Arab News runs this interesting report on a new draft law being put forth by the Shoura Council. It would permit marriages between Saudis—both men and women!—and citizens of other Gulf Cooperation Council member states. What the article doesn’t address, and I suspect the proposed law doesn’t mention, is whether it would permit marriages between mixed Sunni and Shi’a couples. The article states that the reasoning behind the permission is that both Saudis and GCC countries share the ‘same religion’. Well, most of the world considers both Sunnism and Shi’ism to be parts of the same religion, but I’m guessing that it won’t be parsed that way by the Saudi imams.

Shoura proposal allows Saudis to marry Gulf citizens
MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: The Shoura Council on Monday discussed the draft marriage law put forward by a special committee appointed by the council.

The committee, which met 18 times, made a proposal containing 12 articles that outlined the social, cultural, environmental and religious impact on Saudi men marrying non-Saudi women and Saudi women marrying non–Saudis.

The proposal allows Saudi men and women to marry nationals from the Gulf countries since they belong to the same religion and are supported with identical cultures.
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Arab News follows up on the story of a woman arrested in the Eastern Province for driving herself in a car, saying she was re-arrested. It’s interesting to see that her lawyer is saying that as she drove herself spontaneously, i.e., not as part of a planned protest, her actions are not illegal. Had they been part of a protest, they would have been illegal as protests—without a license—are criminal in themselves. And since it’s highly unlikely that anyone could get such a permit, demonstrations and public protests are all but illegal.

There is considerable pressure building in Saudi Arabia around the issue of women’s driving. Good arguments, based on necessity and economics, as well as those based on the actual, historic behavior of the estimable characters of the Quran are being made. These undercut the anti-driving sentiments that are purely cultural. It’s not easy changing a culture, but the only way it changes is from within. Individual Saudi women are going to have to get behind the wheel and damn the consequences. If enough of them do it, then the culture will change.

It’s an indication of how hard that will be, though, in light of the calls of anti-driving activists to physically beat women drivers. That is unlawful, under both religious and civil law. How the government responds is going to be very important. International human rights organizations, of course, would be upset. But it is the upset that it would cause within Saudi society that is most important.

Adventure behind wheel lands Al-Sharif in custody again
FATIMA SIDIYA & WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWS

Amid heated debate, father arrives in EP as pro and con campaigns for women driving takes the front seat

JEDDAH: Manal Al-Sharif, the Saudi woman who drove her car in Dhahran, Eastern Province last Thursday, was detained again on Sunday, a source told Arab News.

Al-Sharif was first arrested on Saturday after uploading a video on YouTube in which she talked about the challenge of having to rely on drivers.

Asked if Al-Sharif’s arrest was legal, Saudi lawyer Adnan Al-Saleh, who is representing her, said since she did not commit a major violation, she could be released on bail.

“However, police have the right to detain people for one or two days for investigations. If police do not find any evidence against the accused, he or she should be released on bail.”
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As I’ve noted before, Saudi media tends to steer away from ‘naming names’ when it publishes articles about n’er-do-wells. Even criminals avoid having their names cited in the press due to concerns that the shame that would accrue to them by the fact of publication would splash over to innocent family members. New media laws, though, make it exceptionally difficult to even hint about identification.

Saudi Gazette gives us a sterling example of how personal sensitivities and perceived affronts to ‘dignity’ can work to stifle the media and free expression. The story is about a group of (unnamed) sheikhs who take umbrage at a newspaper report that mentions (unnamed) sheiks of history behaving badly. Disparaging anonymous people in history must clearly mean disparaging their contemporary counterparts, right? Right?

If one’s self-defined perception of what is an insult is to be a matter for the courts, then there is simply no end to litigation. Everyone will find something by which he can be insulted, if he looks hard enough. To avoid the possibility of an unintended insult, the media has one, sure-fire solution: shut their doors, not their mouths. No one, including the tender-skinned sheiks, will be better off for that.

Sheikhs sue columnist over ‘insolent article’

AL-BAHA: A group of tribal sheikhs have taken a complaint to the ministries of Interior and Culture and Information against a local newspaper columnist for alleged “insolence” in his writings.

Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported that the sheikhs from Al-Baha, who hope to prosecute the unnamed writer under the terms of the Press and Publications Law, cite their status as “social symbols” of “honorable positions throughout history” and say that it is “important to clarify the status of sheikhs with the leaders”.

The group, Al-Hayat said, seeks punishment for “any insolence against men of the state” and “willful ignorance of the standing of sheikhs”.

