Recently in Saudi Arabia Category

Compare and contrast. If these are the principles that inform the functioning of your society, you have a problem. An update on this story. "Reprieve unlikely for Saudi writer after cleric backs death sentence," from Emirates 24-7, February 13:

A senior Saudi Muslim cleric indicated on Monday that a local young man who offended Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) and fled the Gulf kingdom would be executed after his repatriation from Malaysia.

Sheikh Saleh bin Fowzan Al Fowzan, a member of the 7-man supreme committee of scholars in Saudi Arabia, said it has been established in Islam that any one who insults God or the Prophet should be killed.

“Repenting will not work…any man who insults God or our Prophet (PBUH) should be killed,” he said, quoted by Saudi newspapers.

“But we should first verify that this man (Hamza Kashgari) did insult Prophet Mohammed in his article on Twitter…if verified, then he must be killed……many scholars and people are now demanding his execution.”

Kashgari, 23, fled Saudi Arabia to Malaysia last week after King Abdullah ordered him arrested and punished for writing an article on Twitter deemed by Saudi Moslem scholars as abusive of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

He was later reported arrested by Malaysian authorities at Kuala Lumpur airport and western news reports said on Sunday he would be repatriated.

One Saudi daily said on Sunday Kashgari was heading for New Zealand to seek asylum before his arrest.

If the West had the courage of its convictions, this would be front-page news everywhere, with condemnations raining down upon the Saudis and calls for the freedom of Hamza Kashgari. Instead, the UN will probably establish another commission on "Islamophobia."

More on this story. "Malaysia deports Saudi blogger behind Prophet Mohammad tweets," by Stuart Grudgings for Reuters, February 12:

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia deported a Saudi Arabian blogger on Sunday, police said, despite fears voiced by human rights groups that he could face execution in his home country over Twitter comments he made that were deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.

Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year-old columnist, sparked outrage in the oil-rich kingdom with comments posted on the Prophet's birthday a week ago that led some Islamic clerics to call for him to face the death penalty.

Kashgari fled the country, but was arrested by police in majority-Muslim Malaysia on Thursday as he transited through Kuala Lumpur international airport.

"The Saudi writer was repatriated to his home country this Sunday morning," a police spokesman told Reuters. "This is an internal Saudi matter that we cannot comment on."

Malaysia has a close affinity with many Middle Eastern nations through their shared religion. The Southeast Asian nation is also a U.S. ally and a leading global voice for moderate Islam, meaning that the decision to extradite Kashgari is certain to be controversial.

"Saudi clerics have already made up their mind that Kashgari is an apostate who must face punishment," Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Friday.

"The Malaysian government should not be complicit in sealing Kashgari's fate by sending him back."

Kashgari's lawyer in Malaysia, Mohammad Noor, told Reuters by telephone that he had obtained a court order to prevent the deportation, but had not been allowed to see his client.

"If the government of Malaysia deports him to Saudi Arabia, disrespecting the court order, this is clearly contempt of court, unlawful and unacceptable," he said.

The Star newspaper quoted Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as saying that Kashgari had been repatriated and that the charges against him would be decided by Saudi authorities.

"Malaysia has a longstanding arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other," he was quoted as saying.

Blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. It is not a capital crime in Malaysia.

Reuters could not verify Kashgari's comments because he later deleted them, but media reported that one of them reflected his contradictory views of the Prophet - that he both loved and hated him.

Kashgari later said in an interview that he was being made a "scapegoat for a larger conflict" over his comments.

Yes and no.

This is the international equivalent of calling 911 because your pizza delivery is late.

It is bad enough if the Saudis are persecuting alleged "blasphemers" on their own dime, but to hijack an international system designed to assist law enforcement in tracking down the perpetrators of actual crimes for their own ridiculously disordered priorities is a presumptuous, arrogant abuse of resources that must not be allowed to pass without comment. Nor should the fact that Interpol let its resources be expropriated for that purpose.

Hamza Kashgari may wind up dead for it. An update on this story. "Interpol accused after journalist arrested over Muhammad tweet," by Owen Bowcott for the Guardian, February 11:

Interpol has been accused of abusing its powers after Saudi Arabia used the organisation's red notice system to get a journalist arrested in Malaysia for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Whose prophet?

Police in Kuala Lumpur said Hamza Kashgari, 23, was detained at the airport "following a request made to us by Interpol" the international police cooperation agency, on behalf of the Saudi authorities.

Kashgari, a newspaper columnist, fled Saudi Arabia after posting a tweet on the prophet's birthday that sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats. The posting, which was later deleted, read: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you … I will not pray for you."

More than 13,000 people joined a Facebook page titled "The Saudi People Demand the Execution of Hamza Kashgari".

Clerics in Saudi Arabia called for him to be charged with apostasy, a religious offence punishable by death. Reports suggest that the Malaysian authorities intend to return him to his native country.

Kashgari's detention has triggered criticism by human rights groups of Malaysia's decision to arrest the journalist and of Interpol's cooperation in the process.

Jago Russell, the chief executive of the British charity Fair Trials International, which has campaigned against the blanket enforcement of Interpol red notices, said: "Interpol should be playing no part in Saudi Arabia's pursuit of Hamza Kashgari, however unwise his comments on Twitter.

"If an Interpol red notice is the reason for his arrest and detention it would be a serious abuse of this powerful international body that is supposed to respect basic human rights (including to peaceful free speech) and to be barred from any involvement in religious or political cases."

He called on Interpol to stand by its obligations to fundamental human rights and "to comply with its obligation not to play any part in this case, which is clearly of a religious nature".

Interpol, which has 190 member countries, has a series of coloured notice systems that police forces around the world use to pass on requests for help. Contacted at its headquarters in Lyon, France, the organisation did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the Kashgari case.

In response to past criticisms of the red notice system, it has said: "There are safeguards in place. The subject of a red notice can challenge it through an independent body, the commission for the control of Interpol's files (CCF)."

Last year Interpol was accused by Fair Trials International of allowing the system to be abused for political purposes when it issued a red notice for the arrest of the Oxford-based leader of an Asian separatist movement, Benny Wenda, who has been granted asylum and has lived in the UK since 2003.

How many things can you think of in Saudi society that would actually be worth this much outrage? Child marriage? Sexual abuse of foreign domestic workers? The treatment of women as permanent minors? Antisemitic preaching and textbooks? Persecution of non-Muslims?

One could go on. But the righteous indignation is reserved for a 23-year-old with a Twitter account. An update on this story. "Saudi committee calls for “harsh punitive measures” against man who insulted Muhammad," from Asia News, February 10:

Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Hamza Kashghari, a Saudi writer and poet arrested in Malaysia for a few remarks on Twitter about Muhammad, is an infidel and an apostate. His sacrilegious action deserve “harsh punitive measures”, warned Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Religious Edicts (IFTA). "Whoever dares make a mockery of Allah, the Prophet or the Holy Book undermines the religion and displays enmity toward it. It is the duty of the rulers to try such a criminal," the committee said.

The accusation against Hamza, 23, stem from a few remarks he posted on Twitter last week, birthday of the prophet Muhammad. “On your birthday,” he wrote, “I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.”

“On your birthday,” he added, “I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more. I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

In one day, his comment generated 30,000 responses, many accusing him of blasphemy or calling for his death. Even though he removed the offending tweet, and apologised asking for forgiveness, the flood did not stop. Someone posted his address on YouTube, and vigilantes from a nearby mosque went looking for him.

The information minister banned all newspapers from publishing anything written by him, and the Council of Elders issued a rare statement of condemnation and harsh request that he be put on trial. King Abdullah himself issued the arrest order.

The same King Abdullah who opened a "tolerance" center in Vienna.

Two days ago, the young man tried to leave the country, but he was arrested by Malaysian police. “Kashgari was detained at the airport upon arrival following a request made to us by Interpol after the Saudi authorities applied for it," a police spokesman said.

Malaysia and Saudi Arabia do not have a formal extradition treaty. However, an official with the Malaysian Home Ministry who asked to remain unidentified said Kashgari could be extradited under other bilateral security agreements.

Under Sharia (Islamic law), anyone who commits sacrilegious actions that may make him or her kafir should be given three days to repent, failing which the person is to be beheaded.

The blasphemy laws are alive and well in Saudi Arabia. Those who say that they have no part of Sharia as it comes to the West are not being honest; there is no school of Islamic jurisprudence that does not call for death for blasphemy.

Hamza Kashgari has fled the country, but was detained in Malaysia. "Saudi Hamza Kashgari faces death calls after prophet tweets," from AFP, February 10:

A Saudi internet surfer checking her twitter account at a coffee shop in Riyadh. Twitter and Facebook are controversial forms of communication in the conservative country.

A YOUNG Saudi journalist is facing calls for his execution after tweeting about the Prophet Mohammed, and the kingdom's top clerics are demanding his trial after denouncing him as an "apostate".

On the occasion of the Muslim prophet's birthday last week, 23-year-old Hamza Kashgari tweeted: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you."

"I will not pray for you," he added.

The controversial tweet sparked a frenzy of responses - some 30,000, according to an online service that tracks tweets in the Arab world.

