http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mj9DQlLzMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqxwtzxbXiU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_IrmEOBFyQ&feature=related
Friday, December 23, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Tehran Theocratic Mullahs’ Loathing for “The Great Satan” and Its Saudi “Puppets”
The Tehran Theocratic Mullahs’ Loathing for “The Great Satan” and Its Saudi “Puppets”
By Ali Alyami
There is nothing that the theocratic Mullahs in Tehran would rather do than tarnish the absolute Saudi monarchy’s image and render insignificant its leadership among Muslims and within the international community. It is a well-known fact that these last two tyrannical Muslim regimes are competing for Arab and Muslim leadership in the hope of securing global recognition and legitimacy for their draconian rule at home. In addition, the cruel Iranian regime will stop at nothing to drive a bigger wedge between the absolute Saudi monarchs and their most important protecting ally, the US. However, plotting to attack the Saudi embassy in Washington and kill its hundreds of personnel including King Abdullah’s yes-man ambassador will back fire in a way even the vicious Iranian regime is not suicidal enough to undertake.
The similarities between the autocratic and theocratic regime in Tehran and their counterparts in Riyadh are well known. They are anti-democracy, anti-women, anti-non-Muslims, anti-human rights and share a common objective of ridding Arab and Muslim countries of Western influence so they can continue to oppress their people in the name of God and Shariah law. Both foster, export and finance extremist and terrorist groups in order to spread their influence and extract concessions from Western governments as the Saudis did with Britain regarding Arms Sales’ bribery in 2008. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade).
Knowing that Tehran’s despots and their counterparts in Riyadh are brimming with hate for the US and Israel as well as for each other, it should not be surprising, albeit unlikely in this case, that someone in Tehran would attempt to hire assassins to hit a small Saudi target, especially in the West. The theocrats in Tehran are vying for a leading role among Muslims; and bullying their Saudi competitors along with their US ally would enhance the image of the Iranian regime among many Muslims regardless of religious differences.
Like the Saudi royals (recall King Abdullah's urging President Obama to "cut the head of the snake”), the tyrannical regime in Tehran wants to drag the US and/or Israel into a prolonged war in an Arab or Muslim country so it can convince the rest of the mostly poverty stricken and marginalized Muslims of the “Crusaders’ war” against Islam and Muslims.
Even harsh critics of Arab and Muslim ruling hooligans’ politics and practices would find the Justice Department’s alleged Iranian escapade to be unconvincing, especially at a time when the Iranian regime knows misbehaving could generate a crippling military response by a combination of regional and international coalitions. The Tehran theocrats are vicious, but not suicidal.
By Ali Alyami
There is nothing that the theocratic Mullahs in Tehran would rather do than tarnish the absolute Saudi monarchy’s image and render insignificant its leadership among Muslims and within the international community. It is a well-known fact that these last two tyrannical Muslim regimes are competing for Arab and Muslim leadership in the hope of securing global recognition and legitimacy for their draconian rule at home. In addition, the cruel Iranian regime will stop at nothing to drive a bigger wedge between the absolute Saudi monarchs and their most important protecting ally, the US. However, plotting to attack the Saudi embassy in Washington and kill its hundreds of personnel including King Abdullah’s yes-man ambassador will back fire in a way even the vicious Iranian regime is not suicidal enough to undertake.
The similarities between the autocratic and theocratic regime in Tehran and their counterparts in Riyadh are well known. They are anti-democracy, anti-women, anti-non-Muslims, anti-human rights and share a common objective of ridding Arab and Muslim countries of Western influence so they can continue to oppress their people in the name of God and Shariah law. Both foster, export and finance extremist and terrorist groups in order to spread their influence and extract concessions from Western governments as the Saudis did with Britain regarding Arms Sales’ bribery in 2008. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade).
Knowing that Tehran’s despots and their counterparts in Riyadh are brimming with hate for the US and Israel as well as for each other, it should not be surprising, albeit unlikely in this case, that someone in Tehran would attempt to hire assassins to hit a small Saudi target, especially in the West. The theocrats in Tehran are vying for a leading role among Muslims; and bullying their Saudi competitors along with their US ally would enhance the image of the Iranian regime among many Muslims regardless of religious differences.
Like the Saudi royals (recall King Abdullah's urging President Obama to "cut the head of the snake”), the tyrannical regime in Tehran wants to drag the US and/or Israel into a prolonged war in an Arab or Muslim country so it can convince the rest of the mostly poverty stricken and marginalized Muslims of the “Crusaders’ war” against Islam and Muslims.
Even harsh critics of Arab and Muslim ruling hooligans’ politics and practices would find the Justice Department’s alleged Iranian escapade to be unconvincing, especially at a time when the Iranian regime knows misbehaving could generate a crippling military response by a combination of regional and international coalitions. The Tehran theocrats are vicious, but not suicidal.
Islamists Have Nothing to Offer, But Religious Totalitarianism
Islamists Have Nothing to Offer, But Religious Totalitarianism
CDHR’s Commentary: While there is legitimate apprehension circulating in the Middle East and around the world regarding Muslim parties wining preliminary elections in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, one has to listen to what the heads of these parties say. They are promising an end to corruption, poverty and oppression. These are the reasons that drove millions of people to the streets to risk their lives to rid their countries of oppressive despots who have subjugated them for decades. These Muslim parties’ fates will be the same as the ones they are replacing if they do not keep their commitments to the new generation of Arabs whose worldly aspirations and needs overcame their crippling fear of their states’ cruel police and security apparatus. It seems that many Western analysts and experts are overlooking an extraordinary factor when they write about or discuss the Arab Uprising even when facts on the ground contradict their abysmal forecasts.
All an astute observer has to do is to look at the freedom and justice seekers (men and women) facing states’ tanks and bullets in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. They are willing to pay the ultimate price to end centuries of religious and political totalitarianism. This new generation of Arabs who are tortured, shot at, killed, starved and incarcerated will not stop at anything less than liberation from the yoke of oppression imposed by the men and institutions that have
coercively dominated their lives and livelihoods for decades and
centuries. For the first time in their tumultuous history, the Arab
people are looking inward instead of blaming outsiders for their systems’ gargantuan failures to meet their basic worldly needs. Unlike the Islamists, the new generation of Arabs yearning for freedom did not have platforms to air their grievances until now. They discovered that freedom is not free and decided to create platforms from which they can make their voices heard and their needs met. Tahrir (liberation) Squares are the new platforms where they can force whoever wins elections and rules think twice before going against their demands for better
governance that works for them instead of enslaving them.
