary knowledge of Islam.”
According to Al-Suhaimi, this lack of knowledge enabled them to permit for themselves “things forbidden in Islam, such as lying, cheating, betrayal and failing to meet commitments”.
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Another piece takes a brief look at the Al-Munasaha program’s workings:
The last deplores the way Saudi media are ill-prepared to talk about terrorism, covering the splashy news, but unable to really get to the core of the issues:
I came across an interesting looking blog/news site, Arabianomics. It covers a pretty wide range of things—as economic activity is a pretty wide range itself. Here’s a sample:
Drilling for Water in Saudi Arabia?
In perhaps the most comprehensive two-part news article on water and agriculture in Saudi Arabia, Samiha Shafy in Der Spiegel discusses the Kingdom’s efforts at securing water for its growing population and “recognizing that agriculture, at least the way it is practiced today, could ruin the country.” But Saudi Arabia must keep in mind that water found deep below the dunes there could only be a temporary fix at best.
Shafy hits it on the head:
“In Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, there are pressing, existential questions to be addressed. How much water is left in underground aquifers? And what is the best way to use the precious resource to ensure that the country will be able to supply its growing population with water for as long as possible?”
The crude reality is that the only way for the Kingdom to sustain its impressive growth of late is to have a comprehensive water strategy, and the most important part of this is in understanding that the water problem is intimately tied with agriculture. It seems that the Saudis get that part of it quite well:
“In the future, the Ministry plans to monitor water consumption on farms in real time. “If we incorporate this data into our new groundwater models,” says Al-Saud, “we can use it to develop a comprehensive water strategy, which could also serve as a model for other countries.”
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Pressure, especially from the Saudi media, continues to build to set a minimum age for women to marry in Saudi Arabia. Arab News reports that Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan is getting behind the campaign of ‘Sayidaty’ magazine to change Saudi culture and law.
Minimum age for marriage urged
FATIMA SIDIYA | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: A sheikh has urged the government to implement a minimum age for marriage.
Shiekh Abdul Muhsin Al-Obaikan wants to avoid cases of very young girls getting married to men many years their senior.
The sheikh has also pledged his support for the “No to Minor Marriages” campaign run by Arab News’ sister publication, Sayidaty magazine.
Al-Obaikan said that forcing a young girl to marry nullifies the marriage because it does not fulfill one of the major rules of Islamic marriage — the agreement of the girl.
The campaign has already received support from princesses, human rights activists, Shoura Council members, lawyers and the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The magazine’s desk manager in Jeddah, Muna Siraj, said the campaign is different from others organized on the Internet.
“The strength of our campaign is due to Sayidaty being an establishment that has built trust over the years and it is now able to move a step further by putting pressure on the public to reduce these marriages,” said Siraj.
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An amusing error: Thea article notes correctly that ‘puberty’ is not the same as ‘adultery’. Uhm, no, it certainly isn’t! The word you were looking for, however, was ‘adulthood’, and the parallel is also true: they are not the same.
Al-Bidaya TV is happy to throw Sheikh Yousef Al-Ahmed under the bus. The Sheikh, notorious for calling for the demolition of the Grand Mosque in order to build separate floors for women and for criticizing the co-ed nature of KAUST, has gone too far. The TV channel says that his views are his own, not theirs (but I assume that the viewers are the channel’s). This piece from Arab News says that Al-Bidaya is going to avoid using the Sheikh in future broadcasts, so perhaps the channel can take the hit in viewership.
TV channel distances itself from controversial preacher
RIYADH: The Al-Bidaya television channel has distanced itself from the views of the controversial preacher Yousuf Al-Ahmed, who attacked the Kingdom’s educational programs.
In a recent program aired by the television channel, the former professor of Islamic jurisprudence at the Imam Mohammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh strongly criticized the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology which opened last year and the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program, which sends Saudi students abroad for higher studies.
In a statement published in Al-Watan daily on Thursday, director general of Al-Bidaya Abdul Aziz Al-Oraifi said the channel did not condone Al-Ahmed’s views.
“Those are his personal views and baseless,” he said.
Al-Oraifi also affirmed his channel’s support for all developmental and social projects in the Kingdom.