In one response, Abdullah, a lawyer, said that since Mr Kashgari was "an adult... we should accept nothing but implementing the ruling according to Islamic law" or sharia.

Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam, and is a crime punishable by death.

Mr Kashgari quickly apologised for his remarks, but the calls for his execution only multiplied....

Thanks to Carol for the video.

His crime, again, was reported earlier as comparing his poetry to the Qur'an. The Qur'an is adamant that no one can "produce a sura like thereof," and that it has no rival (2:23). The author of the offending tweet has been hunted down like an armed and dangerous fugitive terrorist and captured in Malaysia after Saudi King Abdullah ordered his arrest.

An update on this story. "Sacrilegious Saudi writer arrested in Malaysia," from Emirates 24-7, February 9 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Malaysian authorities arrested a Saudi newspaper writer wanted by the Gulf kingdom for offending Islam and Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) and local reports said he could face death.

Hamza Kashgari was seized as he arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday following his escape from Saudi Arabia on news that King Abdullah has ordered him arrested and prosecuted for religious insults in his articles on Twitter.

“The Malaysian authorities are coordinating with Saudi Arabia to hand Kashgari over,” the Saudi Arabic language daily 'Al Youm' said. In a separate report, newspapers quoted a statement by the kingdom’s Islamic Fatwa Committee calling for punishing Kashgari in line with Islamic law, which means he could be executed.

King Abdullah’s order to arrest the writer, a columnist in the Saudi Arabic language daily 'Al Bilad', followed public furor inside the kingdom over some of his articles, considered as abusive of Islam and the Prophet. “The order came after many scholars, dignitaries and citizens in the kingdom sent messages to the Monarch expressing indignation at Kashgari offences,” 'Ajel' Arabic language daily said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Saudi Information minister Abdul Aziz Khowja was reported as telling all local newspapers and magazine not to carry any article by Kashgari for what he described as persistent offences against Islam.“I have instructed all newspapers and magazines in the kingdom not to allow him to write any thing and we will take legal measures against him,” he said.

“When I read his articles, I wept and got very angry to have someone in the country of the two holy shrines address our Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) in this offending way,” he added without giving further details.

Newspapers said Khowja’s move came after thousands of readers and schools sent letters to the local media and online demanding Kashgari’s prosecution. After the order, many Saudi newspapers carried a letter written by Kashgari on his Twitter page apologizing for any offence, which he said was inadvertent.

His crime? Comparing his poetry to something in the Qur'an. The Qur'an is adamant that it cannot be rivaled (2:23). One report even says King Abdullah ordered his arrest.

That's the same King Abdullah of the "King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue," not in Mecca or Medina or even Riyadh, but Vienna. "Saudi Arabia: Writer flees after threats for 'offending Islam'," from AdnKronos, February 8 (thanks to Twostellas):

Riyadh, 8 Feb. (AKI) - Saudi Arabian writer Hamza Kashghri went into hiding in an undisclosed Southeast Asian country after recieving threats for allegedly offending Islam in a message posted on online social network site Twitter, according to the Al-Arabiya news channel. In his message, Kashghri reportedly compared his poetry to some versus in the Koran and made offensive statements about the Prophet Muhammad, the report said.

Whose prophet?

The Twitter message unleashed a campaign against him, resulting in threats that prompted him to flee. After leaving Saudi Arabia, Kashghri went to Jordan and the United Arab Emirates before reaching Southeast Asia.

An all too unsurprising update on this story. "Christian women report being assaulted after arrests," by Michael Carl for World Net Daily, February 4:

BOSTON – Saudi Arabian authorities are adding sexual assault to their routine for processing prisoners when they are Christian women, according to a new report that is imploring the international community to pressure the restrictive Islamic nation on basic human rights.

International Christian Concern’s Jonathan Racho says the 35 women prisoners were arrested for meeting for a prayer time, and they are reporting that they were molested.

“The female prisoners have told us about how they were sexually harassed. When the Saudis arrested them, they knew the Ethiopians were Christians,” Racho said.

“They took off the women’s clothes and touched them. When the strip searching was going on, the officers were touching the women,” Racho said.

Racho adds that some of the details are graphic.

“They were using gloves to strip search and they were putting their fingers into their genitals,” Racho said.

“This is a very, very serious accusation of harassment and we want the international community to look into this,” Racho said. “The Saudis have to stop harassing these Christians.”

Racho adds that the treatment of the Christians is the opposite of Saudi public statements.

“The Saudis in the past have publicly said that they want religious tolerance and dialogue between the people of faith,” Racho said. “The Saudi king and the Saudi government have been very active in promoting peaceful existence and religious freedom.”...

To Western audiences, that is, as in the case of the Saudi-backed institute for religious "tolerance" based not in Mecca, not in Medina, but in Vienna: the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue.

They say there is no formal law on the books that forbids women from driving. Not that authorities will respond by saying "Oh, hey, you're right. Here are the keys. Sorry about that." It is, if nothing else, a signal to authorities that they are not going away quietly. "Saudi activists sue government over driving ban," from Agence France-Presse, February 4:

Two Saudi female activists have filed law suits against the government for refusing to issue them driver's licences and banning them from driving a car, they told AFP on Saturday.

Manal al-Sherif, the icon of an Internet campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy a ban on driving, and human rights activist Samar Badawi filed their suits against the interior ministry.

Sherif, who was arrested in May 2011 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving, said she decided to file the lawsuit after having been denied a driver's licence.

"There is no actual law that states woman can't drive" in Saudi Arabia and therefore "no justification for preventing them from issuing a licence," said Sherif, one of the activists behind a "My Right, My Dignity" campaign aimed at ending discrimination against women in Saudi Arabia.

Badawi said the grievance board at the interior ministry had informed her to "follow-up in a week" to confirm a court appointment for her lawsuit.

Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are not allowed to drive. However, they sit behind the wheel in desert regions away from the capital.

Women in the kingdom who have the financial means hire drivers while others must depend on the goodwill of male relatives.

They also have to be veiled in public and cannot travel unless accompanied by their husbands or a close male relative.

Muhammad said: "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim." - Sahih Muslim 19.4366.

Of course, it would be bad for business for the Saudis to say they're giving them the boot for daring to gather in prayer and worship, so they have invoked another rule, against the mingling of unrelated men and women. Not that they look any less ridiculous for it.

Once again, just for fun, someone should tell authorities that a man of Jewish background has slipped into the country and, according to local reports, is in the habit of joining these gatherings "wherever two or three" come together. It could make for a good all-points bulletin, not to mention the subsequent headline: "Saudis desperate to find Jesus."

An update on this story. "Ethiopian Christians to be deported from Saudi Arabia," from BBC News, January 31:

Some 35 Ethiopian Christians face deportation from Saudi Arabia for "illicit mingling", the global rights body Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

Police arrested the group - including 29 women - after raiding a prayer meeting in the second city of Jeddah.

The women were subjected to strip searches and the men beaten and called "unbelievers", according to HRW.

In 2006, the Saudi government promised to stop interfering with private worship by non-Muslims.

The group was arrested in a private home as they gathered to pray during the run-up to Christmas, celebrated by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on 7 January.

HRW spoke to a man and two women by telephone from the prisons where they are being held.

They say they have been charged with mixing with unmarried persons of the opposite sex - even though HRW says Saudi Arabia has no law defining "illicit mingling".

Mixing of the sexes is not allowed in public - but normally permitted in private unless for "the purpose of corruption", according to the religious police.

The ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom bans the practice of any religion except Islam - but in recent years pledged to leave people of other faiths alone if they worshipped in private homes....

Talk is cheap, and "war is deceit."

Also of interest in this story is the coincidence of Saudi investment in the company and the potential curtailment of Twitter as a platform for political dissent. It was, for example, instrumental in the Iranian "Green Revolution" a few years back. "Saudi grand mufti: Twitter is full of lies," from the Jerusalem Post, January 29:

The Saudi grand mufti on Friday called social-networking website Twitter full of lies, a day after the site announced that it would begin restricting Tweets in specific countries.

The news from the social media platform is renewing questions over how it will handle issues of free speech as it rapidly expands its global user base.

Until now, Twitter had to remove a tweet from its global network if it received a takedown request from a government.

But the company said in a blog post published on Thursday that it now has the ability to selectively block a Tweet from appearing to users in one country.

“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world,” the Twitter blog said.

Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with, such as pro-Nazi content in France and Germany, where it is banned. It said that even with the possibility of such restrictions, Twitter would not be able to operate with some countries.

“Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there,” it said.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression.”

In the interest of transparency, Twitter said, it has built a mechanism to inform users in the event that a tweet is being blocked. A Twitter spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the blog post.

Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said in his Friday sermon in Riyadh that Muslims should avoid being a “source or feeding” Twitter, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

Twitter was a place “in which people are invited to throw charges between them, and to lie in a manner that brings fame to some,” he said.

The 71-year-old cleric called on those present to warn people about such sites, adding that positive sites do exist on the Internet concerning science, business and God.

Despite the grand mufti’s caution over the website, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company announced in December that it would invest $300 million in the social-media site.

“Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact,” Alwaleed said, according to BBC.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, critics question whether the site has succumbed to pressure from certain governments or even its new Saudi investors, with some activists tweeting for a one-day Twitter boycott against the company.

Twitter’s acknowledgment that it will censor content represents a significant departure from its tone just one year ago, when anti-government protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries coordinated mass demonstrations on the social network and, in the process, thrust Twitter’s disruptive potential into the global spotlight....

If there's an app for that, it is surely haram. This item was broadcast in October, but is currently highlighted at MEMRI's home page. "Saudi Cleric Sa'd Bin Al-Shathari: It Is Forbidden to Pray to Allah to Place Steve Jobs in Paradise," from MEMRI, October 8, 2011:

Interviewer: There is a great deal of interest in the death of Steve Jobs, the founder and owner of Apple and its former CEO. I'd like you to comment on two matters. First, is it permissible to be sad over the death of an infidel? Second, is it permissible to ask for Allah's mercy for an infidel? There was a lot of debate on Twitter and Facebook about this.

Sa'd Bin Al-Shathari: With regard to being sad, it is not something within one's volition. One does not decide to become sad, and therefore, there is no ruling about it in Islamic law.

[…]

As for asking for Allah's mercy [upon an infidel], if a person prays for Allah to alleviate the torments of someone close to him, or for Him to ignore some of his sins – that's permissible too. But to pray for Allah to have mercy upon him or place him in Paradise – that is forbidden....

Glee over the plundering of those whom the Qur'an terms the worst enemies of the Muslims (5:82). Those who objected were a tiny minority. And note that the Saudis who were fulminating about the Jews being "the filthiest people on earth" were reflecting what they learned in their study of Islam, and in the jihadist propaganda that demonizes Israel.

"Saudis laud credit card hacking scheme," by Roi Kais for Ynet News, January 3:

Saudi web surfers expressed glee Tuesday over the credit card scheme which exposed the account details of tens of thousands of Israelis. "If I were a hacker I would wish for 800,000 credit cards to be leaked, not just 400,000," one Saudi talkbacker wrote. "It's allowed when it concerns Jews," others said.

On Monday, it was reported that Saudi hackers claimed to have leaked credit card and personal information of over 400,000 Israelis. The hackers called the cyber attack a "gift to the world for the new year," which they hoped "would hurt the Zionist pocket." The file was removed shortly after being posted.

Saudi Arabia's official news agency, a mouthpiece for the country's rulers, did not report the affair but it was covered extensively by Saudi websites. Many electronic newspapers made the affair their leading story.

One website recorded over 10,000 hits for the story, which was also featured heavily on Facebook. The responses were mostly hostile towards Jews and Israel.

"Well done naughty boy…the Jews are the most despicable people…Hitler was right in what he said," one talkbacker wrote. "The Jews are the filthiest people on earth and the lowest among mankind. They deserve to be killed," another remarked.

There were exceptions however and some talkbacks maintained that theft was forbidden according toIslam [sic]. "This is a distortion of Islam which does not command to hurt the people of the book (the Jews) as long as they don’t hurt us. True, they are Zionists and our biggest enemies but we must not damage their property," one talkbacker wrote....

It took a decree from the king himself to end an ironic consequence of the strict separation of men and women, whereby Saudi women actually had to buy lingerie from men because a total ban on female sales clerks. Unsurprisingly, the stores dragged their feet on hiring women, and a top Saudi cleric called the use of female clerks a "crime."

Absurdity begets absurdity, and so the lingerie department is now a frilly, lacy battleground of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia.

Hopefully, they'll have it ironed out in time for absolutely, positively no one to celebrate Valentine's Day. "Saudi to apply law for women only to sell lingerie," from the Associated Press, January 2:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia said Monday it will begin enforcing a law that allows only females to work in women's lingerie and apparel stores, despite disapproval from the country's top cleric.

The 2006 law banning men from working in female apparel and cosmetic stores has never been put into effect, partly because of view of hard-liners in the religious establishment, who oppose the whole idea of women working where men and women congregate together, like malls.

Saudi women - tired of having to deal with men when buying undergarments - have boycotted lingerie stores to pressure them to employ women. The government's decision to enforce the law requiring that goes into effect Thursday.

The country is home to Islam's holiest site in the city of Mecca and follows an ultra-conservative form of the religion known as Wahhabism.

The kingdom's religious police, under the control of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, enforce Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam, which prohibits unrelated men and women from mingling. Women and men in Saudi Arabia remain highly segregated and are restricted in how they are allowed to mix in public.

The separation of men and women is not absolute. Women in Saudi Arabia hold high-level teaching positions in universities and work as engineers, doctors, nurses and a range of other posts.

The strict application of Islamic law forced an untenable situation in which women, often accompanied by uncomfortable male relatives, have to buy their intimate apparel from men behind the counter.

A Time magazine writer's account of the awkwardness can be found here.

Over the past several weeks, some women have already begun working in the stores. Although the decision affects thousands of men who will lose their sales jobs, the Labor Ministry says that over 28,000 women, many of them South Asian migrants, have already applied for the jobs.

Saudi's Arabia's most senior cleric, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, spoke out against the Labor Ministry's decision in a recent sermon, saying it contradicts Islamic law.

Another dire warning that this will end in a whole lotta fornication:

"The employment of women in stores that sell female apparel and a woman standing face to face [niqab to face? - ed] with a man selling to him without modesty or shame can lead to wrongdoing, of which the burden of this will fall on the owners of the stores," he said, urging store owners to fear God and not compromise on taboo matters.

Priorities: this is "under investigation." If you do your Sharia amputation homework with one of these, can you still get credit? "How did Israeli pencils reach Saudi chain?" by Ofer Petersburg for YNet News, December 29:

Saudi authorities are investigating how Israeli pencils reached one of the kingdom's biggest retail chains. The Kravitz chain, which markets the pencils in Israel, was surprised to hear about the affair stirring up the Gulf kingdom.

It turns out that Abu Rialin, a Saudi chain which offers all of its items for two riyals, is selling one of Kravitz's most popular products – a set of 12 pencils with an eraser.

The pencils are sold with the Kravitz logo in Hebrew and without any attempt to conceal the fact that they are made in Israel.

Kravitz learned about the incident following a report published by Saudi website Jazan. The reporter noted that Kravitz was the biggest manufacturer of office supplies in Israel and asked how the Saudi Ministry of Commerce could overlook such a thing.

"Where are the Saudi kingdom's supervision authorities?" the reporter asks, calling for an investigation into the apparent marketing of an Israeli product in Saudi Arabia....

In FrontPage this morning I examine the Saudi textbooks that have been making news again, and wonder why everyone is so excited about them.

Catherine Herridge of Fox News reported last week that “despite Saudi Arabia’s promises to clean up textbooks in the kingdom, recent editions continue to raise alarms in the West over jihadist language.” The story of the Saudis’ supposed duplicity has been circulating widely, but what is more surprising than the contents of the Saudi textbooks is that anyone would be surprised by them. The Saudi textbooks teach Islam. What else did anyone expect?...

But there is nothing in the least unusual about what the Saudis are teaching given the fact that the official religion of the Kingdom is Islam. For example, Al-Ahmed explained that tenth-grade textbooks “show students how to cut [the] hand and the feet of a thief.”

Why not? The Qur’an says: “As for the thief, both male and female, cut off their hands. It is the reward of their own deeds, an exemplary punishment from Allah. Allah is Mighty, Wise” (5:38). Is the problem that tenth graders are too young to learn this sort of thing? But why should anyone be too young to learn the ins and outs of the eternal and perfect law designed by the supreme being for all human societies in all times and places?

Al-Ahmed also noted that a ninth-grade text called on Muslims to kill Jews in order to bring about the hour of judgment: “The hour [of judgment] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. … There is a Jew behind me come and kill him.”

Here again, why is anyone surprised? The hadith collection that Muslims consider most reliable, Sahih Bukhari, quotes Muhammad saying this: “Allah’s Apostle said, The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him’” (4.52.177).

Should Saudi ninth graders not be learning about what they must do in order to bring about the blessed day and hour in which all things will be consummated and the golden age will dawn? Yes, it’s genocidal, anti-Semitic and monstrous, but then again, so is the original statement attributed to Muhammad. To condemn the Saudi textbooks is to condemn Muhammad and Islam. Yet the mainstream media stories that wrung their hands over the Saudi textbooks never pointed out that the noxious elements of those textbooks came straight from the Qur’an and the Islamic prophet.

Instead, the media reports pretended that the Saudis had cooked all this up themselves. That would certainly be a comforting thought, for then the problem could – at least theoretically – be isolated and contained, and one would hope that cooler heads would prevail in Riyadh and genuine reform ultimately undertaken. Reality is much less comforting, because of one central fact that no one wishes to acknowledge or consider in its implications: anywhere and everywhere Islam is taught, this kind of hatred and violence could be taught....

When a reporter offered to show the Prince quotes from the textbooks, Faisal replied with the Zen-like “There are many quotes.” Then he hurried away.