What the Arab masses, rich and poor, are fighting and dying for is
above and beyond what the Islamists are capable of offering:
liberation from all forms of dictatorship, especially
oppressive religious taboos and the imposition of stifling doctrines. One can learn a lesson from the Iranian masses’ support for the Islamists Revolution in 1979, until they discovered the Mullahs for who they really are: Power seeking hooligans. The Arabs, especially liberals, youth, women and minorities, in Tunis and Egypt are already engaging the Islamists politically and in some cases physically over their political future.
At the end of the day, the freedom fighters will win, especially if
they receive genuine support from the West which has thus far taken very cautious measures in selective places and continues to support
tyrannical systems in places like Saudi Arabia and other small but
wealthy Gulf states which finance Islamists and anti-democracy groups in Arab and Muslim countries and the international community,
especially the West.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/egypt-election-runoffs_n_1129135.html
CDHR’s Commentary: While there is legitimate apprehension circulating in the Middle East and around the world regarding Muslim parties wining preliminary elections in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, one has to listen to what the heads of these parties say. They are promising an end to corruption, poverty and oppression. These are the reasons that drove millions of people to the streets to risk their lives to rid their countries of oppressive despots who have subjugated them for decades. These Muslim parties’ fates will be the same as the ones they are replacing if they do not keep their commitments to the new generation of Arabs whose worldly aspirations and needs overcame their crippling fear of their states’ cruel police and security apparatus. It seems that many Western analysts and experts are overlooking an extraordinary factor when they write about or discuss the Arab Uprising even when facts on the ground contradict their abysmal forecasts.
All an astute observer has to do is to look at the freedom and justice seekers (men and women) facing states’ tanks and bullets in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. They are willing to pay the ultimate price to end centuries of religious and political totalitarianism. This new generation of Arabs who are tortured, shot at, killed, starved and incarcerated will not stop at anything less than liberation from the yoke of oppression imposed by the men and institutions that have
coercively dominated their lives and livelihoods for decades and
centuries. For the first time in their tumultuous history, the Arab
people are looking inward instead of blaming outsiders for their systems’ gargantuan failures to meet their basic worldly needs. Unlike the Islamists, the new generation of Arabs yearning for freedom did not have platforms to air their grievances until now. They discovered that freedom is not free and decided to create platforms from which they can make their voices heard and their needs met. Tahrir (liberation) Squares are the new platforms where they can force whoever wins elections and rules think twice before going against their demands for better
governance that works for them instead of enslaving them.
What the Arab masses, rich and poor, are fighting and dying for is
above and beyond what the Islamists are capable of offering:
liberation from all forms of dictatorship, especially
oppressive religious taboos and the imposition of stifling doctrines. One can learn a lesson from the Iranian masses’ support for the Islamists Revolution in 1979, until they discovered the Mullahs for who they really are: Power seeking hooligans. The Arabs, especially liberals, youth, women and minorities, in Tunis and Egypt are already engaging the Islamists politically and in some cases physically over their political future.
At the end of the day, the freedom fighters will win, especially if
they receive genuine support from the West which has thus far taken very cautious measures in selective places and continues to support
tyrannical systems in places like Saudi Arabia and other small but
wealthy Gulf states which finance Islamists and anti-democracy groups in Arab and Muslim countries and the international community,
especially the West.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/egypt-election-runoffs_n_1129135.html
The World needs Islamic guidance” Says the King
The World needs Islamic guidance” Says the King
CDHR’s Commentary: In a speech read on his behalf at an influential Muslim scholars' conference in November 2011, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sounded self-assured that “Only Islam’s mercy, light and guidance can provide people with a way forward in life and toward the Hereafter.” The King went on to implore all Muslims to convince non-Muslims to come to and embrace the Muslim faith [i.e., the Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabi doctrine] because he inexplicably believes that non-Muslims are in need of redemption and “Islam, with its comprehensive divine values and a balanced view of life, is alone capable of rescuing humankind from its current behavioral predicament…”
The King reminded Muslims that it’s their obligation to convert non-Muslims to Islam, “The Muslim Ummah [community] has a responsibility to call people to Islam through its Da’wa [Call] work around the globe.” Perhaps King Abdullah is not cognizant of the fact that he is presiding over one of the most religiously oppressed and least politically free countries on earth. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, home to its two holiest shrines, the Quran is its constitution and the Shariah is its law. In other words, Saudi Arabia is ruled in accordance with Islamic teachings, laws and commands, as interpreted by the Kingdom's Hambali/Wahhabi “religious” men.
King Abdullah’s well-timed and pointed plea to the 1.5 billion Muslims during their holiest occasion, the annual pilgrimage rituals, and its far-reaching implications never made it to Western news outlets, despite the fact that the West is his target. One would think that King Abdullah is asking Muslims to perform the impossible given the current slaughtering of Muslims by other Muslims, but he is not. Millions of people around the world are economically hurting, vulnerable and looking for solutions from any source, specially the divine ones.
It is not accidental that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, particularly in Western societies where the overwhelming majority of the populations see Islam as a belief, not as a domineering value system that controls every aspect of its adherents’ lives, perceptions and relations with non-Muslims. The majority of Muslims have been brainwashed into believing that the rule of law, freedom of choice and individual liberty are antithesis to divine laws, therefore blasphemous.
King Abdullah's call on Muslims to spread Islam and its Shariah law must not be taken lightly. He is the “Custodian” of Islam’s two holiest shrines in Mecca and Madina to which most of the world’s 1.5 billion poverty stricken, oppressed and indoctrinated Muslims look for guidance, instructions and money. It would be naïve and myopic to think that the King’s call would fall on deaf ears as many in the West seem to think. After all, he is the absolute ruler of the most religiously and financially influential country in Arab and Muslim lands and beyond.
Prominent Muslim scholars from the prestigious Al-Azhar University and others have described the Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabism, as enemy number one of Islam and Muslims. The former President of Indonesia Abdulrahman Wahid, a world renowned Muslim scholar himself, called on the international community to unite and defeat the Wahhabi doctrine because it poses a deadly threat to democracies and harmony among people. The West should listen and prevent Islamist ideology from taking root in Western societies, where it will result in social strife, divisions and conflict as is the case in many Arab and Muslim countries and communities.