“The policy of the channel is social enlightenment. In light of the criticisms made by Sheikh Yousuf Al-Ahmed and his video clips online, it is apparent that he has betrayed and exploited the trust of the TV anchors who hosted the show,” he added.
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According to the UK’s The Sun, terrorists are putting explosive-laden breast implants in some of their female cadre. The report—here repeated by FOX News—says that some men are also being fitted with buttock implants. Both, apparently, as invisible to current airport screening methods. It seems that airport security lines are going to be even less fun than they are now.
Truly, about the only fully secure air travel would be to have all passengers striped naked, then gassed into unconsciousness for the duration of the flight. Since the bodies could be stacked like cord wood, the airlines might even make a profit on it. The days when flight attendants all had to be nurses might be coming back…
Terrorists Could Use Explosives in Breast Implants
to Crash Planes, Experts WarnPlastic surgeons using explosive-laden breast implants in homicide bombers could be a new terror tactic that current airport scanning methods may miss.
Female homicide bombers are being fitted with exploding breast implants which are almost impossible to detect, British spies have reportedly discovered.
The shocking new Al Qaeda tactic involves radical doctors inserting the explosives in women’s breasts during plastic surgery — making them “virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines.”
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Arab News reports on Riyadh, the way the city is growing and studies undertaken to try to manage that growth. The city now spreads over 176 sq.km. (68 sq.mi.). Surprisingly, 19% of the city’s area is still dedicated to agriculture. I’m aware of date farms in the area, as well as some small ‘truck farms’, but had no idea they were so extensive.
The study reports that health, cemetery, and cultural land areas are being reduced as commercial use–housing and businesses–expands.
City development authority maps land use in Riyadh
RODOLFO ESTIMO JR. | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: The Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) has announced that it has completed a study on land use in the Kingdom’s capital city.
The study, which was conducted with the help of satellite images, focused on the size of unused land, land under development as well as unexplored land and rest houses, which accounted for half of the total land area in and around the capital.
According to the study, land used in the city’s developed areas accounted for 29 percent, followed by agricultural land at 19 percent.
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Over the past several months, Saudi security forces have rounded up 113 alleged terrorists, about half of them Yemeni. Oil facilities are said to have been their target, though suicide bombers were among their number. Most of the arrests were made near the border with Yemen, an indication that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is still a serious threat. Reuters’ AlertNet has this story:
Riyadh says arrests militants planning oil attacks
Souhail KaramRIYADH, March 24 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had arrested 113 al Qaeda militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world’s top oil exporter.
The interior ministry said its sweep, among the biggest in several years, netted 58 suspected Saudi militants and 52 from Yemen, which jumped to the forefront of Western security concerns after a failed attack on a U.S.-bound jet in December.
The militants, who were also from Bangladesh, Eritrea and Somalia, were backed by al Qaeda in Yemen, it added in a statement, without giving the dates of the arrests.
Henry Wilkinson, a counter-terrorism expert at Janusian security consultants in London, said the arrests showed the Saudi oil sector remained a priority target for al Qaeda.
Saudi security was making it difficult for militants to operate in the kingdom but counter-terrorist activity was having little impact on al Qaeda’s regional arm, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), in Yemen, he said.
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Arab News also reports that the arrests were composed of three groups, one with 101 members and two groups of six.
FOX News—which, incidentally, is being called an ‘arm of the Saudi PR department’ by the far right!—reported last night that the arrests were a follow-on of an earlier sweep. Information gathered from those arrests, both from detainees and their computers, was used to track these groups. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to that broadcast.
Natural (or manmade) disasters seem to attract fraud. Here, Saudi Gazette/Okaz report that some 85 people will be facing trial for their false attempts to gain financially from last year’s flooding in Jeddah. It doesn’t speak well for the Saudi public, but then, no fraud does for anyone. I wonder if there will be any statistical report on the types of frauds and who it was that attempted them.
Flood compensation fraudsters to face trial within days
Adnan ShabrawiJEDDAH – A total of 85 people will face charges including fraud, forgery and impersonation in connection with their alleged false attempts to get compensation after last year’s devastating floods.
The Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution has transferred the files of the 85 members of the public to the Jeddah Police Department for further criminal procedures. The 85 were released on bail, according to sources.
The Attorney General will file the charges against the people. Their trial is set to start within a few days, sources said.
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The Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs asserts the primacy of the state when it comes to legitimating jihad. Saudi Gazette reports on the Minister’s statement that undertaking jihad without state sanction is terrorism. That’s a pretty absolute declaration and I suspect it will draw some serious push-back from groups like Al-Qaeda.
Al-Sheikh: Jihad without ruler’s order is terrorism
Taleb Bin Mahfouzand Khaled Al-ShalahiMADINA/JEDDAH – Sheikh Saleh Bin Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, Minister of Islamic Affairs, has said that “Jihad without the order from the Muslim leader distorts the image of Jihad, and turns it into terrorism, killing, destruction and sabotage”.
“Shariah lauds compassion, justice, mercy, kindness, patience and prevention of corruption and denounces corruption and the killing of innocent people,” Al-Sheikh said.
“There are different types of terrorism such as attacking and intimidating people, killing people intentionally, encroaching on others’ property, violating women’s honor, breaching the privacy of homes, and corrupting minds through drugs, misguidance and ideological terrorism,” he said.
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It seems that international tourism, not solely based on Islamic-based tourists, is finally starting up in Saudi Arabia. Arab News reports on the impressions of a number of tourists who arrived in Jeddah aboard the ‘Luxurious Crystal’ cruise ship. Those impressions strike me as mostly polite comments. They don’t demonstrate a lot of context, but I guess that’s to be expected from general tourists. I do find it a bit annoying, however, that in the illustrative photo that accompanies the article, all the women seem to be wearing abayas. I do hope that’s not a mandatory condition imposed upon tourists.
Jeddah’s blend of old and new wows Western tourists
GALAL FAKKAR | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: A large group of foreign tourists comprising more than 630 men and women from 18 countries are currently visiting the Kingdom. They toured Jeddah’s historical area on Tuesday and were given a warm welcome by Saudis.
The tourists, who arrived by Crystal Serenity, an international tourist cruise ship, also visited the Abdul Rauf Khalil Museum, the Corniche, the camel market in south Jeddah and the fish market. They are accompanied by guides who speak different languages.
The group includes tourists from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Holland, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.
The tourists expressed their surprise at the tremendous progress achieved by Saudi Arabia and the colorful mix of old and new cultures in many parts of Balad where they saw modern skyscrapers standing shoulder to shoulder with old buildings.
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In its scant coverage, Saudi Gazette features a photo of the ‘Luxurious Crystal’, which looks pretty big.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010032467288
Sometimes, the opacity of the Saudi media can be frustrating. Sometimes, it can cause more damage than a straight-up, factual report. This story carried by Saudi Gazette/Okaz is an example. Of course, no names are used in the article—it alleges moral turpitude on the part of a government official and a woman and her daughters. The details of exactly what the official is being accused of are left to the readers’ imaginations. Not good for the miscreant; not good for the women involved. People do have a tendency to think the worst, so I guess that it’s best that at least the women’s names aren’t provided. This is not helpful, though, to understanding just what’s going on in the Kingdom and how it deals with corrupt officials.
Official jailed for ‘exploitation’ of woman and daughters
Hussein HazzaziJEDDAH – The Jeddah Summary Court sentenced a public servant Sunday to six months in prison and 150 lashes on charges of “fraud and deception” related to his “immoral exploitation” of a poor woman and her daughters.
The details of the official’s immoral behavior have not been disclosed.
The official will receive an additional 80 lashes for insulting the plaintiff in court. The man, however, said he intends to appeal the verdict because he is “innocent.”
The police arrested the man following a report from the 45-year-old woman, to the Al-Jamea’ Police Station, accusing him of “exploiting the fact he was a government official to deceive her poor family.”
The police at the time referred the case to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution that turned it over to the Summary Court.
The woman, who lives with her four children, said she has been suffering financially since her husband died and his family took all their belongings.
“He got close to the family promising that he would help us and expedite complicated government procedures, but he deceived us,” the woman said, without disclosing more details of the “immoral exploitation” she had been subjected to.
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