Prince Faisal could have done nothing else, short of saying, “Of course the textbooks teach hatred of and warfare against the filthy kuffar. What did you expect?” But no Islamic spokesmen, with the notable exception of Anjem Choudary and a few others, are so brutally frank. And why should they be? The kuffar are ever credulous, ever eager to swallow their smooth, smiling deceptions. So it will be in this case: the Saudis will promise yet again to clean up their textbooks, and as soon as this present firestorm blows over, they will go back to raising up the next generation of jihadis.

And the fat, foolish West will never see them coming.

There is more.

Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah Al-Saud, whom this report names as being responsible for the contents of the textbooks, said he didn't know how those ideas got in there.

Qur'an 5:33 prescribes the amputation of hands and feet on opposite sides for "waging war against Allah," and "spreading corruption (or mischief) in the land." Six Saudis were recently sentenced to this punishment. Qur'an 5:38 prescribes amputation for theft.

More on the unending stream of Islamic supremacism and Sharia's brutality found in Saudi textbooks. "Extremist Teachings Remain in Saudi Textbooks Despite Kingdom's Claims of Reform," by Catherine Herridge for Fox News, December 21:

Despite Saudi Arabia's promises to clean up textbooks in the kingdom, recent editions continue to raise alarms in the West over jihadist language.

The recent editions were obtained by the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, D.C., and the translations were first provided to Fox News.

“This is where terrorism starts, in the education system.” Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, told Fox News. Al-Ahmed, a Saudi national, said the textbooks, made and paid for by the Saudi government, were smuggled out of the kingdom through confidential sources.

In a textbook for 10th-graders, printed for the 2010-2011 academic year, al-Ahmed said teenagers are taught barbaric practices. “They show students how to cut (the) hand and the feet of a thief,” he said. In another textbook, for ninth-graders, the students are taught the annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative. One text reads in part: “The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. ... There is a Jew behind me come and kill him.”

Sahih Bukhari 4.52.177: "Allah's Apostle said, The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him'."

According to the textbook translations provided to Fox News, women are described as weak and irresponsible. And al-Ahmed said the textbooks call for homosexuals to be put to death "because they pose a danger at society, as the Saudi school books teaches.”

Al-Ahmed say the textbooks are both a Saudi and an American problem. “If you teach 6 million children in these important years of their lives, if you install that in their brain, no wonder we have so many Saudi suicide bombers.”

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there was an intense focus on Saudi Arabia and its educational teachings because almost all of the attackers were from the kingdom. In 2006, Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Prince Turki al-Faisal told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relationships that the Saudi king was determined to eradicate this ideology of hate.

“In Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah recognizes that above all else education is the key, and he has put forth a program of reforms in this area," al-Faisal said. "In recent years, the kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials and has removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education. Not only have we eliminated what is objectionable from old textbooks that were in our system, we have also implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan."

But the new textbooks, most from the 2010-2011 academic year, show the hateful speech remains.

In Atlanta earlier this month, the Saudi minister responsible for the textbooks talked about the importance of education for woman [sic]. Asked by Fox News about the textbooks, Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah Al-Saud said, “I always say to people, please come. Come, try to see us. But come without a preconceived idea. ... Especially when you want to raise the future, no one is going to introduce violence. Violence is absolutely against - I think this is, I don't know who put in those ideas.”

When Fox News offered to show the quotes to the minister, he said, “there are many quotes” and walked away.

Fox News also asked the Saudi Embassy in Washington D.C., for comment on the textbooks and the translations, but there was no immediate response.

The Saudis apparently fear the international opprobrium that could come upon them if they charge these Christians simply with holding a Christian prayer meeting, which is, in fact, illegal in the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places. This shows again the brittleness of Islamic supremacism: Islamic supremacists cannot stand to be challenged. That's why they have to try to shut down Western freedom of speech. That's why they do not and cannot answer the arguments that anti-jihadists bring forth, but instead sling ad hominems and abuse. And that's why they're hiding the persecution of these Christians behind the fig leaf of "mixing with the opposite sex" charges: the whiff of immorality is something they hope will blunt religious conservatives' outrage at their persecution of Christians.

This brittleness and fear, however, shows that we have to keep pushing. We have to keep speaking the truth and standing for human rights. The Islamic supremacists know they can't defend their positions, and so have to try to hide what they're doing and shout us down. But the more we expose them, the weaker they get.

An update on this story. "Saudi Arabia Arrests Ethiopian Christians For 'Mixing With Opposite Sex,'" from International Christian Concern, December 21 (thanks to Wimpy):

Washington, D.C. (December 21, 2011)-International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Ethiopian Christians who were arrested seven days ago in Saudi Arabia for holding a prayer meeting are now being charged by Saudi officials with mixing with the opposite sex. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal for men and women (non-family) to be in the same room together.

The six men and 29 women were holding a weekly prayer meeting on December 15 when the Saudi police arrested them. Christian leaders say that the accusation of “mixing with the opposite sex” is only an excuse, and believe that the Christians were arrested for practicing their faith. The Christians have not yet been brought before any court.

“The Saudi officials are accusing the Christians of committing the crime of mixing of sexes because if they charge them with meeting for practicing Christianity, they will come under pressure from the international human rights organizations as well as Western countries. In fact, when an employer of one of the detainees asked for the reason for their employee’s arrest, the Saudi official told him that it was for practicing Christianity,” said a church leader from Saudi Arabia in an interview with ICC....

If Muslim migrants were subjected anywhere in the world to the injustices Christians and other expat workers face in Saudi Arabia, it would be front page news. By contrast, these stories quietly trickle out and go largely unreported.

Even so, behavior like this from the Saudis does not create the image of a strong, confident faith. Their paranoia conveys a sense of fragility and fear. Even by "winning," by trying to show who's boss, they lose. "42 Ethiopian Christians arrested in Saudi Arabia," from Persecution, December 17:

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Saudi security forces arrested 42 Ethiopian Christians at a prayer gathering in Jeddah on Thursday. The location of the detained Christians is unknown.

On December 15, Saudi police and security officers raided an evening prayer meeting at the home of an Ethiopian Christian in the Al-Safa district of Jeddah. Those attending the service were reportedly beaten and threatened before being arrested.

Just for fun, someone should tell authorities that a man of Jewish background has slipped into the country and, according to local reports, is in the habit of joining these gatherings "wherever two or three" come together. It could make for a good all-points bulletin, not to mention the subsequent headline: "Saudis desperate to find Jesus."

“Security officials broke [into] the house and captured . . . beat and threatened them for death. . . They divided the men and the women and they are torturing them [in prison],” an Ethiopian and Eritrean Christian immigrant community living in Europe wrote in an urgent appeal for help to the ambassadors of European embassies in Riyadh on Friday.

Two Ethiopian fellowships in Saudi Arabia informed ICC that they will temporarily postpone services until the situation calms. Christians in Saudi Arabia, most of who enter the country as foreign workers, are not allowed to practice their faith openly. Saudi police have been known to raid private worship gatherings in homes, arrest and deport congregants, and confiscate Christian materials, including Bibles.

More details are emerging about this story, and they are predictably awful. In this case, the headline from Pravda ("Truth") is, well, truth. "Saudi Arabia executes 73rd victim of Sharia laws," by Sergei Balmasov for Pravda, December 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

In Saudi Arabia, Sharia court sentenced a woman accused of engaging in witchcraft to beheading by a sword. There are some unpleasant details: before dying, the "witch", apparently, suffered as the beheading was performed gradually, in three steps. Thus, she became the 73rd person executed this year in the country living under Sharia.

The woman was reported to be in her sixties. In the West, if the charges against her held up, she would have been guilty of fraud. Whether this was an error, willful negligence, or a deliberate act of torture, it only piles more injustice on an inherently unjust case.

The Kingdom authorities do not always provide accurate information on the number of women executed in Saudi Arabia. However, from time to time the details in this regard come out.

For example, shortly before the "witch" was sentenced, by the verdict of the Sharia court an Indonesian woman was executed who killed her employer that tried to force her to have sex.

In October, the sentence was carried out against a Saudi woman who killed her husband. In Saudi kingdom death sentence is given to rapists, murderers and drug traffickers. The execution is usually carried out through severing heads with a sword.

Human rights organization "Amnesty International" calls on Riyadh to abolish the death penalty, but also points to a host of other violations of human rights (especially in relation to women), but these calls are not heard in the kingdom.

The last sentence again raises questions about women's issues in Saudi Arabia. Of all Muslim countries, the situation of women in this country raises most questions. Of course, there is Somalia, where raped and, therefore, dishonored women get stoned. But now, when the country is in a state of chaos and division and has no legitimate power, it is difficult to make particular claims against it. However, in Saudi Arabia, where women in the best case are treated as pets, and in the worst case as female species deprived of elementary human rights, it is quite possible to do so.

Yet, the West is very careful in making claims to [i.e., about - ed.] the royal dynasty. In most cases, the "waters are mudded" by human rights activists and feminist organizations. The Western authorities fighting for the democratization of Libya, Syria and other countries for some reason do not see Saudi Arabia and its laws that many human rights and feminist organizations called "brutal" and "medieval."