Read article
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=20111101111499
CDHR’s Commentary: In a speech read on his behalf at an influential Muslim scholars' conference in November 2011, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sounded self-assured that “Only Islam’s mercy, light and guidance can provide people with a way forward in life and toward the Hereafter.” The King went on to implore all Muslims to convince non-Muslims to come to and embrace the Muslim faith [i.e., the Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabi doctrine] because he inexplicably believes that non-Muslims are in need of redemption and “Islam, with its comprehensive divine values and a balanced view of life, is alone capable of rescuing humankind from its current behavioral predicament…”
The King reminded Muslims that it’s their obligation to convert non-Muslims to Islam, “The Muslim Ummah [community] has a responsibility to call people to Islam through its Da’wa [Call] work around the globe.” Perhaps King Abdullah is not cognizant of the fact that he is presiding over one of the most religiously oppressed and least politically free countries on earth. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, home to its two holiest shrines, the Quran is its constitution and the Shariah is its law. In other words, Saudi Arabia is ruled in accordance with Islamic teachings, laws and commands, as interpreted by the Kingdom's Hambali/Wahhabi “religious” men.
King Abdullah’s well-timed and pointed plea to the 1.5 billion Muslims during their holiest occasion, the annual pilgrimage rituals, and its far-reaching implications never made it to Western news outlets, despite the fact that the West is his target. One would think that King Abdullah is asking Muslims to perform the impossible given the current slaughtering of Muslims by other Muslims, but he is not. Millions of people around the world are economically hurting, vulnerable and looking for solutions from any source, specially the divine ones.
It is not accidental that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, particularly in Western societies where the overwhelming majority of the populations see Islam as a belief, not as a domineering value system that controls every aspect of its adherents’ lives, perceptions and relations with non-Muslims. The majority of Muslims have been brainwashed into believing that the rule of law, freedom of choice and individual liberty are antithesis to divine laws, therefore blasphemous.
King Abdullah's call on Muslims to spread Islam and its Shariah law must not be taken lightly. He is the “Custodian” of Islam’s two holiest shrines in Mecca and Madina to which most of the world’s 1.5 billion poverty stricken, oppressed and indoctrinated Muslims look for guidance, instructions and money. It would be naïve and myopic to think that the King’s call would fall on deaf ears as many in the West seem to think. After all, he is the absolute ruler of the most religiously and financially influential country in Arab and Muslim lands and beyond.
Prominent Muslim scholars from the prestigious Al-Azhar University and others have described the Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabism, as enemy number one of Islam and Muslims. The former President of Indonesia Abdulrahman Wahid, a world renowned Muslim scholar himself, called on the international community to unite and defeat the Wahhabi doctrine because it poses a deadly threat to democracies and harmony among people. The West should listen and prevent Islamist ideology from taking root in Western societies, where it will result in social strife, divisions and conflict as is the case in many Arab and Muslim countries and communities.
Read article
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=20111101111499
“What Do Saudi Women Want?"
“What Do Saudi Women Want?"
CDHR’s Comment: Saudi women want the most basic rights: recognition as full human beings, full citizenship, financial independence and the right to move freely. With gargantuan respect and admiration for Ms. Eman Al Nafjan’s intelligence, courage and struggle, I beg to differ with some of her insinuations that the majority of Saudi women prefers to live under what amounts to a modern slavery system. I agree with Ms. Al Nafjan that many women (and men) in the motherland remain nostalgic for their past and fearful of what’s denied to them. I disagree that the majority of the severely disenfranchised population, especially women, would not appreciate something better than living under institutionalized discriminatory and intimidating policies, harshly enforced by a system whose hegemonic survival depends on dividing, conquering and ensuring the population's dependence on handouts and omnipresent fear of God, whipping sticks and the sword. Like any people, if Saudi women and men have free choices based on facts and knowledge of better alternatives, the overwhelming majority is more likely to denounce every aspect of their rasping culture, distorted religious teachings and suffocating social and political arrangements.
The Saudi people can learn, think for themselves and distinguish between the good, the bad and everything in between. They can change and in due time embrace values that are the antithesis of what they have been programmed into believing are supreme to all other values, especially those of the “infidels," which most educated Saudi men and women strive to attain. This is evidenced by traveling Saudis, most of whom cannot wait to board a plane and strip off their suffocating and unsightly attire and to slip into the outfits people they have been told are dirty, unethical sinners and hell-bound blasphemous unbelievers.
I agree with Ms. Al Nafjan and millions of Saudis and other Muslims that religion has been used as a tool of oppression, discrimination, segregation and intolerance against those who think out of the box, as well as non-Muslims and Muslim minorities. This is why many Muslims are not only questioning the authenticity of their faith, but severely criticizing it and many are leaving it altogether. The quandary is not that Saudi women and men cannot labor for, embrace and appreciate independence, self-reliance and liberation from the yoke of political, social, sexual and religious totalitarianism, it’s the system under which they are forced to live and coercively obey. All the people need is freedom of choices to venture into the unknown, explore their untapped potential and put them in good use for themselves and for their influential country.
What needs to be done to alter for the people of the motherland, including those who rule, is a re-interpretation of Muslim textbooks, leaving religion to the individual, transforming all institutions to meet people’s needs now and installing an accountable and transparent mechanism whereby the people are in charge of their country’s safety, prosperity and destiny. This will take time to blossom, but the time to start is now before violence becomes the only hope for people to realize their dreams and become the authors of their fate.
Finally and based on first hand experiences, I found Saudi women to be the most resilient people I have ever met, worked with, befriended and watched since I was a child in the oppressed southern region of the vast land of Arabia. Sadly and inexplicably, the theocratic and autocratic iron-fisted ruling men are not taking notice of the people's aspirations and based on their history and state of mind they are not likely going to change until they have no choice. By then it will be too late for everyone.
Read more: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/28/what_do_saudi_women_want
What Do Saudi Women Want?
It's not as simple as driving, voting, and property.
BY EMAN AL NAFJAN | DECEMBER 2011
What do Saudi women want? I wish I could give you an easy answer. But Saudi Arabia is a diverse land -- spread out across a vast territory almost a fourth the size of the United States and divided by religious sects and among some 45 tribes. Divining the Saudi people's demands, never mind those of Saudi women, is no simple task.
By law, every Saudi woman has a male guardian. At birth, the guardianship is given to her father and then upon marriage to her husband. If a woman is a widow, her guardianship is given to her son -- meaning that she would need her own son's permission for the majority of her interactions with the government, including the right to travel abroad. Legal recourse is difficult to obtain, especially because abuse is only recognized when it's physical abuse. Even then, the Saudi justice system is patriarchal, bordering on the misogynistic. For example, to this day the Justice Ministry has not issued a law banning child marriage, leaving the decision at the discretion of the girl's father.
You would think that women living under these conditions would long for liberty, independence, and civil rights. Many do -- as this year's driving campaign makes clear. However, it's just not that simple. Millions of others are still not sure they are ready for change. Some explain their indecision as a fear that they might have to assume responsibilities they are incapable of undertaking. One fellow Saudi tells me that she sees what women have to put up with abroad: "I see how American women have to run around the city running errands, and I don't want to open that door. As long as women driving is banned, no one will have these expectations for me," she says.
