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"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

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Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia Is Morally Bankrupt

October 7, 2009 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

I make no effort to hide my distaste for Saudi Arabia. They are a morally bankrupt and backwards country masquerading as a modern society. Were it not for the wealth provided by oil they would have no more status than Africa on the world stage.

A country that promotes child marriage, misogynistic practices, treats domestic workers like slaves and engages in all sorts of other chicanery has done it again. Don’t talk about sex or you can be imprisoned for 5 years and given 1,000 lashes.

(CNN) — A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced a man who caused uproar by bragging about his sex life on television to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes, according to Ministry of Information officials.

Mazen Abdul Jawad, a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14. He made the comments on Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, which aired the interview a few months ago.

Saudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after airing the interview on an episode of its popular show “A Thick Red Line.” Abdul Jawad was arrested shortly after the program aired and charged with violating Saudi Arabia’s crime of publicizing vice.

On the program, Abdul Jawad is also shown in his bedroom, where he holds sexual aids up to the camera. The episode ends with him cruising the streets of Jeddah in his car looking for women.

The episode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced. Pre-marital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle.”

Other posts about Saudi Arabia:
Saudis Ban Lewd Number Plates
Saudi Arabian Hypocrisy
Another Reason Why Saudi Arabia is A Problem
It is Hard To Be a Woman In Saudi Arabia

Filed Under: Saudi Arabia

Saudi family sues genie, alleges harassment

July 13, 2009 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

The lovely Saudis are in the news again. Someone better call Tony, because Genie is out of her bottle again.

CNN) — A family in Saudi Arabia has taken a genie to court, alleging theft and harassment, according to local media.

The lawsuit filed in Shariah court accuses the genie of leaving them threatening voicemails, stealing their cell phones and hurling rocks at them when they leave their house at night, said Al-Watan newspaper.

An investigation was under way, local court officials said.

“We have to verify the truthfulness of this case despite the difficulty of doing so,” Sheikh Amr Al Salmi, the head of the court, told Al-Watan. “What makes this case and complaint more interesting is that it wasn’t filed by just one person. Every member of the family is part of this case.”

The family, which has lived in the same house near the holy city of Medina for 15 years, said it became aware of the spirit in the past two years.

“We began hearing strange noises,” the head of the family, who requested anonymity, told Al-Watan. “In the beginning, we didn’t take it seriously, but after that, stranger things started happening and the children got really scared when the genie began throwing stones.”

A local charity has moved the family to a temporary residence while a court investigates, the newspaper said.

In Islamic cultures, a belief in genies, or jinns, is common.

Genies not only appear in pre-Islamic fiction such as “Arabian Nights,” but are also mentioned in the Quran.

Many Saudis believe invisible genies live among them and are capable of demonic possession and revenge.

Filed Under: Saudi Arabia

Saudis Ban Lewd Number Plates

April 14, 2009 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

It is ok in Saudi Arabia for men to marry children but against the law to have a lewd license plate.

Saudi Arabia has banned vehicle number plates which are seen as “offensive” in English when Arabic letters are given in the Latin alphabet, reports say.

Saudi newspaper al-Watan said the banned words included “sex” and “ass”, but the list was topped by “USA”.

Next thing you know they’ll try to claim that cleveland is a nice place to live and has great sports teams.

Filed Under: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian Hypocrisy

January 25, 2009 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

So that wacky prince thinks that he can lecture President Obama about the peace process.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN — Relations between Arab nations and the United States hinge on American leaders living up to their rhetoric about commitment to lasting peace in the Mideast, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal told CNN Saturday.”President Obama, in his statement yesterday, said that he’s genuinely making the effort to accomplish a peaceful resolution,” al-Faisal, who served as Saudi ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2007, told CNN’s Nic Robertson in an interview Friday.

“We’ve heard this before,” al-Faisal said. “We need to see implementation. We need to see facts on the ground change. We need to see rhetoric change. We need to see presence on the ground.”

He said he was encouraged by Obama’s appointment of George Mitchell as Mideast envoy, saying, “Mitchell comes with a track record of success.” But he suggested Mitchell spend some time in the region to make real progress.

“American envoys, when they’ve dealt with the Middle East, have always come and gone,” he said.

“I think it would be wise for Sen. Mitchell … to pitch his tent in Ramallah or in Jerusalem, let’s say, and spend a year, two, perhaps three years on the ground dealing with the daily aspects of making peace there.” The United States’ backing of Israel, in light of the latest Israeli military operations in Gaza, does not improve its standing in the Arab world, he said.

“What happened in Gaza, people have called it a tragedy,” al-Faisal said. “I’d go further and say it was a catastrophe in all aspects of that word. The killing and the destruction was so barbaric by Israel, and unprecedented in a such a small area like Gaza.

Hmm…The Arabic expression for bite me comes to mind. The chutzpah it takes to say this sort of stuff with a straight face is incredible. To place all of the blame on Israel and to wave his finger in Obama’s face is unmitigated gall.

