Saudi Arabia and the Relgious Police- and these are our good buddies

Parent Cafe
1

<p><a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/04/international/i131242S32.DTL&hw=saudi+arabia&sn=003&sc=247[/url]”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/04/international/i131242S32.DTL&hw=saudi+arabia&sn=003&sc=247&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(02-04) 13:12 PST RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) –</p>

<p>A Saudi Arabian judge sentenced 20 foreigners to receive lashes and spend several months in prison after convicting them of attending a party where alcohol was served and men and women danced, a newspaper reported Sunday.</p>

<p>The defendants were among 433 foreigners, including some 240 women, arrested by the kingdom’s religious police for attending the party in Jiddah, the state-guided newspaper Okaz said. It did not identify the foreigners, give their nationalities or say when the party took place.</p>

<p>Judge Saud al-Boushi sentenced the 20 to prison terms of three to four months and ordered them to receive an unspecified number of lashes, the newspaper said. They have the right to appeal, it added.</p>

<p>The prosecutor general charged the 20 with “drinking, arranging for impudent party, mixed dancing and shooting a video for the party,” Okaz said.</p>

<p>The paper said the rest of those arrested were awaiting trial.</p>

<p>Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which it bans alcohol and meetings between unrelated men and women.</p>

<p>The religious police, a force resented by many Saudis for interfering in personal lives, enjoys wide powers. Its officers roam malls, markets, universities and other public places looking for such infractions as unrelated men and women mingling, men skipping Islam’s five daily prayers and women with strands of hair showing from under their veil.</p>

<p>In May, the Interior Ministry restricted the powers of the religious police to just arresting suspects, because the police sometimes had held people incommunicado and insisted on taking part in ensuing investigations.</p>

2

<p>I have been saying for years that the kingdom of Saud is the real enemy. Maybe now people will wake up, if they haven’t already.</p>

3

<p>It’s Allah’s will. At least they were not accused of drawing cartoons of their prophet. Drinking and dancing one day – the next thing you know you are drawing cartoons.</p>

4

<p>What too many Americans don’t understand is that the House of Saud is Wahhabist, and has been since the fourth or fifth Caliphate. They were the mortal enemies of Hussein of the Hejaz, whose son was Faisal, the Arab leader you may remember from “Lawrence of Arabia.” Now THEY control the Hejaz and, thus, Mecca and Medina.</p>

<p>The fact that these most intolerant and fundamentalist Muslims are our “friends” is bizarre and, in the long term, about as useful to us as the Shah or Iran was.</p>

<p>It’s just a matter of time.</p>

5

<p>It’s a deal the House of Saud made with the religious fundamentalists. The fundamentalists get to impose their will on the people of Saudi Arabia as long as they leave the royal family alone.</p>

<p>It’s a similar deal that we cut with the House of Saud. As Thomas Friedman puts it, “just keep the pumps flowing and the prices down at the filling station; we won’t ask what you do out back.”</p>

<p>BTW, our Saudi friends stonewalled us on the war on terror up until the point when bin Laden and Zawahiri made a strategic decision to call off attacks on the US and switch their emphasis to targeting the House of Saud, including plots to kill the Crown Prince. This changed the dynamic and ended another deal (Saudi support to bin Laden in exchange for a leaving Saudi Arabia alone).</p>

<p>The Saudis quickly started helping the CIA (to a degree…kind of like Pakistan).</p>

6

<p>The only US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia who spoke Arabic well enough to see how much anti-US and anti-Western propaganda was actually prevalent in Saudi society was quickly relieved of duty at the Saudi’s request, during the Bush I Administration I believe it was. Possibly Clinton’s. We never really wanted to know, and still don’t, I think.</p>

7

<p>When you live and work in another country, you are subject to the laws of that country. My father lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for more than fifteen years and saw the power of the religious police increase markedly during that time. </p>

<p>I agree with interesteddad’s post. We think we’re buying oil with dollars, but the bill will be written in blood.</p>

8

<p>its nice our country is so buddy buddy with torturers-, who do it in the name of God, guess its okay then</p>

9

<p>House of Saud’s days are numbered; the only question is what happens next, and will the “next” remember the role the U.S. played in propping them up.</p>

10

<p>Thanks for posting. I’m so sick of our government’s hypocrisy. All we care about is oil, not human rights.</p>

11

<p>Well, unless you don’t drive Northstarmom or use energy in other ways, you’re part of the picture. It’s not just our government.</p>

12

<p>It’s not a random coincidence that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis.</p>

13

<p>House of Bush + House of Saud = A match made in heaven (if you are into oil money).</p>

14

<p>^^I’d like to blame it all on Bush, but until we wean ourselves off of big foreign oil as a key part of our primary energy source, you will see ALL presidents of the US, Democrats and Republicans alike, kissing up to the the House of Saud.</p>

15

<p>“use energy in other ways, you’re part of the picture. It’s not just our government.”</p>

<p>Using energy is one thing; wasting it is another. You don’t have to live completely off the grid in order to cut back and help do your share.</p>

16

<p>I’m opposed to wasting energy. But I am even more opposed to appeals to individual “energy purity”. The changes that make a real difference in smaller timeframes are the big ones - closing lanes on the highway, heavily subsidizing mass transit, eliminating NAFTA/CAFTA and the WTO agreements which encourage heavily energy dependent imports and exports, cutting the size of the military in half; providing major tax breaks for the purchase of used cars (NOT energy efficient new ones - the energy expended in building and transporting them more than offsets any gains in their gasoline use); expanding taxes on houses over a certain square footage, etc. </p>

<p>All of these things are rather simple, actually. They just require collective political will to accomplish. Individual changes cannot and do not substitute for them, and are, in fact, diversions.</p>

17

<p>On my first morning in the United Arab Emirates I was invited to join some folks who had arranged a good spot for that days stoning. No it’s real not Monty Python. I did not attend so can’t relate any additional info.</p>

18

<p>That is complete BS. The UAE is one of the most advanced countries in the Middle East. I really doubt what your saying is true. I’m currently living in Dubai and have been here for 7 years and lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for 10 years. Dubai is fantastic and I recommend everyone visit it.</p>

19

<p>“The UAE is one of the most advanced countries in the Middle East”</p>

<p>That may be true, but when compared to people in other western countries they are still centuries behind. </p>

<p>Inhuman treatment of migrant workers and religious intolerance are just two example.s</p>

20

<p>I would add that perhaps one day even this relatively advanced Arab country will join the nations of a civil-liberal-society in offereing basic human freedoms as mentioned above. </p>

<p>Inshallah, it will one day come to pass.</p>