In fact, Saudi Arabia may be even more conservative than most outsiders think. There are some who are not only passively happy with the status quo but also loud in their resistance to any form of change. In 2009, a Jeddah woman named Rawdah Al-Yousif, in collaboration with members of the royal family, organized a campaign to strengthen the guardianship system. It was called "My Guardian Knows What's Best for Me." They urged the king not to give in to local activists and international human rights organizations regarding the guardianship system. Another campaign gathered thousands of signatures from both men and women calling for the extension of gender segregation laws to hospitals -- the same segregation laws that have led to Saudi women only making up 15 percent of the national workforce and an unemployment rate for women so high that the government won't release the numbers. The only public places where these laws are not enforced are malls and hospitals. Yet there are Saudis who would like to see segregation even there.
None of this is a surprise, considering what is being taught in the public school system. In religion classes, students learn that the Saudi interpretation of Islam supersedes any worldly concepts of human rights. Women have the most to lose, yet these ideas are so ingrained that I defy you to find a report of a Saudi mother complaining about what her children are being taught.
Women in most countries may take their aspirations for freedom for granted, but for many of us, it is brand new. An exasperated expatriate in Riyadh once expressed to me how frustrated she was with the requirement to wear an abaya everywhere. She wondered: How do you all put up with having to cover your faces for your whole adult lives? What she didn't realize was that many Saudi women look at her and wonder: How can she walk around without an abaya? How is it that she doesn't feel exposed and naked?
Yet I am happy to say that I am one of many women hungry for self-determination -- women who have realized that though liberty and rights come with responsibility, it also gives them and their daughters the autonomy to pursue their happiness.
And yes, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Saudi women who are fighting for their rights -- and the well-covered driving campaign is just one of many battles, from fighting for the right to manage their own businesses to being allowed to freely leave and enter the country without their guardian's permission. Even something as simple as recognizing women lawyers in our judicial system could be transformational. And that, of course, is why it is so hard.
CDHR’s Comment: Saudi women want the most basic rights: recognition as full human beings, full citizenship, financial independence and the right to move freely. With gargantuan respect and admiration for Ms. Eman Al Nafjan’s intelligence, courage and struggle, I beg to differ with some of her insinuations that the majority of Saudi women prefers to live under what amounts to a modern slavery system. I agree with Ms. Al Nafjan that many women (and men) in the motherland remain nostalgic for their past and fearful of what’s denied to them. I disagree that the majority of the severely disenfranchised population, especially women, would not appreciate something better than living under institutionalized discriminatory and intimidating policies, harshly enforced by a system whose hegemonic survival depends on dividing, conquering and ensuring the population's dependence on handouts and omnipresent fear of God, whipping sticks and the sword. Like any people, if Saudi women and men have free choices based on facts and knowledge of better alternatives, the overwhelming majority is more likely to denounce every aspect of their rasping culture, distorted religious teachings and suffocating social and political arrangements.
The Saudi people can learn, think for themselves and distinguish between the good, the bad and everything in between. They can change and in due time embrace values that are the antithesis of what they have been programmed into believing are supreme to all other values, especially those of the “infidels," which most educated Saudi men and women strive to attain. This is evidenced by traveling Saudis, most of whom cannot wait to board a plane and strip off their suffocating and unsightly attire and to slip into the outfits people they have been told are dirty, unethical sinners and hell-bound blasphemous unbelievers.
I agree with Ms. Al Nafjan and millions of Saudis and other Muslims that religion has been used as a tool of oppression, discrimination, segregation and intolerance against those who think out of the box, as well as non-Muslims and Muslim minorities. This is why many Muslims are not only questioning the authenticity of their faith, but severely criticizing it and many are leaving it altogether. The quandary is not that Saudi women and men cannot labor for, embrace and appreciate independence, self-reliance and liberation from the yoke of political, social, sexual and religious totalitarianism, it’s the system under which they are forced to live and coercively obey. All the people need is freedom of choices to venture into the unknown, explore their untapped potential and put them in good use for themselves and for their influential country.
What needs to be done to alter for the people of the motherland, including those who rule, is a re-interpretation of Muslim textbooks, leaving religion to the individual, transforming all institutions to meet people’s needs now and installing an accountable and transparent mechanism whereby the people are in charge of their country’s safety, prosperity and destiny. This will take time to blossom, but the time to start is now before violence becomes the only hope for people to realize their dreams and become the authors of their fate.
Finally and based on first hand experiences, I found Saudi women to be the most resilient people I have ever met, worked with, befriended and watched since I was a child in the oppressed southern region of the vast land of Arabia. Sadly and inexplicably, the theocratic and autocratic iron-fisted ruling men are not taking notice of the people's aspirations and based on their history and state of mind they are not likely going to change until they have no choice. By then it will be too late for everyone.
Read more: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/28/what_do_saudi_women_want
What Do Saudi Women Want?
It's not as simple as driving, voting, and property.
BY EMAN AL NAFJAN | DECEMBER 2011
What do Saudi women want? I wish I could give you an easy answer. But Saudi Arabia is a diverse land -- spread out across a vast territory almost a fourth the size of the United States and divided by religious sects and among some 45 tribes. Divining the Saudi people's demands, never mind those of Saudi women, is no simple task.
By law, every Saudi woman has a male guardian. At birth, the guardianship is given to her father and then upon marriage to her husband. If a woman is a widow, her guardianship is given to her son -- meaning that she would need her own son's permission for the majority of her interactions with the government, including the right to travel abroad. Legal recourse is difficult to obtain, especially because abuse is only recognized when it's physical abuse. Even then, the Saudi justice system is patriarchal, bordering on the misogynistic. For example, to this day the Justice Ministry has not issued a law banning child marriage, leaving the decision at the discretion of the girl's father.
You would think that women living under these conditions would long for liberty, independence, and civil rights. Many do -- as this year's driving campaign makes clear. However, it's just not that simple. Millions of others are still not sure they are ready for change. Some explain their indecision as a fear that they might have to assume responsibilities they are incapable of undertaking. One fellow Saudi tells me that she sees what women have to put up with abroad: "I see how American women have to run around the city running errands, and I don't want to open that door. As long as women driving is banned, no one will have these expectations for me," she says.