One sheikh who wished not to be named told the newspaper that the offending column contained “disparaging” remarks against tribal sheikhs. The unnamed columnist was reported as writing that “sheikhs were in times gone by absolute masters whose unquestionable rulings were based on tyranny and deceiving people out of their money”.

His column further described them as ruling the members of their tribes by fear with an “iron fist” and preying on victims to make money.
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Yesterday was supposed, by some Christians, to have initiated the end of the world with the Rapture, a calling to heaven of believers. It appears not to have happened.

But planning for the end of time, eschatology, isn’t just a Christian concern, as reports of a sharp political rift within Iran also demonstrated.

I’ve come across a report from INEGMA, an Arab strategic defense and security concern that operates out of Abu Dhabi and Beirut. It addresses a question some have been asking about Iran and its nuclear aspirations. The link below goes to the 16-page PDF report on INEGMA’s website. It addresses the issue Mahdism in general and specifically in the Iranian context. It’s worth reading, if only for the history of Mahdism.

A Western View on Iran’s WMD Goal:
Nuclearizing the Eschaton, or Pre-Stocking
the Mahdi’s Arsenal?
Dr. Timothy R. Furnish

Introduction on Mahdism: A (Mainly Sunni) History

WWJD—“What Would Jesus Do”—has been a favorite slogan of many American evangelical Christians for some time; in fact, former President George W. Bush was often accused by critics of letting this consideration influence his policy decisions. But actually such Protestants who hold to the much-maligned, Jesus’-coming-is-imminent, “Left Behind” mindset comprise a minority both of this country’s 240 million, and of the planet’s 2.3 billion, Christians. In the world’s second-largest religion, however, a messianic imperative really does dominate the thinking of crucial players on the geopolitical stage: WWMD—“What would the Mahdi Do?—is a question increasingly being asked in the Islamic world, not just in the usual suspect Shi`i quarters but in Sunni ones, as well.

In Islamic thought al-Mahdi is “the rightly-guided one” who will appear before the end of time to create a global caliphate. The Qur’an says nothing of this figure; rather, he is predicted in a number of hadiths, “traditions” or, more accurately, “sayings,” attributed to Islam’s founder Muhammad. Even so, neither of the two most authoritative compilers of Sunni hadiths, the 9th century AD Isma’il al-Bukhari and Muslim b. al-Hajjaj, mentions the Mahdi. This has led some Sunni Muslims over the years—such as the brilliant North African scholar Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406 AD)—to brand belief in the Mahdi as merely a superstition. Nonetheless, despite such skepticism Mahdism did become firmly entrenched in Sunnism, whose adherents comprise about 85 percent of the world’s Muslims. In this view the Mahdi will emerge onto the stage of history at some point when the situation of the ummah, the Muslim “community,” is most dire and eventually be acknowledged as the leader thereof. He, along with the returned prophet `Isa, the Arabic name for Jesus—who in Islamic teaching was neither crucified nor resurrected, but taken directly to heaven like Elijah—will fight the forces of unbelief led by al-Dajjal, “the Deceiver” (the Islamic analog to the Antichrist). There are some traditions that the Dajjal will be preceded by epigones, the most powerful of which will be al-Sufyani. The ranks of evil will also include al-Dabbah, “the Beast,” and the rapacious hordes Yajuj wa-Majuj, “Gog and Magog.” In a series of Armageddon-style battles Jesus will serve as the spiritual leader and kill Yajuj and Majuj as well as the Dajjal, whereas the Mahdi will lead the Muslim forces in battle and take over the Middle East, then Rome, and finally the entire world on his way to establishing a planetary caliphate. The Mahdi and Jesus will then cooperate in global governance and for a time the world will enjoy peace and prosperity. Eventually (the hadiths differ on just how long), Jesus and the Mahdi, being mortal men, will both die—as did Muhammad—and after that the Islamic utopia will disintegrate, with sin and unbelief again coming to predominate, and at some point the world will truly end and all humans will be summoned to Judgment Day before Allah to receive their final consignment to either Paradise or Hell.
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In what appears to be a preemptive strike, Saudi religious authorities have arrested a woman for driving and putting a video of her doing so up on Facebook. There’s a country-wide protest planned for June 17, at which women are being asked to simply get in the car and drive. The arrest of those that do is a likely outcome, but it’s one that places the country and its laws in a difficult, self-contradictory position. Women’s driving is not against the law. The government has stated this clearly. People from King Abdullah on down have said that it is legal, but that society ‘isn’t ready’ for women behind the wheel.

