It has become apparent this week that poor Karen Hughes has an impossible job. Wherever in the Muslim world she goes, Ms. Hughes is derided by extremists and “moderates” alike, who view most of her statements as little more than Zionist propaganda. Along the way, she is forced to defend policies which have already been thoroughly demonized by newspapers, Al-Jazeera, government officials, and religious leaders alike. Therefore, I’m reticent to criticize her, but her trip to Saudi Arabia has been absolutely shameful, according to Pakistan’s Daily Star:
US envoy Karen Hughes said on Tuesday Washington had privately discussed the issue of hate literature in American mosques with the Saudi government and asked for their help in getting rid it.Hughes, whose job as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy is to counter the negative US image among Muslims and explain President George W Bush’s policies, brought the subject up publicly in a meeting with Saudi journalists.
But she did not discuss it - nor other human rights issues - in a meeting later with Saudi King Abdullah. “I hope you will find room to respect people of different faith and different faith traditions,” Hughes said at a luncheon with Saudi media.
“We are concerned that literature has been found in American mosques that has a message that is not tolerant and we hope the people of Saudi Arabia will work with us as we try to deal with this issue.”
Saudi hate literature in American mosques? It can’t be! Of course, as Jihadwatch and others have frequently reported in the past, the Saudi government has been fully complicit in spreading literature which calls for - among other things - murdering Christians and Jews.
US ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Oberwetter said Hughes was the first top Bush administration official to talk publicly in the kingdom about the anti-Christian, anti-Semitic material, which some human rights groups say has been sanctioned by the Saudi government.
Hallelujah, someone actually “talked” about the hate literature within Saudi borders! What progress!
“We’ve been raising the issue privately,” Hughes told reporters traveling with her to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. “One of my jobs is to raise issues in, I hope, a respectful way to help other countries understand American values.”Hughes said she had never met Abdullah before and that they only “talked on personal terms”. “In a follow up meeting, I would feel very comfortable raising those issues,” she said.
Why wait, Ms. Hughes? Could the “personal” issues you saw fit to discuss with Abdullah really be more pressing than the fact that his government continues to produce and propagate hate literature? Again, no one should expect much from Ms. Hughes’ tour, but the American people deserve better than the quiet equivocation on display thus far.
In the Belly of Shaytan,
I hope Ms. Hughes enjoys her trip to Hell. Actually Hell is probably better than Saudi Arabia. It is amazing to watch the U.S. perform a diplomatic dance with Saudi barbarians. The carrot does not work; use the stick. Annex the Eastern Province and drain every last drop out of the place. Aid the Saudi relocation effort by issuing a pair of hiking boots to all E. Province residents. Next, start the long, hot march to Riyadh.
Here in the States every Saudi mosque should be leveled. Saudi Arabia is an ENEMY of the U.S. It's time that they be treated as such. These forked-tongue devils should never be trusted.
Hatred of Islam and Distrust of Muslims is RATIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
K.Hughes is ill matched to go up against these snakes.
What can she say.
"prepare the U.S. your agenda for cleaning and opening up the mosques within the next two months, or the government will propose legislation TO AUTOMATICALLY SHUT DOWN EVERY MOSQUE IN THE U.S. UNLESS IT PROVES TO US THAT IT DOES NOT FOMENT HATRED OF INFIDELS.
(must get the Good Housekeeping seal of approval)
Methinks the lies and deception has just gone on too long and is too deep.
Ecrase l'infame.
Take away the ownership and control of the gas station.
A book on Saudi Arabia, one that gets poor reviews here, claims that in the 1990s 80 per cent of private and 60 per cent of public employees in Saudi Arabia were foreign; and that 50 per cent of Saudi students were at university studying Islam. given that the U.S. is the major provider of military supplies and training, and that Saudi Arabia, by accident is a rentier state living off the avails of geology thanks to SOCOL, I argue that given the precent of the Melian Dialogue, we take what we need, regardless of whatever the UN might say after the fact. Saudis are not only parasitic, ie undeserving of the product of their non-labour, they're a direct military threat to the Western world; and since we as non-Saudi property, as people, are in positions of labour and management already while the natives are studying new and old ways to be Islamic rather than contributing to their own common weal, I argue that it's legitimate to take their oil as a legitimate spoil of just war. Screw 'em.
Will the French howl? Will the UN impose sanctions on the men and women who go to Saudi Arabia as workers and take over by force? Will the general assembly of nations whine about a done deal if the fifth column of workers and managers take in support work sites while the area is pacified by a professional military? Yeah.