However, the events of the "Arab Spring" gave some hope that things will change even in this country. But when and under what circumstances it can become a reality? Vladimir Isayev, chief researcher of the Center for Arab Studies with the Institute of Oriental Studies answered this and other questions in an interview with "Pravda.Ru":

"Indeed, in Saudi Arabia women's inequality to men is particularly noticeable. Suffice it to point to the fact that women cannot go out unaccompanied by men.

However, when someone in the West raises a question about the prospects for the triumph of democracy and human rights in the Arab world, many people forget that some things in Islamic countries simply cannot be undone. In this case, someone is perturbed by the fact that in Saudi Arabia a woman was executed with three hits of a sword, completely losing sight of the fact that it represents one of the Sharia laws. Sharia cannot be undone, as it is impossible to cancel, for example, the Bible. After all, the Quran prescribes certain standards of behavior in everyday life. This is the word of God, and no one can cancel or change it. [...]

In some countries secular and Sharia justice are combined to a certain extent, and the courts have a clear indication of their jurisdiction. However, in Saudi Arabia no breakthroughs are observed. As I said above, much depends on the specifics of a particular country. Saudis, due to the fact that their territories host the main Muslim shrines - Mecca and Medina - are inclined to further demonstrate their commitment to Islamic values ​​and be closer than others to Islam.

This is not the least factor that affects the conservative nature of the leadership of the country. Should it be surprising that the position according to which "even the best of women is a snake" still takes place? I would not count on any global changes with the women issue in this country in the foreseeable future."...

"She was in her 60s and had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses."

That would result in non-lethal fraud charges in most places, but Saudi Arabia certainly isn't "most places." "Saudi woman executed for 'witchcraft and sorcery'," from BBC News, December 12:

A Saudi woman has been executed for practising "witchcraft and sorcery", the country's interior ministry says.

A statement published by the state news agency said Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was beheaded on Monday in the northern province of Jawf.

The ministry gave no further details of the charges which the woman faced.

The woman was the second person to be executed for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia this year. A Sudanese man was executed in September.

'Threat to Islam'

BBC regionalist analyst Sebastian Usher says the interior ministry stated that the verdict against Ms Nasser was upheld by Saudi Arabia's highest courts, but it did not give specific details of the charges.

The London-based newspaper, al-Hayat, quoted a member of the religious police as saying that she was in her 60s and had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses.

Our correspondent said she was arrested in April 2009.

But the human rights group Amnesty International, which has campaigned for Saudis previously sentenced to death on sorcery charges, said it had never heard of her case until now, he adds....

Formal reconciliation would have been extremely complicated, well beyond their actual relationship. As this story notes, "he could be stoned to death because what he had done amounts to the most serious adultery since she is prohibited to sleep with him unless she marries another man and is divorced again before returning to the former husband."

That is not a Saudi invention, but Qur'an 2:230:

So if a husband divorces his wife (irrevocably), he cannot, after that, re-marry her until after she has married another husband and he has divorced her.

So, The Parent Trap would have been a much longer movie if it were made in Saudi Arabia. "Man could receive death penalty for adultery with ex-wife," from Emirates 24-7, December 8:

A Saudi man could be stoned to death if he is found guilty of sleeping with his ex-wife for nearly four months without telling her that he had divorced her.

The woman filed a case against her ex-husband and asked court in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah to give him maximum punishment for having sex with her during that period although he had divorced her nearly four months ago.

The woman, who was not identified, said her former husband told her on the last day of their relationship that he had just divorced her.

“When she went to court to check the divorce case, she was told her husband divorced her 120 days ago although he told her about the divorce a day before,” the Saudi Arabic language daily Alikhbariya said.

“The woman demanded the maximum punishment of her ex-husband…court sources said that in case the man is found guilty, he could be stoned to death because what he had done amounts to the most serious adultery since she is prohibited to sleep with him unless she marries another man and is divorced again before returning to the former husband.”

So much for "underlying causes" and the various excuses du jour. "Saudi High School Textbook Preaches Hate," from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, December 8:

A twelfth-grade Saudi textbook is teaching hatred of Jews and jihad to liberate Palestine, according to MEMRI. The report illustrates that hatred and violence continue to be themes in Saudi educational materials, putting a black mark on the conservative Islamic kingdom's desire to become a "knowledge society."

"Whoever studies the nature of the conflict between the Muslims and the Jews understands an important fact, [namely that] this is a religious conflict, not a dispute about politics or nationality, or a conflict between races or tribes, or a fight over land or country, as some describe it," states Saudi textbook Studies from the Muslim World.

The book says that the conflict will not end unless one side vanquishes the other, because "throughout Islamic history, the Jews have striven to destroy the [Islamic] religion and spread fitna [chaos] among the Muslims." The book also repeats classic anti-Semitic lies that Jews have taken control of Western media and culture, exploited their home societies, and aligned themselves with Christians to destroy Islam.

The natural response to the Jews and the state of Israel, the textbook states, is violence. "Jihad for the sake of Allah is the only path to liberating Palestine. Only through jihad did the Muslims conquer Jerusalem, and only through jihad did the Crusaders leave Palestine," it declares.

The widespread use of Saudi textbooks, inside and outside the kingdom, spreads extremist views, despite claims by Saudi authorities that they are refining their educational system. In September, the Hudson Institute released a report that showed that Saudi authorities did not delete hatred from textbooks, but simply shifted around offensive passages or slightly reworded them.

He insulted the companions of Muhammad. This is the kind of law that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is working hard to bring to the West. Here, if you mention something impermissible about Islam or Muhammad, you're not lashed yet -- except by the mainstream media.

"Australian sentenced to 500 lashes in Saudi Arabia," from AFP, December 7 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Australian man has been sentenced to 500 lashes and a year in jail by a court in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of blasphemy, Canberra said on Wednesday.

Reports said Mansor Almaribe, 45, was detained in the city of Medina on November 14 while making the hajj pilgrimage and accused of insulting companions of the prophet Mohammed.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said he was sentenced on Tuesday and Canberra's ambassador in Saudi Arabia had been in touch with authorities to plead for leniency....

A consular official attended the sentencing, where the Shiite Muslim was initially slapped with a two-year jail term that was subsequently reduced, the spokeswoman added....

His eldest son, Jamal, told the newspaper this week that his father had been reading and praying in a group when accosted by religious police and arrested....

Don't laugh. That wouldn't be respectful. And you know how the Saudis, and Islamic supremacists in general, are about respect. Remember also, as Pamela Geller reminds us often, that Obama has assured the Islamic world that we will respect Islam -- and also therefore Islamic law. But the best way to gain respect is to be respectable. This one, on the other hand, made me wonder if maybe someone like John Cleese or Eric Idle had gotten a job writing material for the Muslim scholars at the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council.

Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Saudis fear there will be ‘no more virgins’ and people will turn gay if female drive ban is lifted," from the Daily Mail, December 1 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Repealing a ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia would result in ‘no more virgins’, the country’s religious council has warned.

A ‘scientific’ report claims relaxing the ban would also see more Saudis - both men and women - turn to homosexuality and pornography.

The startling conclusions were drawn by Muslim scholars at the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University.

Their report assessed the possible impact of repealing the ban in Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed behind the wheel.

It was delivered to all 150 members of the Shura Council, the country’s legislative body.

The report warns that allowing women to drive would ‘provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce’.

Within ten years of the ban being lifted, the report’s authors claim, there would be ‘no more virgins’ in the Islamic kingdom.

And it pointed out ‘moral decline’ could already be seen in other Muslim countries where women are allowed to drive.

In the report Professor Subhi described sitting in a coffee shop in an unnamed Arab state.

‘All the women were looking at me,’ he wrote. ‘One made a gesture that made it clear she was available... this is what happens when women are allowed to drive.’...

One again wonders how those in charge of discerning "sexy" eyes will be chosen. Perhaps there will just be a perfunctory "Sexy/Not Sexy" training PowerPoint.

More on this story. "Saudi moral committee threatens to cover “tempting” women’s eyes," by Manar Ammar for Bikya Masr, November 16:

Women with sexy eyes in Saudi Arabia may be forced to cover them up, according to the spokesperson of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) in the conservative Gulf kingdom.

Spokesman of the Ha’eal district, Sheikh Motlab al-Nabet said the committee has the right to stop a women whose eyes seem “tempting” and order her to cover them immediately.

Saudi women are already forced to wear a loose black dress and to cover their hair and in some areas, their face, while in public or face fines or sometimes worse, including public lashings.

The announcement came days after the Saudi newspaper al-Watan reported that a Saudi man was admitted to a hospital after a fight with a member of the committee when he ordered his wife to cover her eyes. The husband was then stabbed twice in the hand.

The CPVPV is Saudi’s Sharia, Islamic law, executive arm and was founded in 1940 to ensure Islamic laws are not broken in public, yet over the years, the committee has been largely criticized over its human rights violations.

In 2002, the committee refused to let female students out of their burning schools in Mecca for “not wearing the proper head cover,” which contributed to a large number of dead.

15 young girls died in the fire and dozens more were injured. The CPVPV men banned the firemen and policemen from accessing the girls as “it is not okay for girls to be seen without their full Islamic dress in front of strangers.”

The committee, which only accepts and trains volunteers, has questionable powers on the Saudi street, as they operate under the supervision of the King himself.