If it’s not against the law, then why and how can women be arrested? Apparently, it’s because it’s a sin and Saudi religious police are willing to step in and detain those who sin in public. That the code is not shared by all is a great example of why religion—and its rules—should not be given equal weight with civil law. Everyone, more or less, agrees to abide by laws. Only those who agree on the definition of a sin, though, are bound by that definition. If one’s moral code does not exclude women’s driving, too bad: the tyranny of religious law will exert itself. I’m pretty sure that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice will say that women who drive are creating fitna, social discord. Instead, it is the religious police who are discordant, standing willfully in the face of progress, rational economics, and human rights and dignity. It’s a real pity that they cannot see this for themselves, but then, finding fault in oneself is always harder than finding it in others…

In any event, here’s how Saudi Gazette covers the story, in a report from Associated Press:

Saudi woman held for defying driving ban
ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI

RIYADH: Authorities Saturday detained a Saudi woman after she launched a campaign against driving ban for women in the country and posted a videotape of herself behind the wheel on Facebook and YouTube to encourage others to copy her.

Human rights activist Walid Abu Al-Kheir said Al-Sherief was detained by the country’s religious police.

Manal Al-Sherief and a group of other women started a Facebook page called “Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself,” which urges authorities to lift the driving ban.

She went on a test drive in the eastern city of Khobar and later posted a video of the experience. “This is a volunteer campaign to help the girls of this country” learn to drive, Al-Sherief says in the video.

“At least for times of emergency, God forbid. What if whoever is driving them gets a heart attack?”

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to ban women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

The campaigners have focused on the importance of women driving in times of emergencies and in the case of low-income families. Al-Sherief said unlike the traditional argument in Saudi Arabia that driving exposes women to sinful temptations by allowing them to mingle with policemen and mechanics, women who drive can avoid sexual harassment from their drivers and protect their “dignity.”
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CNN also covers the story:

Saudi woman says she was detained for driving

Arabs eat a lot of bread. Tunisians, for example, eat nearly three times as much bread as Americans or Canadians. It’s so important that the Egyptian dialect word for bread, rather than khubz, is aish, ‘Life.” Bread riots have been a feature of Egypt’s past and it appears they will be part of its future.

For a variety of reasons ranging from bad weather in the US and Canadian plains to higher shipping costs related to high oil prices, the cost of wheat and barley are rising rapidly, far faster than general inflation. This bodes evil to the economies of the Middle East. Oil producers like Saudi Arabia will manage this better than oil consuming states as they do have higher incomes. Even here, though, high prices for barley, used chiefly as animal fodder, are causing unrest. For countries that import the majority of their grains, it’s another blow just now descending. And for countries whose economies are in turmoil as the result of political upheavals, the blow is going to be even more severe.

Perhaps the most dismal aspect of this is that people, when pressed, will choose bread over liberty. What’s the point in demanding human rights if the most basic one—staying alive and keeping one’s family alive—is in question? This means that those who are able to supply the demand for bread are going to reap political benefits from it. Those who either impede that supply or are simply inconsequential, are going to lose.

The Wall St. Journal:

Mideast Staggered by Cost of Wheat

The Toronto Star:

Cost of eating spikes for the Arab world

I think this story from Saudi Gazette is worth noting. A Saudi NGO, the Reconciliation Committee, works to spare the convicted from the death penalty. The can’t get verdicts overturned, but they can talk with the family members of people killed to convince them to show mercy. Under the Saudi interpretation of Shariah law, family members have the right to demand execution, to accept a blood money payment in lieu of exercising that right, or to simply forgive the criminal and waive their right to demand his death.

Over the last three years, the story reports, the organization has saved the life of 173 people. That’s not insignificant. They’ve done so through talks with the families that resulted in payments or mercy and have helped raise funds to pay the diyya or blood money. They should be congratulated.

Reconciliation body in Makkah saves 173 lives

MAKKAH: The Saudi Reconciliation Committee in Makkah Emirate has saved the lives of 173 people sentenced to death since its inception in 2008, said Dr. Nasser Bin Mesfir Al-Zahrani, the Committee’s Executive Chairman, according to a report carried by the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

He said one of the principles of the committee is to prevent haggling by the families of the murdered over the financial compensation or “Diya”. Pardoning or forgiving a murderer is permissible in the Shariah, for the sake of Allah, or through the payment of Diya. The guardian of the murdered person determines the amount to be paid.

The families of the killers either pay themselves or seek the help of individuals or a group of philanthropists.
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Last week, I wrote about a weird dynamic wrenching Iranian politics, based on the impending arrival of the Mahdi and the end of the world. To be fair, I should point out that according to one American preacher, the world will end tomorrow. Harold Camping, a man with a religious view and a radio network, is convinced that the Rapture starts Saturday.

