Reform and moderation are coming to Saudi Arabia! “Extremist” Islam is in retreat! Isn’t it? “Saudi women fitness centre shut over ‘indecent’ workout video,” AFP, April 21, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): Saudi sports authorities shut down a female fitness centre in Riyadh Friday over a contentious promotional video that appeared to show […]
Coup attempt in Saudi Arabia, or just an incident with a toy plane?
Conflicting reports coming out of Saudi Arabia. A coup is plausible, given the opposition of Wahhabi hardliners to the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempts to modernize the Kingdom a bit. But there doesn’t seem to be a coup taking place, at least as far as we know now. No coup attempt in Riyadh. A […]
Muslim World League urges EU to assimilate Muslim migrants better and criminalize criticism of Islam
Europe must do more to assimilate Muslim immigrant populations and criminalise religious hate speech, said the head of a global Muslim missionary society trying to help Saudi Arabia mend its reputation as a promoter of intolerant ideology. It is astonishing that Secretary General Mohammed al-Issa of the Muslim World League (MWL) would offer the assistance of […]
Will the fall of Alwaleed bin Talal herald a return to sanity in the universities he has funded?
Georgetown University has the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which pumps out “Islamophobia” propaganda by the bucketload, gives Sharia supremacists such as Jonathan A. C. Brown and gutter thugs such as Nathan Lean an aura of respectability, and sponsors the Bridge Initiative, which endeavors to hoodwink Catholic institutions into thinking there is no […]
Saudi crown prince: Islam “was not about conquering, it was about peacefully spreading the word”
“Islam is a religion of peace. This is the translation of Islam.” No, the translation of “Islam” is “submission.” “For 1,400 years, Muslims have been trying to spread the word of God. In the Middle East, in North Africa, in Europe, they weren’t allowed to spread the word. That’s why they fought to spread the […]
Saudi crown prince: Spread of Wahhabism done at West’s request during Cold War
As I show in my forthcoming book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, which you can preorder here now, the history of Islam is full of non-Muslims who thought that they could use the warriors of jihad for their own purposes. History is littered with the broken bodies of short-sighted people who thought […]
Saudi Arabia says it will ban all Muslim Brotherhood books and purge its influence from schools and universities
Three years ago, Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization “on par with Hezbollah and al Qaeda,” and the United Arab Emirates has done the same. Now: Saudi Arabia will purge its school curriculum of any influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as dismiss employees who chose to sympathise with the banned […]
Trump tells Saudi crown prince US has ‘zero tolerance’ for terrorist funding
The test of whether or not this vaunted Saudi reform is real will be if they really cut off funding not only for terror groups, but for Muslim Brotherhood mosques and organizations in the United States. “Trump tells Saudi crown prince US has ‘zero tolerance’ for terrorist funding,” by Steven Nelson, Washington Examiner, March 20, […]
Foreign Policy, in touting Saudi Arabia’s reforms, shows how little has really been done
“War is deceit,” said Muhammad (Bukhari 4.52.268), and Mohammed bin Salman is a knowledgeable and devout believer, but of course even to raise the question of whether Saudi Arabia is trying to deceive the West in order to gain its support against Iran would be “Islamophobic.” Deceive us? Inconceivable! Nonetheless, in enthusiastically cheerleading for Mohammed […]
Saudi Arabia: Ad offers Moroccan women for sale
We constantly hear in the West that Islam forbids slavery, but reality is otherwise. The Qur’an has Allah telling Muhammad that he has given him girls as sex slaves: “Prophet, We have made lawful to you the wives to whom you have granted dowries and the slave girls whom God has given you as booty.” […]
Muslim cleric: Praying for eternal forgiveness for non-Muslims is forbidden
Of course. It’s in the Qur’an: “It is not for the Prophet and those who have believed to ask forgiveness for the polytheists, even if they were relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are companions of Hellfire.” (Qur’an 9:113) “There has already been for you an excellent pattern in Abraham and […]
Saudi Arabia: Uproar over 11-year-old girl’s dance that “has angered our religion”
The video “has angered our religion and morals and Arab traditions, the majority of people,” tweeted Saudi commentator Mohammed al-Yahya. His religion is angered? Islam gets angry? It certainly is the angriest of religions, but that it could get even angrier is news to me. In any case, we can only hope that this girl […]
US puts Pakistan on watch list for religious freedom violations, Iran & Saudi Arabia countries of “particular concern”
In 2012, the Obama State Department scrubbed the section on religious freedom from its human rights report, so this is a step in the right direction. “U.S. places Pakistan on watch list for religious freedom violations,” Reuters, January 4, 2018: WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department has placed Pakistan on a special […]
Iran-backed Yemeni Shi’ite rebels attack Saudi palace with ballistic missile
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, with a ballistic missile on Tuesday, specifically targeting the Saudi royal palace. This move by Iran is an extraordinarily bold one, and provides insight into just how much this rogue jihadist nation has risen in confidence. Americans, and in fact the world, can thank […]
Saudi Arabia, promoting image of reform, to open its first cinemas
Cinemas will open to the public in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia in 2018, the kingdom’s culture ministry has announced. The lifting of the ban follows several other steps by the Saudi Crown Prince touted as liberalization of the country. This is good news, at least on the surface, as fun in Islam is generally regarded as […]
Saudi King: Moving embassy to Jerusalem “a flagrant provocation of Muslims, all over the world”
And “Palestinian” top dog Mahmoud Abbas “warned of the dangerous consequences such a decision would have to the peace process and to the peace, security and stability of the region and of the world.” They’re saying, “Don’t do this, or Muslims will kill people.” It’s just the kind of violent intimidation that neither Trump nor […]
Saudi Crown Prince: “Biggest danger of terrorism and extremism is tarnishing of reputation of our beloved religion”
He isn’t dismissing or discounting the death toll. He also said: “The biggest threat from terrorism and extremism is not only killing innocent people and spreading hate, but tarnishing the reputation of our religion and distorting our belief.” Many Western analysts have an enormous amount of hope already invested in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, […]
Hugh Fitzgerald: In Lebanon, Why Not A Sunni Militia?
This much we have been able to piece together: the current Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, son of the late Rafik Al-Hariri, also once a Prime Minister, was summoned to Saudi Arabia on the night of November 2. He promptly flew off from Beirut, assuming that the discussions he had had in Saudi Arabia […]
Saudi Grand Mufti forbids jihad against Jews, calls Hamas “terror organization”
If this report is accurate, this is another sign of the Trump Effect. I doubt this heralds genuine change in the Saudi worldview or Wahhabi Islamic theology, but the Saudis need the United States in their struggle against Iran, and so they’re making “moderate” noises. But the Qur’an and Sunnah say what they say. If […]
Belgium’s Saudi-funded largest mosque is hotbed of jihad terror plotting
Servais Verherstraeten said: “We want in Belgium an Islam practiced by people who respect our constitution, who want to integrate into our country.” Most Western leaders simply assume, without a shred of evidence that Islam is practiced in their countries by people who respect their constitution and want to integrate into our country. In all […]