But this won't happen over night. One must prepare for an imperialist adventure such as this. One must start slowly. If you were a man with a sense of adventure and the feeling that you might like to stick it to the bad guys while making yourself filhy rich in the process, what would you do?
Me? Oh, I can't say.
It does appear that W and his closest advisors are as naive as we have feared.
God save us from executives who surround themselves with female lieutenants. Such staffing signals weakness - not advanced thinking.
If the Muslims end up blowing up Miss Hughes' tour plane and entourage we'll see if Uncle Sam still wants to make nicey-nice with the Islamic world. Not that we think it could be done, since we KNOW IT CAN'T.
To get to the core of the problem with Islam, all this lady needs do is ask a Muslim nation's leader to permit the construction of a Catholic church in their land and watch their reaction. We can only hope she would survive the resulting fallout. We think she would definitely find herself running for cover at the very least!
Havoc,
You're begining to sound a lot like a Saudi yourself.
Does your wife by any chance wear a burkha?
I Saw the video of what she said sounded strong to me remember she was jsut sent to listen and I liked the fact she was not covered in a head dress??
No I'd say she did good!!!
She gets 10 gold stars!!
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
GOD BLESS THE USA AND HER FIGHTING FORCES AND ALL WHO FIGHT WITH HER GIVE THEM STRENGTH, WISDOM, SIGHT, AND COURAGE TO STAY THE COURSE TO VICTORY TO DESTROY ALL ISLAMIC TERRORIST AND ALL WHO SUPPORT THEM AMEN
PS
Rome was not built over night??
THE PRESIDENT IS SMARTER THEN YOU GIVE CREIDET THINK ABOUT THE TALKING TO A WOMAN THING???
AND A STRONG WOMAN AT THAT WHO WILL NOT WEAR A HEAD COVER??
She may not be wearing a head covering Cathrine, but she aint wearin no short skirts either. When she wears a short skirt in front of the Prince she will be doing something, especially if she bends over a lot. No Saudi Prince can stand up under all that pressure, unless she has lousy legs. Maybe a Lady Gillette would help. Well, I'm a novice at hairy legged women. It's just that if Karen wants to 'really' assert herself and impress the Prince, she should wear short skirts, hairy legs or not...
As they view her as only worth half of a man, is sending her worthwhile? Is there any real progress, or is this all just a photo-op?
duh_swami, that was an idiotic remark. Catherine is right: it's great Hughes did not perform that stupid dhimmi gesture of "respect" that so many Western women politicians do when meeting their Islamic masters. The point is, Islamics expect all women to show "respect" to their local traditions and cover up when entering Islamic paradises, while of course no one expects Islamic women to return the respect in the West by removing their burkhas when they come here. It's not a contest about how much skin someone dares to reveal; miniskirt is in no way more of an opposite to the burkha than a smart business suit. She's not following Islamic law and that's what matters; it's totally her own business how she dresses otherwise.
"God save us from executives who surround themselves with female lieutenants. Such staffing signals weakness - not advanced thinking."
-- from a posting above
And if those lieutenants have such names as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Orianna Fallaci?
You must be kidding.
It didn't take long for the fallout to show how successful Ms. Hughes endeavor was - as it appears to have hit a nerve with CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper -
Yesterday's front page NY Times had an article about K. Hughes visiting a group of women in a
Saudi University. She was visibly surprised that many women didn't want to drive or vote and one even considered her black, head-to-toe garb "fashionable." (Surreal scene in Saudi dress shop: ma'am would you like this wonderful gown in flat or glossy?)
I wrote a letter in response which I am sure will not be published, sorry it is so long:
Your article about women in Saudi Arabia claiming to enjoy living in their country’s misogynistic environment made me puzzle over how a modern-day journalist would cover slavery in the American South if he or she could travel back in time.
Imagine our intrepid reporter describing for the benefit of today’s reader a meeting between a self-righteous, anti-slavery Northerner and a group of house slaves, handpicked by their masters to demonstrate that both master and slave benefit from their mutually agreed upon social contract. Would the journalist simply repeat the slaves’ glowing descriptions of how masters nobly fulfill their “obligations” toward them? Would a journalist also simply quote a slave as saying, “Free blacks in the North suffer much more injustice than we slaves in the South,” without at least mentioning that freed slaves in the North might disagree? I wonder.
This is great news, very smart politics!!
Karin Hughes is a very close advisor to GWB and this tells me that he is no dhimwit with regard to hate literature in US mosques.
Very clever diplomacy; she doesn't confront the Saudi king with her complaint but subtly drops the hint to the Saudi press.