A Wikileaks document released last year mentioned that “wild Western-style parties” are regularly held at royal palaces in Jeddah, away from the reach of the committee, who stands helpless against any royal violations.

It was reported that the parties had alcohol, drugs, dancing and sex, according to American consulate wires published by the whistle-blower organization.

Dr. Phylis Chesler hits the nail on the head: "This is further proof that the Obama administration’s foreign policy is one of self-destructive appeasement and that despite its presumed commitment to civil rights and human rights, that commitment does not extend to Muslim women, Muslim dissidents, or Muslim gays – nor does it extend to the right-of-survival of religious minorities (Christian, Jewish, Bahai, Zoroastrian) or to apostates."

An update on this story, in which Ali Ahmad Asseri said his life was in danger, but that Islam is tolerant. Just not of him, according to Sharia. "United States denies asylum to gay Saudi diplomat," by Benjamin Weinthal for the Jerusalem Post, November 12 (thanks to HG):

BERLIN – The United States government denied political asylum to Ali Ahmad Asseri, the former first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, last week to avoid disrupting US-Saudi relations, according to a Saudi-American blogger and journalist based in Brazil.

Asseri argued that if he returned to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia he would face execution because the country’s radically fundamental form of Islam mandates the death penalty for same-sex relations.

The Saudi-American journalist and blogger, Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, appears to have been the first writer to report on the asylum rejection. The possible deportation of Asseri to Saudi Arabia has electrified blog observers of the case over the last few days.

The Jerusalem Post’s e-mail and telephone attempts to secure on Saturday a confirmation and comment from the US State Department’s Middle East press section were not immediately returned.

In an e-mail response to the Post on Saturday, Abou-Alsamh, the Saudi-American blogger whose personal website "Rasheed's World" first broke the story about the denial of the asylum application, wrote, "As far as I know the US government has not yet officially commented on Asseri's denial of asylum, but from comments that I have read after I wrote my post, it seems that political asylum cases are often denied in first instance and then approved later when the applicant appeals."

He added: "I do think the US government is afraid of unnecessarily annoying the Saudis, especially now with all of the turmoil that the Arab world is going through because of the Arab Spring revolts."

Abou-Alsamh, who has written for The Washington Times and other US-based publications, reported on his website that Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident in Washington, said in a phone interview that “This was a political decision by the Obama administration, who are afraid of upsetting the Saudis.”

“His initial interview with Homeland Security was very positive, but then they came back and grilled him for two days after they found out that he had worked in the public prosecutor’s office in Saudi Arabia,” Alsamh continued.

“He had been an inspector to make sure that judicial punishments, such as lashings, were carried out within the law – not more, not less. They then accused him of participating in a form of torture,” Ahmed said on Abou- Alamh’s website.

Ahmed said that Asseri intends to appeal the denial of his application and the process could meander its way through the judicial process over the next few years.

Last year, the US news organization MSNBC first reported on Asseri’s decision to remain in the United States. According to an article from the MSNBC national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff: “Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, has informed US Department of Homeland Security officials that Saudi officials have refused to renew his diplomatic passport and effectively terminated his job after discovering he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman.”

In addition to his sexual orientation, Asseri’s friendship with a female Jewish Israeli appears to be a factor for concern if he returns to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh does not recognize Israel’s existence and there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Saudi Kingdom’s media and educational books are steeped in hatred of Israel.

Stuart Appelbaum, a prominent gay rights activist in New York and head of the international trade union Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, wrote the Post by e-mail on Friday. “If the United States government refuses to grant asylum to a gay diplomat because it is afraid of the Saudi reaction, then the US will become complicit in his fate. It is exactly because of how Ahmad might be treated on his return to his homophobic and brutal land that the United States should grant him refuge.”

Appelbaum played a key role in the New York State legislative decision to pass a marriage law for same-sex couples this year.

Dr. Phyllis Chesler, a New York-based expert on gender relations, wrote the Post on Friday, “This is further proof that the Obama administration’s foreign policy is one of self-destructive appeasement and that despite its presumed commitment to civil rights and human rights, that commitment does not extend to Muslim women, Muslim dissidents, or Muslim gays – nor does it extend to the right-of-survival of religious minorities (Christian, Jewish, Bahai, Zoroastrian) or to apostates.

“This decision refuses to countenance the reality of Islamic gender and religious apartheid and has chosen a ‘hands off’ policy vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia’s persecution of ‘out’ gay men,” Chesler wrote.

Saudi Arabia’s government policy of lethal homophobia has sparked outrage over the years from some human rights activists.

The subject of state-sponsored murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities across the Muslim world has been a long neglected human-rights issue, according to NGO Monitor, the Jerusalem-based watchdog organization, which monitors the role of NGOs in the region, including Israel.

It certainly is a popular defense to pursue or explore in jihadist cases.

An update on Khaled Aldawsari, who once wrote: "In the name of Allah The Beneficient, The Merciful. Nitro [urea] explosive is more powerful than T.N.T." He also stated that he came to the United States with the intention of staging an attack.

"Attorney for Saudi man charged in alleged terror plot files notice to pursue insanity defense," from the Associated Press, November 9 (thanks to Kenneth):

LUBBOCK, Texas — The attorney for a Saudi man accused of trying to make a weapon of mass destruction will use an insanity defense in the case.

Rod Hobson, the attorney for Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, filed notice of his plan Wednesday at a federal courthouse in Lubbock, Texas.

Prosecutors allege Aldawsari bought chemicals and equipment to build a weapon of mass destruction. The 21-year-old U.S. college student from Saudi Arabia has pleaded not guilty.

Earlier this week, Hobson filed to a motion seeking psychiatric and psychological exams for Aldawsari.

Aldawsari was arrested Feb. 23. Court documents allege he planned to attack various U.S. targets, including sites in New York City and former President George W. Bush’s home in Dallas.

And Dallas nightclubs.

A trial is set for Jan. 9.

Performing the Hajj pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, making this the highest possible reward: "The Hajj grant was provided by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz at the request of the Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, following their release in the Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange deal agreed last month. The costs are being borne by the Saudi monarch."

Once again, imagine the deplorable moral and political compromises we could avoid if not for the dependence on Saudi oil. "Saudi King's private aircraft to take ex-prisoners for Hajj," from Middle East Monitor, November 4:

An aircraft provided by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has been put at the disposal of ex-prisoners from Gaza in order to fly them to the kingdom to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. A senior official of the Ministry of Prisoners and Freed Detainees in the Palestinian Authority, Ziad Abu Ein, confirmed that he and his colleagues are working on the necessary travel documents and passports. The ex-prisoner pilgrims will be exempt from any fees involved.

Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio on Thursday, Mr. Abu Ein said that the private plane will land at El-Arish airport in northern Sinai before taking Gaza's ex-prisoners for Hajj. According to Abu Ein, those ex-prisoners in other parts of Palestine and other countries will be taken for Hajj separately. The exception, he added, are those in the occupied West Bank who remain under a form of house arrest imposed by the Israelis, which prevents them from leaving the country. They have been advised not to attempt to leave the country as that will give the Israeli occupation authorities an excuse not to let them back into the country. The women prisoners, said Mr Abu Ein, will travel together as a group to overcome difficulties arising from women having to have close male relatives (“muhrim”) with them when travelling to Saudi Arabia.

The Hajj grant was provided by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz at the request of the Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, following their release in the Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange deal agreed last month. The costs are being borne by the Saudi monarch.

All that's missing is an assessment of blame. That promises to be entertaining. An update on this story. "Anti-Islam toy guns seized in Dibba," from Emirates 24-7, November 2:

Authorities in Dibba seized nearly 100 Chinese-made toy guns which offend Islam by mocking the wife of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), the Arabic language daily 'Al Bayan' reported on Wednesday.

The guns, sold in shops, were found to be issuing sounds that sneer and insult Aisha, a few days after an Emirati female activist said she found one such gun in a shop in Bani Yas just outside Abu Dhabi city.“We have seized around 100 of those guns and we are now conducting an investigation on how they were brought into the UAE,” the paper said, quoting Khaled Danhani, head of the commercial licences at Dibba Municipality.

In Saudi Arabia, police said last week they had seized nearly 1,500 Chinese-made toy guns at a local market found to be issuing sounds that abuse Aisha, one of the most venerated women in Islam.Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice seized the toys during a raid on a shopping centre in the western town of Jeddah.

“The guns were found to be issuing sounds which are considered mocking and offending against the Prophet’s wife,” newspapers said, quoting Commission spokesman in Jeddah, Turki Al Zahrani.

"The spell was wrapped in a small old piece of paper carrying unreadable language and hidden inside a deserted bathroom adjoining their house."

Then there was the maid who allegedly left "magic items" under the stairs -- also the subject of a religious police "rescue." What a terrible power they have, these housemaids. Protecting Saudis from these insidious aggressors requires the eternal vigilance of the religious police.

In all seriousness, however, it is worth mentioning that Saudi women have not been allowed to work as maids, relegating that task to foreign workers. In such a climate of paranoia, cultural and linguistic differences may help translate the female foreign worker's presence from being simply "different" to suspicious and possibly "evil."