Camping prohesized that the world would end back in 1994, but claims he hedged his comments (and book) because his Biblical research wasn’t perfected. I’m curious to learn what excuse he’ll be making come Sunday…

From ‘New York’ magazine:

A Conversation With Harold Camping, Prophesier of Judgment Day

We’ve followed with interest the Christian movement that believes Judgment Day will occur on May 21 — ten days from now. They’ve put up billboards, they’ve handed out fliers. Some of them have even burned through all of their savings, so convinced are they that the world is going to end on May 21 and they’ll no longer need it. That’s the most incredible part of this bizarre story — that these people are so sure about something so incredibly unlikely. How can that be? To find out, we went right to the source: Harold Camping, the gravely voiced, 89-year-old founder of Family Radio; the man who pinpointed May 21 as the exact date of the Rapture based on clues sprinkled throughout the Bible. He is very confident in his prediction.
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Note that Camping is part of a minority of Christians who believe that the Bible, as the Quran, is the direct word of God. That is not at all what most Christians believe. Instead, they think that the Bible is ‘divinely inspired’, that the spirit of God touched those who wrote its various chapters, but that the book was very much the product of human hands.

Pres. Obama gave a major speech yesterday, speaking on the Middle East and North Africa and the need for the US to make a change in its policies toward the reason. He went too far according to some and not far enough according to others. A larger, third group is taking time to look at what he actually said and what it might mean for the region.

Perhaps the biggest change in US policy was conveyed through his statement that the US will support Israel-Palestinian peace based on the borders in existence before the 1967 War. Well, that set the fox among the hens… possible Republican candidates for the presidency were screeching about how Obama ‘threw Israel under the bus’ and ‘disrespected Israel’. The really screechy Kyle-Anne Shiver at PajamasMedia—a collaborative website of the conservative/libertarian, and by the way, Israel-is-never-wrong bent—points out that so long as he can’t solve America’s problems, it’s a tad arrogant to try to solve the world’s; beside, Congress will never agree to dropping Egyptian debt. Israeli PM Netanyahu seems to reject the border suggestion entirely.

Arab News didn’t care for the speech, either. It finds nothing for the Palestinians in the speech other than platitudes. I would have thought the paper would at least acknowledge Obama’s shifting of the US position to line it up closer to that of King Abdullah’s 2003 Peace Plan, but no.

Editorial: Fine words again
ARAB NEWS

Obama ignores Palestine is the one and only anvil on which trust in the US can be reforged

Two years ago, President Barack Obama reached out to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new beginning to America’s relationship with it.

The Muslim world responded enthusiastically. It reached back in hope having heard him say that it was his duty to fight negative stereotypes of Islam and declare solemnly that the Israeli settlements had to stop and that the US would not turn its back on legitimate Palestinian aspirations for a state of their own.

But over the following months it became clear that there was nothing to reach out and grab. The American hand had vanished. Obama’s fine words had dissolved into meaninglessness. Despite his condemnation, Israel continued with the settlements; despite his implied promise of support for a Palestinians state, it did not happen. The reality was a US which refused to force the Israelis to the negotiating table.
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The Washington Post has a piece with a quick regional assessment of the President’s speech. ‘Too little, too late’ seems to be one of the more popular reactions, but The Post notes that there’s actually quite a bit in there, for several countries and their citizens.

Obama speech greeted with wariness, apathy in Mideast
Liz Sly and Ernesto Londono

BEIRUT — The words were stirring, the emotions powerful and the intentions seemingly sincere. “Repression will fail .?.?. tyrants will fall,” President Obama declared solemnly. And America, he said, “cannot hesitate to stand squarely on the side of those who are reaching for their rights.”

But why, wondered those watching the televised speech in the region to which his comments were aimed, couldn’t he have said that before?

As the Arab Spring enters its sixth month, and at a time when some of the region’s dictators are dramatically ratcheting up their repression, Obama’s effort to reset the U.S. relationship with a rapidly changing Middle East seemed to fizzle against the reality of America’s fading relevance.

Obama addressed for the first time the brutal crackdown in Syria, rebuked U.S.-allied Bahrain for its harsh oppression of Shiite dissidents and called, to Israel’s consternation, for a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of Israel’s 1967 borders — an unprecedented step for a U.S. president.
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Various commentators noted that the President did not name Saudi Arabia in his speech. He didn’t name quite a few other countries, either, but he did make pretty clear allusion to the Kingdom when he criticized countries that fail to empower their women and who seek to limit human rights and political participation. The Saudis did not miss that.