In fact, Saudi Arabia may be even more conservative than most outsiders think. There are some who are not only passively happy with the status quo but also loud in their resistance to any form of change. In 2009, a Jeddah woman named Rawdah Al-Yousif, in collaboration with members of the royal family, organized a campaign to strengthen the guardianship system. It was called "My Guardian Knows What's Best for Me." They urged the king not to give in to local activists and international human rights organizations regarding the guardianship system. Another campaign gathered thousands of signatures from both men and women calling for the extension of gender segregation laws to hospitals -- the same segregation laws that have led to Saudi women only making up 15 percent of the national workforce and an unemployment rate for women so high that the government won't release the numbers. The only public places where these laws are not enforced are malls and hospitals. Yet there are Saudis who would like to see segregation even there.
None of this is a surprise, considering what is being taught in the public school system. In religion classes, students learn that the Saudi interpretation of Islam supersedes any worldly concepts of human rights. Women have the most to lose, yet these ideas are so ingrained that I defy you to find a report of a Saudi mother complaining about what her children are being taught.
Women in most countries may take their aspirations for freedom for granted, but for many of us, it is brand new. An exasperated expatriate in Riyadh once expressed to me how frustrated she was with the requirement to wear an abaya everywhere. She wondered: How do you all put up with having to cover your faces for your whole adult lives? What she didn't realize was that many Saudi women look at her and wonder: How can she walk around without an abaya? How is it that she doesn't feel exposed and naked?
Yet I am happy to say that I am one of many women hungry for self-determination -- women who have realized that though liberty and rights come with responsibility, it also gives them and their daughters the autonomy to pursue their happiness.
And yes, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Saudi women who are fighting for their rights -- and the well-covered driving campaign is just one of many battles, from fighting for the right to manage their own businesses to being allowed to freely leave and enter the country without their guardian's permission. Even something as simple as recognizing women lawyers in our judicial system could be transformational. And that, of course, is why it is so hard.
Crown Prince Nayef—the Next Saudi King?
Source URL: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/crown-prince-nayef-next-saudi-king_604268.html
Crown Prince Nayef—the Next Saudi King?
Ali H. Alyami
November 1, 2011 9:20 AM
A shadow has darkened prospects for democratic reform in Saudi Arabia with the announcement that the most envied, loathed, and feared man in the country is now heir to the throne. Unless the present king, the elderly and ailing Abdullah, outlives him, the newly named Crown Prince Nayef – himself in his late 70s – is likely to preside over an even more repressive kingdom than Saudi Arabia already is today.
Unpopular domestically, regionally, and globally, Nayef is known for his heavy-handedness, his unequivocal support for the religious establishment, his objection to judicial and political reforms, his opposition to the rights of women and minorities, and his control of the entire Saudi security apparatus.
Despite all this, and because of the challenges facing the Saudi regime at home and abroad, King Abdullah and some senior members of the ruling family deem Nayef to be the right man to rule Saudi Arabia next. President Obama, too, issued a positively laudatory statement—“I congratulate King Abdullah and the Saudi people on the selection of Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as crown prince. We in the United States know and respect him for his strong commitment to combating terrorism and supporting regional peace and security”—even though Prince Nayef is reported to have refused to cooperate with the FBI after the 9/11 attacks on the United States and still insists that those attacks were caused by a Zionist conspiracy. Needless to say, Nayef has never declared his support for the Arab Peace Initiative with Israel.
For the West and other major oil-consuming countries, stability in Saudi Arabia, still the largest oil exporter, supersedes all other considerations, regardless of the price and who must pay. Any major disruption in oil production and shipment from Arabia could create global economic havoc with unmanageable consequences. This situation will continue until a reasonably priced alternative to oil is available.
What is being myopically overlooked, however, not out of ignorance but out of disconcerting necessity, is that Nayef’s ascent to the throne could expedite the very instability in Saudi Arabia that so many are hoping to avoid. If he becomes king, Nayef will preside over a fast-changing and restless society that is less fearful of authority than in the past. Nonstop, lively exchanges on social media show that the Saudi people expect the worst under his reign. The majority of the Saudi people, like other Arabs and people everywhere, yearn for an alternative to their oppressive regime and its outmoded, unresponsive, and dysfunctional institutions. It’s estimated that between 60 and 70 percent of the Saudi population is less than 30 years of age and that over 40 percent of men and women in the 20-24 age group are unemployed. This is a ticking time bomb. Government handouts will not silence these people for long.
Even if Nayef is sufficiently ruthless to guarantee his family’s safety, keep its unruly members in line, and maintain stability for a time by sheer force, he may still be the least suitable man to rule Saudi Arabia in a period of escalating demands for change. These demands come from a generation that is disconnected from the world Nayef and his aging brothers were born into and live in still. Nayef will strengthen the Wahhabi religious establishment to intimidate the populace and keep them in check, as he has always done. A more theocratic and dangerous Saudi Arabia is inevitable under Nayef. It will be partly the fruit of the West’s appetite for Saudi money and oil.
Ali H. Alyami is executive director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia.
Crown Prince Nayef—the Next Saudi King?
Ali H. Alyami
November 1, 2011 9:20 AM
A shadow has darkened prospects for democratic reform in Saudi Arabia with the announcement that the most envied, loathed, and feared man in the country is now heir to the throne. Unless the present king, the elderly and ailing Abdullah, outlives him, the newly named Crown Prince Nayef – himself in his late 70s – is likely to preside over an even more repressive kingdom than Saudi Arabia already is today.
Unpopular domestically, regionally, and globally, Nayef is known for his heavy-handedness, his unequivocal support for the religious establishment, his objection to judicial and political reforms, his opposition to the rights of women and minorities, and his control of the entire Saudi security apparatus.
Despite all this, and because of the challenges facing the Saudi regime at home and abroad, King Abdullah and some senior members of the ruling family deem Nayef to be the right man to rule Saudi Arabia next. President Obama, too, issued a positively laudatory statement—“I congratulate King Abdullah and the Saudi people on the selection of Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as crown prince. We in the United States know and respect him for his strong commitment to combating terrorism and supporting regional peace and security”—even though Prince Nayef is reported to have refused to cooperate with the FBI after the 9/11 attacks on the United States and still insists that those attacks were caused by a Zionist conspiracy. Needless to say, Nayef has never declared his support for the Arab Peace Initiative with Israel.
For the West and other major oil-consuming countries, stability in Saudi Arabia, still the largest oil exporter, supersedes all other considerations, regardless of the price and who must pay. Any major disruption in oil production and shipment from Arabia could create global economic havoc with unmanageable consequences. This situation will continue until a reasonably priced alternative to oil is available.
