While Saudi Arabia may continue to look to foreign suppliers for its highest tech military equipment, it also continues to develop its indigenous capabilities for manufacture. Arab News reports that soon, 70% of Saudi military hardware will be produce within the country. Adding to its existing capabilities in small arms and ammunition, it will be taking on higher tech, including fighter aircraft assembly. Also of note, a majority of the workers in these plants are Saudi nationals.
Kingdom to manufacture 70% of military hardware locally
P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday its plans to produce most of the military hardware and spare parts within the Kingdom by transferring foreign technology.
“More than 70 percent of military equipment can be produced locally,” said Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation.
In a statement after presiding over a meeting of the central committee for local manufacturing, Prince Khaled said a special department would be established for local manufacturing and the transfer of technology at the armed forces. He said the committee would report directly to the minister of defense and aviation.
He emphasized the government’s plan to provide greater investment opportunities for the private sector in the military manufacturing sector. “We have set out certain regulations to make sure the equipment and spare parts produced in the Kingdom are equal in quality to imported products,” he said.
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The Saudi Consultative (Shoura) Council has passed a draft law protecting the rights of children, reports Arab News. The article notes that Saudi Arabia is a signatory—with reservations—of the UN’s 1996 Convention on the Rights of the Child and that the Convention has force of law within the Kingdom.
The article, unfortunately, does not give details of the 26 articles contained within the Shoura Council’s draft law. It mentions several areas covered, but does not mention the one about which most non-Saudis are concerned: child marriage. Does this law establish a lower age limit on marriage? I hope so.
Shoura passes bill on rights of children
MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: The Shoura Council approved a draft law protecting children’s rights at its 74th regular session held under the chairmanship of its Vice President Bandar Hajjar on Monday.
Shoura Council Secretary-General Muhammad Al-Ghamdi said the house approved the draft on recommendations presented by the council’s social and family welfare committee.
The draft law, which includes 26 articles, outlines the rights of children and includes programs aimed at raising awareness about rights among children.
The law has been drafted according to Shariah and offers maximum protection to children against abuse and negligence, said Al-Ghamdi, adding that clauses are based on Islamic principles, the Kingdom’s current regulations and relevant international agreements that Saudi Arabia is a signatory of.
The draft includes clauses protecting children from physical and mental abuse, neglect, sexual exploitation, labor, trafficking, and being sold cigarettes and narcotics. It also emphasizes that all children should be looked after by their parents as well as their neighbors.
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Unlike most countries—with exceptions—the US does not have a single trade or commerce ministry that handles all exports. Rather, the individual states also take responsibility for promoting their local industries abroad. This time around, the northern state of Minnesota is sponsoring a trade mission to Saudi Arabia. This Arab News article gives the details. The companies mentioned in the report all seem to be focused on bio-medicine, though that may just be what attracted the reporter’s attention.
US trade mission visits Riyadh
GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: Several government organizations, universities and private firms of the Kingdom have evinced keen interest in cooperating with a group of five major American companies offering a range of innovative products and services in different fields.
A business mission composed of the companies’ owners and top executives has had a series of meetings with local organizations recently to find out ways and means to forge closer ties and launch joint business projects in respective fields.
This US business mission, the first of its kind from Minnesota, was organized by BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, a leading non-profit industry association and an organization of people representing Minnesota companies, academia, and government.
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Arab News offers an explanation of Saudi policy on granting political asylum to leaders in a hurry to find a new home.
As much as I like the country, is would not be my first choice as a place to live, even if I were being chased out of my home country. But then, I’m not Muslim. As the editorial notes, non-Muslims have not sought sanctuary there, preferring other places. That’s entirely understandable, I think.
The paper notes that the foremost reason for granting asylum is to stop bloodshed. I think that a worthy goal, though others may differ…
Political asylum
ARAB NEWSSAUDI Arabia’s decision to grant asylum to the ousted Tunisian leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali has attracted considerable comment, even criticism, elsewhere, notably in the West.