Now there‘s a headline you don’t expect to see! But there it is, on the pages of Arab News and Al-Riyadh. Due to smuggling of gasoline out of the country, that’s what’s happening, though. High octane fuel, Type 95, isn’t getting delivered to the stations as it’s going elsewhere. There doesn’t seem to be the same problem with lower-octane, Type 91 fuel. I have to wonder how border and port controls can be so lax that large quantities of fuel can be smuggled out of the country. It has to be an enormous quantity if it’s having an effect in the capital city.

Smuggling hits gasoline supplies in Riyadh region
ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: Shortage of gasoline type 95 in some regions in the Kingdom may develop into a crisis if suppliers do not quickly inject enough of it to the gas stations, local Arabic daily Al-Riyadh newspaper reported Tuesday. Especially in Riyadh region, there is a supply shortage.

The newspaper said the owners of gas stations expressed fears that a real crisis might crop up that could cause economic losses to the country and the companies working in this sector if an immediate solution was not found.

It quoted unidentified sources in the industry as saying that the shortage in the supply of gasoline type 95 resulted from the smuggling of large quantities of this fuel type to other countries.
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According to reports in Saudi Gazette, Saudi Arabia’s thirst for electric power grew 10% last year. While electricity production remains ahead of demand, the margin is shrinking and it doesn’t seem likely that the current producers will be able to keep up for much longer. Moves toward higher efficiency in production and distribution are being undertaken, but can provide only finite improvements. Reducing waste is likely to have a greater effect. But the demand is growing as population grows and people come to expect certain levels of comfort and convenience. Nuclear and solar power generation are the routes the government has decided to follow looking for solutions. Both, I think, are important factors in those solutions, but they both also have long development times. I think there is a real race between production and consumption and it’s not at all certain that supply will meet demand.

Efforts on to meet power demand hike
JOE AVANCENA

DAMMAM: Energy producers in the Kingdom are under pressure to multiply their production to meet the rising needs of household and industrial users of electricity, according to a senior official of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC).
Addressing the Water, Electricity and Power Generation Forum at the Dhahran International Exhibition Center, which ended Monday, Mohammed Al-Juraifani, SEC Senior Vice President for Planning and Program, said increasing the production SEC and other cogeneration producers, such as Saudi Aramco, Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), Water & Electricity Company (WEC), and independent power producers (IPP) like Marafiq, requires national concerted efforts.

“This national concerted effort is a collaboration of both the producers and consumers of electricity in order to put a balance between actual production and actual demand,” Al-Juraifani said.
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Forum to discuss energy efficiency
SHAHID ALI KHAN
RIYADH: Ministry of Water and Electricity will organize a three-day Electricity Efficiency Forum (EEF) starting May 29, Dr. Saleh H. Al-Awaji, Deputy Minister for Electricity, told a press conference here, Monday.

Mohammed Al-Hussaini, Deputy General Manager, Riyadh Exhibitions Company (REC), joint organizer of the event and Ali Bin Salah Al-Barak, Chairman, Planning, Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) were also present.

Dr. Al-Awaji said the basic of the forum is to create public awareness about the importance of energy conservation and help people at all levels on how to be energy-efficient.
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Arab News reports that a Saudi woman, left high and dry without transportation when her driver quit, found a solution to the problem of getting her son to school and herself to the grocery. It’s hardly a startling solution for most of the world, but in the Kingdom where women’ aren’t permitted to drive, it was bold: She got behind the wheel herself. And the world did not end, not even for her, as no one made much at all of her efforts.

Perhaps this is the real solution to the societal ban on women’s driving: Don’t bother arguing about it, just do it. If hundreds or thousands of women decided, ‘Today’s the day’ and started driving around, they might push society over that ridge that’s preventing progress. There is a campaign afoot that calls on Saudi women to drive on June 17 and that’s fine. But instead of a big, splashy event, might not a lower-key, spontaneous effort be more effective? There won’t be cordons of police and crowds of angry objectors already prepared to confront them, nor would they be gathered in a few convenient places. To simply get in the car and take care of the day’s business oneself would mark both a step forward for women’s liberties, but also a step forward in containing an unnecessary expense on families and the country itself.

Woman driver surprised by society’s reaction
WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: When Najla’s driver unexpectedly turned in the keys and resigned, the 45-year-old Saudi housewife was left with a dilemma: Her son had to get to school, there were errands to be done, and there was nobody around to drive her. So she got behind the wheel of the family car and took her son to school.

Did the world come to an end? Did society erupt in disapproval? Was she wrenched from the vehicle by a religious cop and sent back to her guardian for a lecture on morals?

No. In fact, with the exception of some looks of surprise, and a few thumb’s up of approval, Najla managed to get her son to school and pick up groceries on the way home, just as countless women do the world over. It was, in the end, a banal experience.
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