What is being myopically overlooked, however, not out of ignorance but out of disconcerting necessity, is that Nayef’s ascent to the throne could expedite the very instability in Saudi Arabia that so many are hoping to avoid. If he becomes king, Nayef will preside over a fast-changing and restless society that is less fearful of authority than in the past. Nonstop, lively exchanges on social media show that the Saudi people expect the worst under his reign. The majority of the Saudi people, like other Arabs and people everywhere, yearn for an alternative to their oppressive regime and its outmoded, unresponsive, and dysfunctional institutions. It’s estimated that between 60 and 70 percent of the Saudi population is less than 30 years of age and that over 40 percent of men and women in the 20-24 age group are unemployed. This is a ticking time bomb. Government handouts will not silence these people for long.
Even if Nayef is sufficiently ruthless to guarantee his family’s safety, keep its unruly members in line, and maintain stability for a time by sheer force, he may still be the least suitable man to rule Saudi Arabia in a period of escalating demands for change. These demands come from a generation that is disconnected from the world Nayef and his aging brothers were born into and live in still. Nayef will strengthen the Wahhabi religious establishment to intimidate the populace and keep them in check, as he has always done. A more theocratic and dangerous Saudi Arabia is inevitable under Nayef. It will be partly the fruit of the West’s appetite for Saudi money and oil.
Ali H. Alyami is executive director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
ما لا يقال عن أهمية اعتصام 21 محرم للمطالبة باطلاق سراح المعتقلين
تحليل مركز الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان في السعودية – واشنطن
بداية يحي مركز الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان في السعودية ومقره العاصمة الأميركية واشنطن الدعوة التي أطلقها أهالي المعتقلين للاعتصام السلمي يوم الجمعة القادم من أجل المطالبة بإطلاق سراح المعتقلين. إن هذه الدعوة خطوة مهمة تستحق الدعم من جميع شرائح المجتمع في السعودية كما أنها دليل واضح على مدى الوعي والنضوج الفكري الذي يتمتع به منظموا هذا الاعتصام وسعة ثقافتهم القانونية وعمق معرفتهم بحقوقهم الشرعية ورغبتهم في المحافظة على سمعة بلادهم فقضية المعتقلين قضية إنسانية في المقام الأول ويتعاطف معها غالبية أفراد الشعب السعودي.
لقد أكد المنظمون على سلمية الاعتصام وعلى أنهم ضد العنف والفوضى وأن اعتصامهم يأتي فقط من أجل المطالبة بالافراج عن المعتقلين القابعين في السجون منذ سنوات طويلة بدون محاكمات.
كما أوضحوا أنهم لم يقرروا الاعتصام إلا بعد فشل جميع محاولاتهم في جذب اهتمام المسؤولين لقضية المعتقلين، فقد جاء في بيانهم الثالث المنشور على صفحة الاعتصام بموقع "فيس بوك": "فقد سعينا من خلال القنوات الرسمية في التظلم لذوينا وكتبنا للمسؤولين واتصلنا بالعلماء وقدمنا المعاريض الفردية والجماعية ولم نلاقي إلا الإهمال. وبعد ذلك قررنا التوجه لمكتب وزير الداخلية فتعرضنا للقمع واعتقل البعض ولا يزال معتقلا لحد الآن".
إن من الحكمة أن تستجيب السلطات السعودية لمطالب المعتصمين بتطبيق نصوص القانون على المعتقلين وعدم استخدام العنف لقمع المعتصمين كما حدث في شهر مارس الماضي عندما تجمع أهالي المعتقلين أمام وزارة الداخلية، فالعنف لن يؤدي إلا إلى زيادة غضب الشعب واجباره على اللجوء إلى العنف لتحقيق مطالبه.
والسؤال الذي يطرح نفسه هو: إلى متى تستمر السلطات السعودية في تطبيق سياسة الاعتقالات التعسفية على كل من ينتقد ممارسات النظام ويدعو إلى الإصلاح بدعوى الحفاظ على الأمن واستقرار البلاد؟
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
ما لا يقال عن مستقبل السعودية تحت حكم سلمان ونايف
تحليل مركز الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان في السعودية – واشنطن
إن تعيين الأمير نايف لولاية العهد في السعودية وتعيين شقيقه الأمير سلمان وزيرا للدفاع دليل واضح على أن الجناح السديري المتشدد الذي يقوده الأميران قد تمكن من حكم البلاد مرة أخرى. وبالنظر إلى تاريخ الأميرين وتوجهاتهما فإن من المتوقع أن مستقبل السعودية تحت سيطرتهما لا يبشر بخير ولا يوحي ببارقة أمل في الإصلاح. ولا نبالغ إن توقعنا أن الشعب السعودي سيعاني القمع وسيذوق الويلات تحت حكم الأميرين لأنهما من أشد المعارضين للتغيير وأكثر من يدعمون التيار الديني المتشدد داخل وخارج السعودية.
يشترك الأميران – كما ذكرنا - في رفضهما القاطع لأي إصلاح من شأنه إشراك الشعب في تقرير مصيره وسن القوانين وتنفيذها ونقل البلاد إلى الإزدهار والتقدم وسيادة القانون وإرساء الحقوق والحريات وحمايتها ومحاسبة الفاسدين والمساواة بين جميع فئات المجتمع. كما أن الأميرين من أشد المتمسكين ببقاء الوضع على ما هو عليه باستخدام الدين كأداة للبقاء في الحكم وبدعم رجال الدين ومنحهم الصلاحيات الكاملة والحصانة اللازمة لقمع الشعب. بالإضافة إلى ذلك فقد اشتهرا بانتهاج سياسة القبضة الأمنية لإسكات جميع الأصوات المطالبة بالإصلاح والتغيير سواء بتهديدهم وأخذ التعهدات عليهم أو بإيداعهم السجون دون اعتبار لما يجري في العالم العربي من ثورات ضد الأنظمة الدكتاتورية والسياسات والقوانين التعسفية وتفشي الفساد في جميع القطاعات وخاصة في مؤسسات الدولة.
إن من أبرز الأمثلة التي تؤكد استعداد الأمير نايف لقمع الشعب والوقوف في وجه المطالب الحقوقية مهما كلف الأمر هو تصريحه لمجموعة من الإصلاحيين المطالبين بملكية دستورية عند لقائه بهم في عام 2003 الذي قال فيه "إن ما أخذناه بالسيف نحميه بالسيف". وهذا يعني أنه يعتبر الدولة ملكا خاصا بالعائلة الحاكمة تتصرف فيه كما تشاء. ولا يخفى على أحد طريقة توظيف نايف لرجال الدين ورجال الأمن - الذين من المفترض أن يكونوا في خدمة المواطنين وتأمين سلامتهم - في ترويع الشعب والقضاء على آماله.
ومن تصريحاته المشهورة في دعم التيار الديني الذي يمقته الشعب قوله "إن الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر ركن سادس من أركان الإسلام".
