Sin has led to Middle East unrest, says Saudi Arabia’s top cleric
Saudi Arabia’s top religious official has blamed Muslim sinfulness for instability in the Middle East, where pro-democracy unrest has toppled four heads of state.
“The schism, instability, the malfunctioning of security and the breakdown of unity that Islamic countries are facing these days is a result of the sins of the public and their transgressions,” Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying by al-Watan newspaper.
In a Friday sermon, he accused “chaotic” people of wearing mask of “democracy and equality” for actions leading to injustice and instability within the umma, or Muslim nation.
Revolts that erupted last year have removed Arab autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen and are still raging in Syria and Bahrain. They gave voice to millions of people who suffered decades of repression but have alarmed Gulf Arab rulers.
Ties between Riyadh and Cairo were strained by the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, a close Saudi ally, and by the rising power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, an organization viewed with suspicion by many Gulf governments.
On Friday an Egyptian delegation visited Saudi King Abdullah to smooth a spat caused by protests at the Saudi embassy in Cairo, which had led to the recall of the Saudi ambassador. The king later ordered the envoy back Cairo and the embassy said he would return on Saturday.
Last month, the grand mufti was criticized after international media quoted him as saying all churches in the Arabian Peninsula should be destroyed, angering Christian bishops in Austria, Germany, and Russia. The comments could not be verified by Saudi officials.
Bin Laden’s family deported to Saudi Arabia
JEDDAH (Reuters) – Pakistan deported the family of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia on Friday, their lawyer and a diplomat said, nearly a year after U.S. special forces killed the world’s most wanted man in a northwestern Pakistani town.
The move ended months of speculation about the fate of the three widows and 11 children, who were detained by Pakistani security forces after the May 2 raid.
A Pakistani court sentenced the women to 45 days in prison this month for entering Pakistan illegally and ordered their deportation after the end of the prison term, which began on March 3 when they were formally arrested.
“The plane carrying Amal and (her brother) Zakariya al-Sadeh and the rest of the family is heading to (the Saudi Red Sea city of) Jeddah,” Ambassador Abdo Ali Abdulrahman told Reuters by telephone from Islamabad early on Friday. “This chapter that has continued for a year is now closed.”
The family lawyer, Aamir Khalil, said they had departed on a “special flight”.
Saudi officials declined immediate comment.
A Yemeni Foreign Ministry source said Amal and her children were in Saudi Arabia at the request of the bin Laden family to sort out their documents, and would go to Yemen later, without saying whether this would be to stay or to visit.
Saudi man spends 12 extra years in jail awaiting father’s pardon
A Saudi Arabian man who was jailed for three years in 1997 has spent a further 12 years behind bars waiting for his father to pardon him, a local human rights group has said.
Eid al-Sinani, 43, was originally sentenced to three years in prison and 200 lashes for beating up his step mother, Musab al-Zahrani, a researcher at the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), told Reuters.
However, when the sentence had been served the father asked a judge to keep his son in prison “until he is proven to be righteous by his father”. The judge agreed and 12 years later Sinani is still in jail, Zahrani said.
Under the kingdom’s Islamic legal system, law is not systematically codified and judicial rulings are subject to individual judges’ interpretation of sharia.
Some judges view children’s “disobedience” towards their parents as an offence worthy of lashing and even jail sentences.
A spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s Justice Ministry, which oversees courts in the conservative Islamic kingdom, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the case.
Rulings in Saudi Arabia are not based on precedent and, even with the same charge, they can differ from one judge to another.
Taboo-breaking Saudi films spur debate in staid kingdom
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, April 4 (Reuters) – An important Saudi official riding in a chauffered Rolls Royce unspools a wire fence across previously unclaimed land. “It’s mine now,” he says.
The scene, in a YouTube spoof video satirising a new state agency to combat corruption, has attracted 2.2 million viewers in a strait-laced Islamic kingdom where Saudi online comedians are tackling once-taboo subjects – and gaining a wide following.
Another video satirises a prince for mishandling anti-corruption demonstrations, while mobile phone footage of the so-called morality police harassing a family in a shopping mall went viral this year with over 180,000 hits.
The overall impact of such vignettes cannot be measured, but in Saudi Arabia, where around 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30, and where Internet penetration is around 40 percent, social media are driving public debate on a host of subjects that were once seen as strictly off-limits.