In fact, like the UK, France and a number of other countries, Saudi Arabia has a long and honorable history of providing asylum to refugees and exiles. Some have been scholars such as Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi of Syria, others political figures such as Uganda’s Idi Amin or former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. There have been Muslim radicals from Egypt and members of the royal family from Yemen. There have been exiles from Palestine, from Somalia, from Iraq and Chad. Reputations have varied but all have been allowed in on one overriding condition — that they give up all political involvement during their stay in the Kingdom.
It is also true that all have been Muslims. But that is not because Saudi Arabia has a “Muslims-only” policy when granting asylum. It is simply that there have been no non-Muslim exiles seeking sanctuary in the Kingdom. Muslim exiles choose to come because the Kingdom is the home of the Two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madinah. Non-Muslim exiles usually head elsewhere — to places such as the US, UK, France, Switzerland or Sweden.
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I will note, that although this editorial points out the other countries, such as the UK, are noted for their asylum policies which welcome many deposed political figures, Saudi Arabia has complained bitterly about some of the British decisions. In some of the cases, I think the Saudi government correct and the British government too lenient; in others, no. But that’s the thing about politics, whether domestic, international, good, or bad: people are going to have different ideas about just what is what.
Just to note in passing this article from Asharq Alawsat on Saudi Arabia’s history of offering sanctuary to Muslim leaders who, for various reasons (particularly their personal safety) have to flee their own countries.
When it comes to marriages in the KSA, it seems that there is no complication too bizarre. Here, as Saudi Gazette/Okaz report, a cousin is able to convince a court to nullify a marriage contract on the basis of ‘family origin’. What business is it of a cousin to stop a marriage?
The woman—a widow after 20 years of marriage—is working through the National Society for Human Rights to get a judicial verdict overturned. She is claiming, correctly, that there is nothing in Shariah law that requires any sort of pedigree in marriages. She states that she has complied with her late father’s wish that she marry a ‘pious’ man, but that her cousin (and a court) are interfering by imposing new and illegitimate conditions.
It would be useful for senior clerics in Saudi Arabia to state, unambiguously, that ‘family origin’ or tribal identification are not proper conditions to be considered when assessing the acceptability of a marriage.
Clash of origins ends marriage before it starts
KHALED AL-JABRIMADINA: The National Society for Human Rights branch in Madina will submit a comprehensive report to its chairman after the Madina Court issued a verdict nullifying a proposed marriage because the man’s family origin is incompatible with that of the woman he wished to marry.
A judge revoked the marriage contract last year after the woman’s cousin lodged a complaint with the court that contested the compatibility of her intended husband’s family origin, said Sharf Al-Grafi, a Society member in Madina.
The judge suggested to the man that he revoke the marriage contract on condition that the dowry he paid be refunded to him, but he rejected the suggestion and argued that the court verdict has no grounds in Shariah, Al-Grafi added.
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Saudi Gazette/Okaz report on new studies out of the Arabian Gulf University, located in Manama, Bahrain, into genetic problems in Arab Gulf States. The study identified over 1,000 diseases, passed on through reproduction, that afflict the region. Intermarriage—which represents 50%-60% of all marriages in the region—is considered the major factor in the prevalence of the diseases. While some countries, as Saudi Arabia, require pre-marital testing for genetic diseases, it is not at all clear that everyone is tested or that they take the appropriate actions in light of test results.
Genetic mutation causes high blood cholesterol among Arabs
KHALID AL-BALAHIDIDAMMAM: A scientific team from the Arabian Gulf University has discovered a unique genetic mutation linked to hereditary high blood cholesterol among Arabs.
It also discovered a mechanism used by bacteria in the environment to crack and catabolize aromatics compounds.
Muhammad Al-Dahmani, Director of the university’s Biotechnology Program, said other new discoveries by the program research teams include the development of three biological compound medications that help to treat several conditions of cancer, hepatitis and multiple sclerosis.