ولا تقتصر سياسة نايف الأمنية على قمع المواطنين السعوديين فحسب بل تمتد إلى كل من يطالب بالعدالة الاجتماعية والحقوق الشرعية خارج السعودية كما حدث في البحرين بإرسال قوات درع الجزيرة التي يقف الأمير نايف خلف إنشائها من أجل التأكيد على منع أي حكم ديمقراطي في الجزيرة العربية، وكما يظهر من دفاعه واستضافته للحكام المطرودين كحسني مبارك وزين العابدين، وعلي عبد الله صالح.
ولا يختلف الأمير سلمان كثيرا عن نايف في تأييده للتيار الديني وتبنيه النهج الأمني لقمع المطالبين بالإصلاح مهما كلف الأمر فقد اشتهر بدفاعه المستميت عن الوهابية التي يعتبرها الإسلام الحقيقي. كما يؤكد تصريحه أثناء زيارته للقوات الجوية مؤخرا بأن "استقرار المجتمع يعتمد على قوة القوات المسلحة" إصراره على الإبقاء على سياسة القمع وعدم الالتفات إلى المطالب الشرعية للشعب.
والسؤال الذي يطرح نفسه هو: ما الذي يمنع الأسرة الحاكمة في السعودية من الاستفادة من دروس التاريخ والحاضر التي تؤكد أن إرادة الشعوب لا يمكن قهرها وأن النظم الدكتاتورية مصيرها إلى زوال وأن الاستجابة لمطالب الشعب هي ما يحقق الأمن والاستقرار؟
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Women Driving Will End Virginity in Saudi Arabia
CDHR’s Analysis: The most offensive new charade to justify barring women from driving was recently issued by the religious wing of the Saudi ruling regime. It stated that, “Within 10 years of the ban being lifted… there would be ‘no more virgins’ in the Islamic kingdom." To augment its tradition of denigrating Saudi women, the religious establishment’s report went on to say that allowing women to drive will "provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce." This accusatory and repugnant declaration by the Saudi government’s religious establishment is designed to debase Saudi women, maintain men’s domination over every aspect of their lives and turn people against each other as they do in turning the majority Sunni Muslims against their brothers and sisters, the Shi’a minority. All is done because God and Islam demand it, according to the Saudi High Religious Council.
Prior to and during the early days of the establishment of Islam some 15 centuries ago, women in the vast and inhospitable Arabian deserts were free to travel, work with men on farms, herd and graze animals, harvest and sell their goods in communal markets and most of them barely covered most of their bodies. Incomprehensibly, 15 centuries later Saudi women are not allowed to travel, seek jobs, go to schools, obtain life-saving medication or give birth to babies in hospitals without male (male-guardian) permission. They are prohibited from mingling with men (publicly or in the work place), they cannot choose their spouses, practice law in courts or vote in the nation's cosmetic municipal elections. They are the only people on this planet that are barred from driving despite the fact that many Saudi women are doctors, scientists, brain surgeons, professors, businesswomen and pilots. However, there are limits to how much any people can endure.
Saudi women are fighting back on all fronts, especially for their most basic right: freedom of movement. In recent years, many Saudi women have been challenging the system’s nebulous policies and futile reasoning for denying them the right to drive. Their demands to drive draw domestic and international attention and support, and consequently severe reprisal by their insecure government, including imprisonments, intimidation and threats to some of them, their families and their supporters. The regime, through its religious establishment, is resorting to the most abhorrent and insulting reasons to perpetuate its repression of women as the articles below indicates.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
“What Do Saudi Women Want? “
CDHR’s Comment: Saudi women want the most basic rights: recognition as full human beings, full citizenship, financial independence and the right to move freely. With gargantuan respect and admiration for Ms. Eman Al Nafjan’s intelligence, courage and struggle, I beg to differ with some of her insinuations that the majority of Saudi women prefers to live under what amounts to a modern slavery system. I agree with Ms. Al Nafjan that many women (and men) in the motherland remain nostalgic for their past and fearful of what’s denied to them. I disagree that the majority of the severely disenfranchised population, especially women, would not appreciate something better than living under institutionalized discriminatory and intimidating policies, harshly enforced by a system whose hegemonic survival depends on dividing, conquering and ensuring the population's dependence on handouts and omnipresent fear of God, whipping sticks and the sword. Like any people, if Saudi women and men have free choices based on facts and knowledge of better alternatives, the overwhelming majority is more likely to denounce every aspect of their rasping culture, distorted religious teachings and suffocating social and political arrangements.
The Saudi people can learn, think for themselves and distinguish between the good, the bad and everything in between. They can change and in due time embrace values that are the antithesis of what they have been programmed into believing are supreme to all other values, especially those of the “infidels," which most educated Saudi men and women strive to attain. This is evidenced by traveling Saudis, most of whom cannot wait to board a plane and strip off their suffocating and unsightly attire and to slip into the outfits of people they have been told are dirty, unethical sinners and hell-bound, blasphemous unbelievers.
I agree with Ms. Al Nafjan and millions of Saudis and other Muslims that religion has been used as a tool of oppression, discrimination, segregation and intolerance against those who think out of the box, as well as non-Muslims and Muslim minorities. This is why many Muslims are not only questioning the authenticity of their faith, but severely criticizing it and many are leaving it altogether. The quandary is not that Saudi women and men cannot labor for, embrace and appreciate independence, self-reliance and liberation from the yoke of political, social, sexual and religious totalitarianism, it’s the system under which they are forced to live and coercively obey. All the people need is freedom of choices to venture into the unknown, explore their untapped potential and put them in good use for themselves and for their influential country.
What needs to be done to alter things positively for the people of the motherland, including those who rule, is a re-interpretation of Muslim textbooks, leaving religion to the individual, transforming all institutions to meet people’s needs now and installing an accountable and transparent mechanism whereby the people are in charge of their country’s safety, prosperity and destiny. This will take time to blossom, but the time to start is now before violence becomes the only hope for people to realize their dreams and become the authors of their fate.