“(Our) team is very careful not to cross the red lines and instead reflects all the issues that have caused controversy or debate that have been discussed in the media,” said Lama Sabri, a writer for “Aaltayer”, which translates roughly as “On The Fly”, one of the popular YouTube shows.
“The programme also uses comedy to make fun of the existence of these red lines,” she added.
Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with no elected parliament, where the most senior positions are occupied by high-ranking royals, some of whom also have extensive business interests.
Saudi rights activist says will fight travel ban
JEDDAH (Reuters) – A Saudi Arabian human rights activist and lawyer who has been barred from travel by the authorities said on Wednesday he would appeal against the ban, which has been criticized by Amnesty International.
Waleed Abu al-Khair, who has previously filed cases against the government for jailing an activist without trial and for not allowing women to vote in municipal elections, said he was summoned to the interior ministry on March 21 and told he was banned from travelling because of “security concerns”.
“I believe that it is due to my wife’s and my activities in human rights issues that they imposed the travel ban on me,” Abu al-Khair, 33, told Reuters by telephone. “I don’t want favors from the government, just my rights. I will appeal against this travel ban.”
An interior ministry spokesman said: “Waleed Abu al-Khair is barred from travelling based on a court order from the bureau of prosecution and public investigation for his involvement in a court case that is in progress and others that are still being investigated.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Amnesty International described the ban as arbitrary and in violation of Saudi law, which stipulates that a travel ban can only be issued by judicial ruling, or by the interior minister, for specific security reasons. Saudi Arabia is a monarchy that only holds elections for municipal councils. Public protests are banned and journalists can face penalties for criticism of top officials or crossing other unofficial red lines.
The kingdom has avoided the kind of protests that rocked some Arab countries last year, partly thanks to public handouts from the king and a religious edict that banned public demonstrations in the country.
Ahmad al-Rashid, a Saudi human rights lawyer, said the case was an example of authorities using travel bans as a form of pressure against activists.
Saudi religious police drop lethal car chases in effort to improve image
Saudi religious police will stop car chases that have led to fatal accidents in the past, local media say, in an attempt to soften the image of a force that aggressively enforces Islamic Sharia laws. Bearded members of the religious police patrol the streets in Saudi Arabia to enforce strict gender segregation laws and ensure that all shops close during Muslim prayer times and that men and women are modestly dressed.
Formally known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, religious police officers arrest those who do not adhere to their rules. Involvement in violent incidents and lethal car chases has tarnished the reputation of the force.
“The car chases by the religious police will end,” Alriyadh newspaper on Tuesday quoted the head of the force, Sheikh Abdulatif Al al-Sheikh, as saying. A spokesman for the force confirmed this. “We care a great deal to make the image of the commission a positive one that reflects the true image of Islam. There is no doubt that these (plans) portray a new vision for the commission,” said the spokesman, Abdulmohsen al-Qifari.
Earlier this year, footage of religious police attacking a family outside a shopping mall in the capital, Riyadh, was posted on You Tube, registering more than 180,000 hits and generating much social media criticism of the force.
In January King Abdullah replaced the head of the religious police, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Humain, with Al al-Sheikh, who swiftly banned the activities of “volunteers” who take it on themselves to chase or detain arrest presumed sharia violators.
The Commision now wants to polish its image after repeated criticism at home and abroad, most notoriously after local media accused religious police of hampering efforts to rescue 15 girls who died inside a blazing Mecca school in 2002. “We have carried out many training sessions to prepare our patrols for catching up with the times,” Al al-Sheikh said.
Last week, Riyadh governor Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz eased restrictions that had prevented single men from entering shopping malls. The decision was supported by Al al-Sheikh.
Saudi inflation at 14-mth high on food, housing
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, March 11 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s annual inflation rate edged up to a 14-month high of 5.4 percent in February, mainly because of higher food and housing costs, state news agency SPA reported on Sunday.
Quoting data from the Central Department of Statistics, the agency said consumer prices increased 0.3 percent from the previous month in February after a 0.1 percent rise in January. Food prices climbed 0.5 percent and housing 0.7 percent.
The rise in the annual inflation rate was minor, from 5.3 percent in January, and it is not expected to prompt any tightening of Saudi monetary policy. Inflation is far below a record high of 11.1 percent hit during an oil boom in July 2008.