Speaking at a recent press conference at a university in Manama, Bahrain, he said the discoveries of the compound medications would be an incentive for the Arab world to focus on technology transfer to produce this kind of medication and sell it at prices reasonable for everyone.
… According to available statistics, there are more than 1,000 hereditary diseases spread in Arab communities, he said, adding that he thinks the actual number is probably 3,000.
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Tunisian President Ben Ali has turned up in Saudi Arabia, Arab News reports, after fleeing mass demonstrations that resulted in hundreds of deaths on the streets of Tunis.
Saudi Arabia has a history of offering asylum to Muslim politicians who are forced to flee their own countries. These include such notorious individuals as Idi Amin and a reported offer to Mullah Omar of the Taliban (which allegation the Kingdom denied), to former Pakistani President Musharraf PM Nawaz Sharif [Oops... the KSA offered Musharraf asylum, but he declined to take it]. It seems that a Muslim leader in political trouble can find an abode in the KSA.
Just why this is remains a bit of a puzzle to many. Several of these leaders have not just gotten themselves into political hot water, but were, by most definitions, outrageous criminals. It seems that in these cases, Saudi authorities are willing to leave the judgment to God and give the politicians the benefit of the doubt. This, though, runs quite contrary to the way Saudi Arabia seems to treat its own citizens. Saudi nationals have to watch their behavior in the most trivial of events—as in wearing or even selling Valentine’s Day frou-frou—as the assumption is that they’re up to no good. We needn’t go into the way authorities such as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice assume that two individuals of the opposite sex must be looking to engage in sex if they’re left alone together for minutes.
Former Tunisian president now in Jeddah
JEDDAH: Tunisia’s former president and his family arrived in the Kingdom on Saturday morning, a day after leaving his country amid an uprising, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.In a statement, the SPA said the royal court has welcomed President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali to stay in the Kingdom for an unspecified period of time based on appreciation of the “exceptional circumstances” Tunisia is going through.
“The Kingdom welcomed the arrival of the President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family,” the statement said.
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A few days ago, Asharq Alawsat ran this piece with further information about the attempted assassination of Pr. Mohammed bin Naif, Assistant Minister of Interior last year. It is based on interviews with a defector from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Jabir al-Fayfi [I've also seen his name transcribed as al-Fifi]. Al-Fayfi states that while killing the prince would have been a bonus, the real purpose of the attempt was to sow distrust of would-be defectors among Saudi authorities. If Saudi security personnel believed they might be killed through accepting defectors, the thinking went, then they would back off their heretofore successful plan of inducing them to surrender.
There are some points al-Fayfi raises that contradict earlier reports and clarify other details. For instance, al-Fayfi claims that the would-be assassin, Abdullah al-Asiri, was wearing an explosive belt. Earlier reports suggested that al-Asiri had secreted the bomb inside his rectum. Too, he asserts that al-Asiri was responsible for detonating the bomb himself, that it was not triggered by a third party via cell phone as earlier speculation had it.
The article also notes that al-Fayfi played an important role in catching the ‘ink jet bombs’ that roiled international security services late last year.
Al Qaeda defector details failed assassination plot
Turki Al-SaheilRiyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat – Former member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Jabir al-Fayfi, revealed new and important information about the failed assassination attempt against Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs Prince Mohammed Bin Naif in August 2009.
Jabir al-Fayfi, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who only joined the Al Qaeda organization after he was repatriated to Saudi Arabia in 2006, recently surrendered himself to Saudi authorities. He played, what has been described, as a key role in uncovering the 2010 Cargo Plane Bombs plot which saw explosive devices being discovered on Cargo planes bound from Yemen to the US.