It is really hard for me take any sort of Saudia Arabian peace initiative seriously. They are morally bankrupt, two faced and exceptionally intolerant to people who do not practice Islam. So when I see them try to lecture us or anyone about what we should do I roll my eyes.

Let’s take a quick look at a recent story about child marriage.

(CNN) — The debate over the controversial practice of child marriage in Saudi Arabia was pushed back into the spotlight this week, with the kingdom’s top cleric saying that it’s OK for girls as young as 10 to wed.

“It is incorrect to say that it’s not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti, said in remarks quoted Wednesday in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. “A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she’s too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her.”

The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom in recent weeks.

Late last month, a Saudi judge refused to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.

This is sick and wrong. There is no justification for this. There is no spinning this to say that it is ok because it is culturally acceptable or religiously ok. Child sacrifiee and slavery once were considered to be acceptable and we don’t do that.

Want another example of their barbarism and why we cannot allow them to dictate morality. How about the time when the religious police murdered school girls fleeing a fire at their school.

Saudi Arabia’s religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.

In a rare criticism of the kingdom’s powerful “mutaween” police, the Saudi media has accused them of hindering attempts to save 15 girls who died in the fire on Monday.

About 800 pupils were inside the school in the holy city of Mecca when the tragedy occurredAccording to the al-Eqtisadiah daily, firemen confronted police after they tried to keep the girls inside because they were not wearing the headscarves and abayas (black robes) required by the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islam.

One witness said he saw three policemen “beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya”.

The Saudi Gazette quoted witnesses as saying that the police – known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – had stopped men who tried to help the girls and warned “it is a sinful to approach them”.

The father of one of the dead girls said that the school watchman even refused to open the gates to let the girls out.

Or what about the fact that 19 of the 911 hijackers were Saudi Arabian. The sad truth is that we can continue to cite chapter and verse about why the Saudis are among the last people to serve as arbiters of morality. Were it not for their oil money they would be a very poor and backwards nation with all of the relevance to the world that the Congo now holds.

If there is justice in this world we will witness the demise of the cash cow that has permitted these intolerant, small minded, bigots and promoters of terror to thrive.

Crossposted on Yourish.

Filed Under: Peace, Politics, Saudi Arabia

Saudis Tell Bush to Suck It

May 16, 2008 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

There are more professional headlines that I could use than “Saudis Tell Bush to Suck It” but they’d be lacking the edge that this one requires.

You see our fearless leader asked our so called ally to help us by pumping more oil. Let’s take a look at the story, shall we.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) — Saudi Arabia Friday rebuffed President Bush’s request to immediately pump more oil to lower record prices, saying it does not see enough demand to increase production.

The Saudis said they would increase production if customers demanded it, Steven Hadley, Bush’s national security adviser, said.

Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, on Friday said the country had increased its production by 300,000 barrels a day on May 10 in response to customer requests.

Al-Naimi said the increased production would bring Saudi Arabia’s daily production to 9.45 million barrels per day by June, according to the AP.

Bush is spending much of the day in closed-door meetings with King Abdullah, the Saudi ruler.

Friday’s visit was Bush’s second trip to the kingdom this year, coming as oil prices reached a new record high Friday of more than $127 a barrel. When he traveled to Riyadh in January, his request for the Saudis to pump more oil was also rejected.”

I haven’t any love for the Saudis for a whole host of reasons. I’ll share a number of links with you that help illustrate why:

Saudi Scholar Spouts Holocaust Denial and Calls for Genocide on Hamas TV (Video)

The good old Saudis who punish victims of rape

Another Reason Why Saudi Arabia is A Problem

I Don’t Trust The Saudis- Their Textbooks

In short they violate human rights, they fund terrorists and they promote intolerance for religious beliefs that are not based upon Islam. It galls me to no end that we help fund a racist, misogynist society that is working to undermine our own.

Filed Under: Poltics, Saudi Arabia, World

Another Reason Why Saudi Arabia is A Problem

August 3, 2007 by Jack Steiner 11 Comments

It is so good to see that our allies are so good to their own people and to those who work for them. The following is from a story about a domestic worker who has been sentenced to death.

Varia says that because domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are not protected by labor laws, they don’t have access to training, paid leave, reasonable hours or even one day off.

“They’re not seen as real human beings,” she says.

“It is socially accepted to lock your domestic worker inside the house. There are employers who forbid their workers to make phone calls home or write letters or talk to neighbors,” says Varia, who interviewed domestic workers’ employers in Saudi Arabia. “The reason they give is that, ‘We paid a lot of money for this worker, and if I leave the door unlocked, she’ll run away.'”

The problem is so severe that the embassies of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines in Saudi Arabia can have as many as 150 women staying in embassy shelters because of abuse suffered at the hand of their employer, says Varia

Filed Under: Politics, Saudi Arabia, World

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