The central bank said last month that it expected relative price stability or even a slight decline in inflationary pressures in the near term.
Nevertheless, the latest data underlined how strong economic growth in the country, on the back of high oil prices and heavy government spending, was creating conditions for inflation.
“The concern with the new numbers is the big jump in rent again…in year-on-year we are at the highest since May 2010,” said Paul Gamble, head of research at Jadwa Investment.
“That is something to watch out for. It suggests that new property promised by the government is not going on stream and also that demand is rising.”
Saudi women seek right to play sports despite Muslim clerics’ veto
The image of 24-year-old Nour Fitiany resting courtside as the pounding of basketballs and thumping of feet reverberated around her wouldn’t merit a second glance in most countries.
But in Saudi Arabia, where girls are banned from sports in state schools, powerful clerics castigate women for exercising and female gyms must adhere to strict regulations, Fitiany’s ambition to play basketball – let alone represent her country in international tournaments – is a bold political statement.
“I hope that when they see that there are girls who really want to play, and who do play regardless of the obstacles that lie in their path, they realize that they have to do something,” she said, dressed in a baby blue t-shirt and grey jogging pants, spinning a basketball on her index finger.
Female participation in sports has long been a controversial issue in the conservative Islamic kingdom, which on February 15 was lambasted by Human Rights Watch for never having sent a woman athlete to the Olympics.
The stance of the official Supreme Council of Religious Scholars is represented by Sheikh Abdullah al-Maneea, who said in 2009 that the excessive “movement and jumping” needed in football and basketball might cause girls to tear their hymens and lose their virginity.
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Saudi women push for the right to play sports
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – The image of 24-year-old Nour Fitiany resting courtside as the pounding of basketballs and thumping of feet reverberated around her wouldn’t merit a second glance in most countries.
But in Saudi Arabia, where girls are banned from sports in state schools, powerful clerics castigate women for exercising and female gyms must adhere to strict regulations, Fitiany’s ambition to play basketball – let alone represent her country in international tournaments – is a bold political statement.
“I hope that when they see that there are girls who really want to play, and who do play regardless of the obstacles that lie in their path, they realize that they have to do something,” she said, dressed in a baby blue t-shirt and grey jogging pants, spinning a basketball on her index finger.
Female participation in sports has long been a controversial issue in the conservative Islamic kingdom, which on February 15 was lambasted by Human Rights Watch for never having sent a woman athlete to the Olympics.
The stance of the official Supreme Council of Religious Scholars is represented by Sheikh Abdullah al-Maneea, who said in 2009 that the excessive “movement and jumping” needed in football and basketball might cause girls to tear their hymens and lose their virginity.
After King Abdullah moved last year to bring women into the country’s political process, however, there have been some signs authorities may allow sportswomen to compete internationally and make it easier for girls to exercise.
The HRW report said the National Olympic committee had “indicated” it would not stop women athletes taking part in the Games if they were invited, and speculation has been rife that the government will send equestrian Dalma Malhas to compete in this years Olympics in London.
Saudi activist acquitted of terrorism chargess
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – A court in Saudi Arabia has acquitted Saeed bin Zuair, a political activist who had been in jail for five years on terrorism charges, his son Abdullah bin Zuair said Monday.
Bin Zuair, 62, a media professor who has called for political reform, has been jailed three times since 1995, most recently in 2007 on accusations related to security and terrorism.
The late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden once called for his release in an audio recording, but human rights groups say Zuair is a peaceful activist.
“We are very happy for his acquittal… the procedures are not done yet for his release. Now we are waiting for the court to request his release from the interior ministry. We don’t know when that will happen,” his son told Reuters.
Zuair has in the past spoken out against Saudi reliance on the United States to ensure its defense, criticized moves to allow peace with Israel, called for more democracy and has attacked corruption in the royal family.
Sunday the Saudi Press Agency said a judge in Riyadh had acquitted “a Saudi Arabian accused of helping al-Qaeda terrorist organization.” Without naming Zuair it said the man had been in possession of banned books, which were confiscated along with a computer, cassette tapes and videos.
“He is a very strong man…It is sad to keep him in jail for several years, then try him and find him not guilty,” said human rights lawyer Bassim Alim, who knows Zuair but did not represent him.
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