In his latest televised interview, al-Fayfi talked about the attempted assassination of Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs Prince Mohammed Bin Naif, who is the senior counter-terrorist figure in the kingdom. This suicide operation was carried out by Abdullah al-Asiri, an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula member who was meeting with the prince under the pretext of renouncing Al Qaeda ideology and surrendering himself to the Saudi authorities. Al-Asiri blew himself up in the vicinity of the prince, however nobody else was killed in this attack and Prince Mohammed Bin Naif escaped with only light injuries.
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Saudi Gazette/Okaz have a couple of pieces about Saudi schools. The first is disconcerting; the second, encouraging.
Saudi society, particularly when it comes to women, is extremely conservative and straitlaced. That means that anything a woman (or adolescent girl) does that it outside the bounds of ‘propriety’, exposes her to blackmail. That is apparently a serious issue with Saudi schoolgirls as the Ministry of Education is setting up telephone hotlines to deal with the issue. The Ministry is asserting its sole authority over such hotlines, which suggest that others, perhaps non-profit organizations, had seen the need and tried to fill the void.
The article also mentions in passing that the Ministry will be working on developing sports-for-children programs in the schools. While boys have almost always had access to school athletics, girls have not. Many believe there is something un-Islamic about girls’ participating in sports, even in sex-segregated settings. I’m a bit encouraged by the use of the word ‘children’ rather than ‘boys’, but that may be only an artifact of translation.
Ministry orders measures to combat schoolgirl blackmail
SAEED AL-BAHISDAMMAM: The Ministry of Education has instructed its regional administrations to open public telephone hotlines for reports of attempted blackmail against schoolgirls.
The ministry has also brought all committees dedicated to combating the blackmail of schoolgirls under the supervision of its own administrations and offices, and said it will not accept any activities or schemes related to combating blackmail unless under its supervision.
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The other piece is really just a photo caption, but it’s about elections inside what appears to be a middle school in Najran. The students (boys) are taking part in an election for a school activities board. It’s important that children grasp the idea of elections if they are to grow up to elect local or national figures. Now, an interesting question will be to see if the students demand accountability of those they elect!
Children at Khaled Bin Waleed School in Najran conduct elections Wednesday for the selection of a school activities board. The process was overseen by officials from the regional Education Administration.
Here’s a ‘Yikes!’ article from Arab News. It’s about how some Saudi men, taking second or third wives, never quite get around to telling their first wives about it. Something tells me that these men are ignoring that little voice most of us have in our heads—conscience—that alerts us to when we’re doing something wrong, at least wrong for ourselves. While multiple marriages are condoned by Saudi and religious law, they aren’t for everyman. Men who have to deceive their wives clearly have a sense that there’s something wrong in their actions. How they can imagine that a) they can keep the secret and b) that anything good can result from its discovery are questions left to others to answer…
Lies, deceit not enough for many to hide their multiple marriages
DIANA AL-JASSEM | ARAB NEWSPublished: Jan 14, 2011 00:14 Updated: Jan 14, 2011 00:14
JEDDAH: Most husbands find it hard to announce the news that they have taken a second wife, despite the fact such marriages are a way of life for some Arab and Muslim families. They try their best to hide them for as long as possible. Some succeed. Others fail.
Hiding the second marriage requires planning and an ability to lie. Luck is also important. There are stories of couples who have been affected by second marriages where some husbands were not clever enough in covering their tracks, while others simply did not have enough luck.
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Here’s a link to an absolutely fascinating graphic via Google. The chart shows life expectancies against fertility rate (how many children a woman will bear) from 1960 to 2008 for each country of the world. The size of the population is indicated by the size of the circle. Disturbing, because they are so visually apparent, are the countries in which life expectancies go zipping off to the left due to political and military turmoil.
Saudi life expectancy grows continuously throughout the period, with the fertility rate starting to drop around 1964. Compare it to whatever country you like, but the change is very significant.
Here’s another chart showing the statistics for the Arabian Peninsula as a whole. It makes it very clear that Yemen is the odd-man-out.
You can spend hours playing around with this chart. I applaud whomever came up with it because the graphical presentation is utterly clear and the information it contains extremely important.