"Family saved from magic spell," from Emirates 24-7, November 1:

Saudi Arabia’s religious police saved a family that had suffered from psychological and health problems because of a magic spell cast by their housemaid before departing from the Gulf Kingdom.

Or did they need a scapegoat for problems in the home?

In a report from the capital Riyadh, a newspaper said the family plunged into endless problems just after the departure of their Asian maid. But its members restored normal life once the spell was found and neutralized by experts.

The spell was wrapped in a small old piece of paper carrying unreadable language and hidden inside a deserted bathroom adjoining their house, the Arabic language daily Sabq said.

“When the spell was found, the family realized that it was he cause of all their sudden troubles,” the paper said.

It quoted relatives as saying the spell had prompted the wife of the elder son to abandon him and live with her parents while the mother started to suffer from trances and nightmares. Another son suddenly had mental problems.

It couldn't possibly be the spreading effects of domestic turmoil. Finding the spell would only compound the existing anxiety.

The paper said the family took the spell to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which has an anti-magic section.

“There, the Commission experts dismantled the spell and destroyed all its contents, using Koran verses…once they did so, the mother fell unconscious and when she woke up later, she felt much better…the son who had mental problems said he does not remember he had any,” the paper said.

“The family then took the elder son to his wife’s parents and asked for her return….the family was surprised that the wife and her parents welcomed the idea and she did return to her husband.”

We have called many times over the years for a sort of "Manhattan Project" for innovations toward the goal of energy independence. Imagine all of the ridiculous political and moral compromises Western countries would not make -- whether with Saudi Arabia or Libya -- if not for blackmail over oil.

An update on this story. "'Saudi prince backs cleric's bounty offer for IDF soldier'," from Reuters, October 29:

DUBAI - A member of the Saudi royal family has pledged $900,000 to a bounty offered by a prominent cleric to any Palestinian who kidnaps an IDF soldier, according to comments aired on a private TV station on Saturday.

Prince Khaled bin Talal, a brother of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, told Daleel television over the phone that he decided to contribute to Awad al-Qarni's bounty after the Saudi cleric received death threats for offering $100,000 to capture an IDF soldier.

"Dr Awad al-Qarni said he was offering $100,000 to only take a prisoner but they responded by offering $1 million to kill Awad al-Qarni," Prince Khaled said, according to a recording of the call published on Daleel's website.

"I tell Dr. Awad al-Qarni, 'I will be in solidarity with you and pay the remaining $900,000 to take an Israeli soldier prisoner so that other prisoners can be freed,'" he added.

Qarni said on his Facebook page this week that he made the offer in response to a similar reward promised by an Israeli family for anyone who catches the person who killed one of its members in 1998, following a prisoner exchange agreement earlier this month of more than 1,000 Palestinians for the captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.

Qarni is well known in Saudi Arabia for his outspoken views but is not part of the official clerical establishment.

But he clearly has friends in high places.

Religious police are now on the lookout for the hottest new gift of the season, Blaspheme Me Elmo. "Anti-Islam toy guns found in the UAE," from Emirates 24-7, October 26:

An Emirati social expert and activist shopping in a local market stumbled across Chinese-made toy guns that issue sounds mocking Islam and called on authorities to take action against such products.

The discovery came a few days after Saudi authorities said they seized nearly 1,500 Chinese-made toy guns issuing sounds that mock and insult Aisha, the wife of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him).

You can't make this stuff up.

Mariam Al Ahmadi, a well-known social activist in Abu Dhabi, said she found the toy guns at some shops in Bani Yas, just outside Abu Dhabi city.

Quoted by the Dubai-based 'Emarat Al Youm' Arabic language daily, Mariam said she had reported the guns to the police and called for immediate measures. “I call upon the police and other competent authorities to investigate how these anti-Islam guns found their way into the UAE market and to take action against all those who had brought them in,” she said.

In Saudi Arabia, police said on Sunday they had seized nearly 1,500 Chinese-made toy guns at a local market found to be issuing sounds that abuse Aisha, one of the most venerated women in Islam.Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the country, seized the toys during a raid on a shopping centre in the western town of Jeddah.

“The guns were found to be issuing sounds which are considered mocking and offending against the Prophet’s wife,” newspapers said, quoting Commission spokesman in Jeddah, Turki Al Zahrani.He said sellers of those toys, mostly Asians, apparently do not know they offend Islam as the guns issue sounds in Arabic.

In 2004, Awad al-Qarni was one of 26 Islamic scholars who signed a statement encouraging jihadist attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, saying "A Muslim must not inflict harm on any resistance man or inform about them. Instead, they should be supported and protected."

Now, on his Facebook page, he has said "any Palestinian who will jail an Israeli soldier and exchange him for prisoners will be rewarded with a $100,000 prize." "Saudi cleric: Kidnap soldier - get $100,000," by Roee Nahmias for YNet News, October 26:

A week after the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, top Saudi cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarni is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who kidnaps Israeli soldiers.

He is responding to an ad published by the Libman family offering a similar reward for anyone who catches the person who murdered their relative Shlomo Libman. Libman was killed by terrorists near the settlement of Yitzhar in 1998.

Awad al-Qarni likes this.

"The press reported that the Zionist settlers will pay huge amounts of money to whoever kills the freed Palestinian prisoners," al-Qarni said. "In response to these criminals I declare to the world that any Palestinian who will jail an Israeli soldier and exchange him for prisoners will be rewarded with a $100,000 prize," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Al-Qarni's post has already received more than 1,000 likes and extensive coverage in Hamas-affiliated newspapers in Gaza.

Al-Qarni is a famous Muslim cleric who often guests on TV shows and operates his own website where he discusses various religious law issues. The Palestine-Islam issue is particularly close to his heart.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Hamas Minister Fathi Hamad admitted that Israel's withdrawal from the Strip enabled Hamas to hide Gilad Shalit for so long.

In an interview with Lebanese daily as-Safir Hamad said that the "military campaign in Gaza abolished any security coordination with Israel and the Strip's liberation allowed us to conceal Shalit for five years."...

As the opposition leader said, "the trend is clear."

"Ennahda says it models itself on the ruling AKP party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which like Tunisia to date has a secular state," but considering Turkey's behavior under the AKP, that is not exactly a reassuring statement. For that matter, Tunisia is certain not to have a secular constitution, without reference to Islam. In Turkey, Sharia has been on the outside trying to get back in; in the "new" Tunisia, it will get in on the ground floor.

An update on this story. "Islamists claim lead in Tunisia poll," from Agence France-Presse, October 24:

Tunisia's main Islamist party claimed on Monday to have captured about 40 per cent of the vote in the country's first free polls, as the cradle of the Arab Spring basked in praise for its democratic revolution.

Official results were only due on Tuesday but provisional results released by some media outlets appeared to confirm Ennahda's prediction that it would be the dominant force in Tunisia's constituent assembly.

The leader of the secular centre-left PDP party, tipped as Ennahda's main challengers before the vote, conceded defeat.

"The trend is clear. The PDP is badly placed. It is the decision of the Tunisian people. I bow before their choice," leader Maya Jribi said at her party's headquarters.

Tunisians turned out en masse Sunday to elect an assembly seen as the custodian of the pro-democracy revolution that brought dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year-old rule to a crushing end nine months ago.

"We are not far from 40 per cent. It could be a bit more or a bit less, but we are sure to take 24 (of the 27) voting districts," Samir Dilou, a member of Ennahda's political bureau said, quoting "our sources".

Another executive member said the Ennahda party's own count showed it would have between 60 and 65 seats on the 217-member body.

Data posted on the site of independent radio station Mosaique FM also gave Ennahda the lead based on non definitive results from a few dozen polling centres.

The polls, for which over 90 percent of some 4.1 million registered voters turned out, won hearty acclaim from world leaders closely scrutinising developments on the soil of the Arab Spring's trailblazer.

"This landmark election constitutes a key step in the democratic transition of the country and a significant development in the overall democratic transformation in North Africa and the Middle East," UN chief Ban Ki-moon said.

US President Barack Obama late Sunday hailed the vote as "an important step forward".

The 27-member European Union vowed support for the new authorities while former colonial power France hailed Tunisian voters' "democratic fervour".

Analysts widely predicted Ennahda to win the most votes but fall short of a majority in Sunday's elections for the new assembly that will rewrite the constitution and appoint a president to form a caretaker government.

The assembly will decide on the country's system of government and how to guarantee basic liberties, including women's rights, which many fear Ennahda would seek to diminish despite its assurances to the contrary.

It will also have interim authority to write laws and pass budgets.

Ennahda says it models itself on the ruling AKP party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which like Tunisia to date has a secular state.

Its critics have accused Ennahda of preaching modernism in public and radicalism in the mosques, but Tunisia's progressive left remains divided with party leaders having failed to form a pre-vote alliance.

That's right. It took a decree from the king himself to end an ironic consequence of the strict separation of the genders, whereby Saudi women actually had to buy lingerie from men because of a ban across the board on female sales clerks.

