Was he looking in the mirror?

Posted by: Sounder at December 30, 2008 6:45 PM

There is a very strong feeling of cultural superiority among Arabs and that is combined with an excessive pride in their own religion. The 'racist' attitude follows from it.

Posted by: Jerry M at December 30, 2008 8:26 PM

I read an article about imported workers in Dubai, getting mistreated and stiffed by their Mohammadan masters...I doubt Saudi Arabia is much different.

Racism is a very close cousin of supremacy.
Generally they work as a team.
Racism is not always involved in slavery, but supremacy is.

Employment may seem like slavery, but it is not slavery, unless the employer treats their workers like those in Dubai...Substandard housing, lousy food, and far less pay than promised. They not only can't send any money home, they cant't even afford bus fare to get the H-ll out of there.
So they are employee slaves. Trapped like rats in a cage....

Maybe the Sauds are a little different, but I doubt it...All Mohammadans read from the same instruction book...

Posted by: duh_swami at December 30, 2008 10:46 PM

From these statements it seems that he is motivated by decency more than religion so let's give credit where it's due; to those speaking out and those who choose to live decently even when their culture condones some indecent acts.

Posted by: genemachine at December 30, 2008 11:12 PM

In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, working oonditiona are much worse than in Dubai. You see, Saudi Arabia and Dubai are wahhabbi countries where Islam rules. Also, these two countries are much richer and get away with mis-treating the employees.
Finally, employees in GCC countries have to submit their passport to their sponsor/employer, against international laws.

Posted by: Alert at December 30, 2008 11:17 PM

As an ex-Muslim (shhh - top secret) I have lots of family members who go to Saudi Barbaria for their pilgrimage.

When they return, they all complain long and bitterly of their treatment as second-class Muslims by these Saudis. They are ripped-off by their tour guides, their hotels, their airlines, their taxis. Even ordinary Saudis they meet are rude and arrogant.

Just imagine, if this is how devout Muslims who go there for their religious obligations are treated, what the treatment of non-Muslims must be like?

Posted by: Shafee al-Zindig at December 31, 2008 3:03 AM

Shafee

if you are a genuine defector from the army of Islam, if you *have* really and truly apostasised from Islam (if you are a real apostate, you will understand perfectly why I make this caveat), then you are most heartily welcome.

We don't hate the *people* who have jihad-and-sharia Islam inside their heads; we hate the *ideology* that warps their minds and damages their morals.

We would much rather that Muslims apostasised, and fully realized their human potential, than that our soldiers might one day have to kill them in order to defend the rest of humanity against the imposition of sharia.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at December 31, 2008 3:16 AM

The sharia-shackled and islam-addled arabs can't do a single damned lick of work on their own.

There is nothing in their history that would have contributed to the development of a work ethic, and they are too damned arrogant to learn from the other cultures around them.

Trade, OK, rape and pillaging, definitely, slave labor and extortion, for sure, but invention and industry ... uh, no way.

Without those armies of foreign workers their country would grind to a halt in weeks.

And their sense of culture and racial superiority is what holds it all together for them.

It's actually quite intriguing to hear a saudi reflecting on saudi superiority and racism. It almosts suggests the development of a conciousness capable of self-evaluation and self-criticism -- until one realizes that all he is really saying is that they should be kinder to their servants, as long as they keep to their place.

Posted by: joeblough at December 31, 2008 4:10 AM

My dear Shafee al-Zindig:

The Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca) is an $Arab billion dollar pagan business tradition$ pre-dating Islam and Muhammad raking in 5 to 10 billions US $ in Saudi Royal revenues per pilgrimage! No wonder Saudi Arabia can afford to bankroll the building of mosques and Madrassahs all over the world (90B$ spent since 1990 as per some American estimates). There is a restriction of two million pilgrims attendance per year because of logistical constraints. (year 2000)

Allahu Akbar!

Posted by: Platypus at December 31, 2008 7:15 AM

When has what Muslims say ever had anything to do with what Muslims do?

Posted by: Stefcho at December 31, 2008 7:19 AM

Is racism always the issue? For instance the wealthy Egyptian couple arrested in California with a nine year old slave girl. She was 'bought' from a desperately poor Egyptian family. She was an Arab, Muslim Egyptian but very poor. Such child servants are treated contemptuously, over-worked to exhaustion and the children of wealthy parents are also taught to humiliate and degrade them.

This is the NORM. It is an Islamic thing. I've been in that part of the world and I have seen it.
I'll never forget the village elder in a small town in Bahawalpur Pakistan in the 1970's. Wanting to impress the rare visitor from the West he first showed me his TV (he had the only TV set in town). He bossed and humiliated his child-servants for my benefit, even slapping them - hard. He was a Hajji - probably the only one in the village to have made the Hajj and so of course he was wise and 'blessed'.
To this day I remember his sneering arrogant evil face as I attempted to eat the feast he had quickly ordered prepared for me.

Posted by: poetcomic1 at December 31, 2008 11:39 AM

Platypus,

Can you please enlighten me how the Hajj is a tradition predating Islam? I agree it's big business for the Saudis, but I thought it began with Islam.

Posted by: Richard at December 31, 2008 3:14 PM

Richard,

There are many references to Hajj taking place in the times of Ibrahim.

Check the following for a start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajj

Then you can do you own research with Google.

Happy New Year!

Posted by: Platypus at December 31, 2008 3:56 PM

If all of the foreign workers left the magic kingdom tomorrow the entire country would collapse. You would think the arrogant, lazy, shiftless, sex and islam-obsessed savages would appreciate the people that keep their entire country functioning on a daily basis. God knows they couldn't do it even if they wanted to, which they do not because they believe they are too good to work.

That's really funny---oil rich, slimy, Saudi muslim scum think they are superior to the people their government depends on to run the shopping malls, restaurants, grocery stores, power plants, hotels, utilities, hospitals, oil industry, and everything else requiring an education beyond the filthy qur'an. They send their best and brightest to the West to be educated, including their military personnel but hey, they're better than us! Muslims are truly delusional.

I think they're probably beginning to realize that their cesspool of a nation produces nothing but oil and religious fanatics and they are dependent on the West and the rest of the world for everything they buy with their oil money. They certainly do not produce any of the costly merchandise they buy in their fancy malls or the modern technology they love so much. Their only exports are immigrants, islam, and oil and the market for immigrants and islam is completely dead. Perhaps they are becoming a bit insecure and envious or maybe they really are racists. It's hard to believe they could be that stupid but it's entirely possible.

Posted by: Susanp at January 1, 2009 12:36 AM

Richard:

As I understand it, their big holy rock and it's worship antedate mohamedanism. I believe I've read that the shrine there is believed by some to once have been a shrine to a variety of pagan deities.

I've also seen it said that the word allah derives from al-ilah - "the god", al-ilah having been one of those original pagan deities.

There's some material on this subject out there and a few posters here that have read some of it.

Unfortunately, the mohammedan practice of destroying all evidence on non-mohammedan cultures wherever they rise to power (and their stolid, bone-head indifference to their own pre-history) has left the world with very little material on pre-mohammedan arabia.

Posted by: joeblough at January 1, 2009 3:30 AM

"Racism is one thing; being "overwhelmed by arrogance," on the other hand, and believing "that we are better," is simply a product of Islamic supremacism."

Since the workers treated so shoddily are invariably Muslims thats clearly bull.

The supremacism comes from wealth - look down on the poor regardless of their religion and up to the rich. Something totally alien to Americans

Non-Muslim Americans are treated well because they are rich Bangladeshi Muslim are treated badly becase they are poor

Posted by: stillistanbul at January 1, 2009 9:35 AM

"Gosaibi told senior Labour Ministry officials that the country should treat foreign workers better, protect their rights and not succumb to racism, local newspapers reported."

To say nothing of the sexism... How can they treat "foreign workers" right when they can't even treat half of their population with decency? This is a sombre joke and a necessary propaganda tactic to show how "wonderful" and "PC" Saudia is. Not buying it...

Posted by: lorfalcon at January 1, 2009 1:28 PM

In Mecca the average Saudi citizens run monopolies that fleece pilgrims from their money. For example the government allows private parties to ferry pilgrims back and forth from some sites in their trucks and cars instead of building technological transportation alternatives. This keeps the locals happy and gives them jobs.

Posted by: Expat88 at January 1, 2009 8:51 PM

In Mecca the average Saudi citizens run monopolies that fleece pilgrims from their money. For example the government allows private parties to ferry pilgrims back and forth from some sites in their trucks and cars instead of building technological transportation alternatives. This keeps the locals happy and gives them jobs. Posted by: Expat88 [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 1, 2009 8:51 PM

With all their cash they could easily have constructed light rails, or state of the art transportation between Mecca and Medina, and what's better - no Kafirs to benefit from any of it. Instead, they follow natural selection rules, and get killed in mass stampedes every year.

Posted by: Infidel Pride at January 5, 2009 6:38 AM