Not surprisingly, the retailers continue to look for excuses to get around the decree. "Lingerie shops told to honor deadline for hiring women," by Rima al-Mukhtar for Arab News, October 13 (thanks to Kenneth):

JEDDAH: Shops selling women’s fashion and lingerie that continue to employ male staff will be prevented from obtaining services offered by the Ministry of Labor if they do not start hiring women immediately.

In 2005 the Ministry of Labor ordered lingerie shops to start replacing foreign male sales clerks with women. It has been more than five years now and only the Nayomi lingerie chain and Centrepoint have successfully hired women clerks in their shops all over the Kingdom.

“If by January these shops are still employing salesmen, they will be barred from all the ministry's services including, among others, issuance of work visas to recruit manpower from abroad,” said ministry spokesman Hattab bin Saleh Al-Anzi.

Al-Anzi said in July 2011 the ministry gave shops that sell make-up, women’s clothing, abayas and accessories one year to ensure all their staff are women. “This grace period will end in July 2012, after which these shops will face sanctions from the ministry,” he said.

Reem Asaad, a member of the Saudi Economic Society who has been calling for boycotting lingerie shops not employing women, said that there should not be any slackness in the implementation of the ministry's directives. She added that many women’s shops in Jeddah had complied, but outlets in other cities had not.

Asaad doubted that shopping centers and malls took the ministry's orders seriously and recalled that a mall recently asked her to help find 450 jobs for men. “How can we be serious in employing women if such shops are still looking to employ men?” she asked.

The ministry said women’s shops include those selling women’s clothing, whether it was on the street or within shopping centers. It asked the shops to provide rest rooms for employees and asked women staff to be decently covered.

Fatima Qaroob, founder of the “Enough Embarrassment” campaign that calls for saleswomen to be employed in lingerie shops, said the 2005 order was issued by the Labor Ministry, while the one issued in 2011 had royal approval.

An account of exactly how awkward the encounter can be appeared in Time magazine earlier this year.

“Four years after the ministerial decree, I met with lingerie shop owners and asked them the reason why they were not complying and they claimed the ministry did not send an official request demanding them to employ women,” she said. “I believe businessmen are just lazy and they claim that it is difficult to train women.”...

The situation in Saudi Arabia itself proves that this outfit, the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (you can't make this stuff up), is nothing but an outpost for dawah, or Islamic proselytizing, and deception. If it is good for anything, it sets up a glaring study in contrasts between Sharia as advertised, in this "interfaith" scam in Vienna, and Sharia as observed, in Saudi Arabia.

Caveat emptor. "Saudi-backed religious tolerance center opens," by George Jahn for the Associated Press, October 13:

VIENNA (AP) — Saudi Arabia inaugurated an interfaith center in Vienna Thursday and its foreign minister said he hoped the spirit of tolerance embodied by the new institution will help change his conservative Muslim country, which prohibits any religion except Islam.

If in 1683 you don't succeed, try, try again. "War is deceit," Muhammad said.

The statement by Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal was an unusually clear declaration of intent by Saudi Arabia's rulers to work for religious and societal reforms from abroad in the face of domestic opposition to rapid change.

The center has ignited debate. Backers hope it will promote increased tolerance in Saudi Arabia, a kingdom that now prohibits any religion outside of Islam. Detractors, including Austria's Green party and moderate Muslim groups in Austria say the Saudis are the last people who should be hosting initiatives on religious coexistence.

If the goal is to change Saudi Arabia, they might consider trying it in, say, Saudi Arabia.

Ahead of Thursday's inauguration ceremonies, the daily Der Standard cited Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee as criticzing Saudi plans to exercise initial leadership oversight of the institution, saying it had to be "totally independent."

Wahhabism — the strain of Sunni Islam that is practiced in Saudi Arabia — is considered one of the religion's most conservative. Some of its tenets were hijacked by Osama bin Laden and other terrorists to justify their acts.

Strict interpretations of the faith have left Saudi women without the right to drive or to go out without permission from a male relative. They have also have tattered ties with Islam's other major branch, Shiism, that have exposed deep rivalries between Saudi Arabia and predominantly Shiite Iran.

The Sunni-Shi'ite jihad is not the invention of either country, of course.

Relations reached a new low this week after U.S. allegations that Iran was behind a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

In Vienna to launch the interfaith center, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal accused Tehran of "murder and mayhem" and said his country is working on a "measured response" to the purported Iranian assassination attempt.

But most of his comments focused on the "King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue" — and he appeared keen to dispel skepticism about his country's commitment to make it a focal point of interfaith dialogue and tolerance.

In an unsually fortright [sic] statement reflecting the Saudi leadership's push for change, the minister said he hoped "the center will take the lead" in making Saudi Arabia a more tolerant society.

How exactly is that supposed to work again?

"Saudi Arabia is willing to financially participate in this project, and to place all its moral and political resources behind such a center, without infringing ... on its autonomy or independence from any political interference," he told officials and reporters.

And he warned against "extremist minorities within every religious and cultural community ... seeking ... to propagate notions of intolerance, exclusion, racism and hatred.

Picked up a Saudi textbook lately?

"These tiny minorities," he said, "are trying to hijack and disrupt the legitimate identities and aspirations of people of all cultures and faiths."

The founding document cites principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human rights, "in particular, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion." It emphasizes "human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion."

Its board will consist of three Christians, three Muslims, a Jew, a Buddhist and a Hindu....

So, two thirds of the board could not openly practice their religion in Saudi Arabia. Tell us again which country is really in need of a brand spankin' new tolerance institute.

Pino: Immoral

In Muslim countries, non-Muslims must respect Islamic law. In non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims must respect Islamic law. Got it? Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places, and an update on this story: "Saudi Arabia arrests Colombian soccer player over religious tattoos," by Tim Hinchliffe for Colombia Reports, October 11:

A Colombian soccer player was arrested in Saudi Arabia Monday for displaying religious tattoos.

Colombian-born Juan Pablo Pino was arrested by the Saudi moral police after customers in a Riyadh shopping mall expressed outrage over the sports player's religious tattoos, which included the face of Jesus of Nazareth on his arm.

Saudi Arabia is one of the most conservative countries in the Muslim world, and according to one of the country's most respected clerics, Nayimi Sheik Mohammed, Saudi law prohibits tattoos, no matter what their form, and every player has to abide with these rules.

Memo to Colombia Reports: "conservatives" don't generally arrest people for having tattoos of Jesus on their arms.

The cleric went on to stress the importance of respecting the status of "Sharia" (Islamic law) and that the tattoos must be covered at all times.

Pino, who plays in the Saudi league, has expressed "deep sorrow" for his actions and said he respects the laws of the country. He was released from custody when a team delegate arrived and discussed the matter with the police.

A similar event occurred in Saudi Arabia last year when a Romanian player kissed the tattoo of a cross he had on his arm after scoring a goal, which also caused public outrage.

"Commission experts took the magic items to their office and managed to dismantle and stop the spell."

It is surreal, and it is ridiculous. But the maid will suffer horribly for it; witchcraft is a capital offense in Saudi Arabia. "Maid held for casting 'spell on family," from Emirates 24-7, October 11:

Saudi Arabia’s religious police arrested an Indonesian housemaid for casting a magic spell on a local family and “turning its life upside down,” a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom reported on Tuesday.

The employer of the maid in the southern mountainous town of Bisha told members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice that he had noticed a drastic change in the behavior of his family members and that he suspected the maid was behind this.

“He said the behavior of all his family members changed completely and their life was turned upside down…he said he suspected the maid could have cast a magic spell on them,” Sabq Arabic language daily said.

“After arresting and investigating the maid, she confessed to having done magic work against the family and led them to the magic items that were hidden under the steps outside the front door…Commission experts took the magic items to their office and managed to dismantle and stop the spell.”

You probably saw that coming. More on this story. "Iran rejects US plotting accusations," from Iran's own Press TV, October 11:

Iran has categorically rejected the US accusations that the Islamic Republic was involved in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, calling it a 'prefabricated scenario.'

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said on Tuesday that such 'ludicrous' claims hinged on the hostile joint stances adopted by the US and Israel against the country.

"These threadbare attitudes, which are based on the age-old and hostile American-Zionist policies, are a ridiculous show in line with certain [instances of] scenario fabrication of divisive ends on the part of the enemies of Islam and the region," Mehmanparast said.

He also condemned all acts of terrorism, adding that Washington was employing the legerdemain to divert attention from the growing domestic protests it was facing.

No, not the legerdemain! Of course, it's all the pugilistic prestidigitation of practiced purveyors of Zionist plots.

The Iranian official asserted, “Plotters of such manufactured scenarios seek to sow division and help the Zionist regime [of Israel] out of its current isolation.”

He emphasized that the Islamic Republic of Iran was a establishment founded on Islamic ethics and values and that the country had always warned that the enemies of the region were plotting against it.

The US Justice Department has accused Iran of involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir, with help from a suspected member of a Mexican drug cartel.

Reports point to the United States efforts to wage media warfare against Iran, while Tehran says Washington's ulterior motive is to deflect international attention from the runaway protests it is facing against corruption and the excessive influence of corporations on its policies.

The US is also the main supporter of Saudi Arabia -- one of the most repressive and undemocratic regimes in the world.

Said the pot to the kettle.