Finally and based on first hand experiences, I found Saudi women to be the most resilient people I have ever met, worked with, befriended and watched since I was a child in the oppressed southern region of the vast land of Arabia. Sadly and inexplicably, the theocratic and autocratic iron-fisted ruling men are not taking notice of the people's aspirations and based on their history and state of mind they are not likely going to change until they have no choice. By then it will be too late for everyone. Read more: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/28/what_do_saudi_women_want
Saturday, December 3, 2011
To a Saudi Prince (in Arabic)
إلى أمير سعودي
http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/26984
كتابات مناهضة للعائلة المالكة السعودية في القطيف (أ ف ب)
أسعد أبو خليل
أستاذ العلوم السياسيّة في جامعة كاليفورنيا (موقعه على الإنترنت
أنتَ لست وسيماً ولست ذكيّاً ولست عارفاً ولست حكيماً ولست ظريفاً ولست لطيفاً. أنت عكس كل ما سمعتَ عن شخصك عبر السنوات والعقود. لم تتبوّاً منصباً واحداً في كرة القدم أو في وزارات الدولة عن جدارة أو كفاءة. لم يبتسم لك رجل أو امرأة إلا قسراً أو طمعاً أو تملّقاً. لم يتسنّ لك يوماً أن ترى نفسك على حقيقتك في مرآة: الحاشية تقف بينك وبين المرآة. أنت محاط بجيش من المتملّقين (جلّهم من اللبنانيّين من عبدة الدولار) الذين لا ينفكّون عن مداعبة غرورك ومجاملتك والانحناء أمامك. لديك فرصة لتنظر فيها إلى حقيقة نفسك، فانتهزها.
أنت لست تقيّاً ولا ورعاً ولا وطنيّاً ولا عروبيّاً ولا إنسانيّاً. أنت تلقّيت كمية هائلة من القصائد والمدائح، من الشرق ومن الغرب (لا يقلّ الغربي عن الشرقي في تملّقه لآل سعود)، وذلك كان خدعة لك. لم تدرك حجم النكبة التي حلت بالأمة نتيجة سيادتك السياسيّة ودورك المُخرب وضخّك للفتنة. لست ناجحاً ولا مثابراً ولا ماهراً ولا بارعاً. كل ما قيل فيك قيل بثمن باهظ وعلى حساب الناس وكراماتهم. نادراً ما تقرأ كلاماً صريحاً عن آل سعود بالعربيّة أو الإنكليزيّة أو الفرنسيّة. بعضهم يعترف في المقدّمة من الكتاب، كما فعلت ناتانا ديلونغ باس في كتابها عن «الإسلام الوهّابي»، الصادر عن دار جامعة أكسفور للنشر، بأنّه (أو أنّها) تلقّى معونة ماليّة في إعداد الكتاب من هذا الأمير أو ذاك في آل سعود. لماذا تخيفكم الحقيقة يا أمراء آل سعود؟ لماذا تهربون مذعورين من المواجهة والمكاشفة والمصارحة؟ لماذا تدعون نفاقاً إلى الديموقراطيّة في سوريا (وهي أقلّ ما يستحقّ الشعب السوري جرّاء معاناته تحت حكم آل الأسد)، وانتم ألد أعداء الديموقراطيّة؟ أنتم يا أمراء آل سعود: لو كنتم محبوبين من الناس، هل كنتم ستنفقون الملايين والمليارات في اقتناء الصحف والمطبوعات كي تبتاعوا ثناءً ومديحاً ونفاقاً؟ هل كنتم ستستأجرون الأبواق اللبنانيّة (التي كانت في الماضي مُستأجرة من صدّام حسين ومعمّر القذّافي وياسر عرفات) التي تواظب على تبجيلكم؟ كانت شعبيّة عبد الناصر مجانيّة: لم تكلّفه قرشاً، أما أنتم فتنفقون المليارات ولا تزالون مكروهين رغم إنفاقكم الهائل. قل هي أشياء لا تُشترى لمن كان من صنفكم. هل تقرأون عن أخبار تعرّض أمراء آل سعود في وسط بيروت، للضرب على يد الناس العاديّين؟ كان الناس هناك يتسابقون لتسديد اللكمات والرفسات ضد هذا الأمير وذاك. لو زال نفطكم ومالكم لطاردكم الناس بالنعال في كل البلدان العربيّة. لو زال نفطكم، لما وجدتم من يؤويكم من غضب الناس. الدنيا، يا آل سعود، هي غير ما يصوّر لكم سمير عطا الله وجهاد الخازن وعماد الدين أديب وفؤاد مطر (هذا الذي هجر التملّق للنظام الناصري كي يتملّق للنظام الصدّامي قبل أن يتملّق لكم).
يا أميراً سعوديّاً: لا تصدّقهم. أنت ثقيل الدم في رقصة العرضة. لو أنّ وديع الصافي رقص الباليه، لكان ألطف على العين من مشهد رقصكم. رقصة العرضة: تعبير عن رجوليّة بائدة ومُتخلّفة. تعبير عن عزلكم للمرأة. هي مقبولة في مخادعكم ومطابخكم فقط. وليس هناك من ثقافة في مهرجان «الجنادريّة» ولو جذبتم إليه «مثقّفين» بالأجرة. ومشاهد عواطفكم مع بعضكم البعض لا تثير فينا إلا الاشمئزاز. الحقّ الحقّ نقول لكم: لا نكترث لأخبار زواج سطّام، وطلاق مقرن ووفاة سلطان. هذه أخبار لا تعنينا في شيء وإن جعلتموها بمالكم أخباراً جليلة للأمّة.
قد تنتمي أنت، يا أميراً من أمراء آل سعود، إلى الجيل الأوّل من أبناء عبد العزيز. أنت لم تدرس التاريخ أو الجغرافيا: ذهبتَ إلى «مدرسة الأمراء» وتلقّيتَ من العلوم والآداب... لا شيء. أنت من جيل الأمراء الأوائل الذين قدّموا ملوكاً لآل سعود منذ وفاة الملك المؤسّس. لكن، متى كانت الكفاءة شرطاً لتبوّء المنصب الرفيع؟ لو كنتَ ذهبت إلى مدرسة عاديّة، غير «مدرسة الأمراء» حيث يحقّ للتلميذ ضرب المعلّم، وحيث القيلولة تستغرق أكثر من ساعات الدراسة، لعرفتَ أنّ لقب الإمارة لم يأتِ إلا من رضى المُستعمر البريطاني، كما كانت الإمبراطوريّة العثمانيّة تغدق الألقاب على عملائها ووكلائها وجلاديها في الولايات. أنت يا أمير آل سعود تنتمي إلى جيل كانت فيه الكفاءة نقيضاً للرجولة، والرجعيّة صنواً للتديّن، والنفاق تعريفاً للسياسة. هذا هو حكمكم يا آل سعود.
هل فكّرت يوماً في مصيرك لو تبخّرت أموالك وفقدت نفطك وثروتك؟ من يبقى معك من جيش المنافقين والتابعين والمُصفّقين؟ لو حدث ذلك لك، لهبّت أبواقك من اللبنانيّين (وغيرهم من المشرقيّين العرب) المنتشرين في مضاربك الإعلاميّة، ولتذكّروا أنهم ليبيراليّون عن حق، ولطالبوا بتحرير المرأة والرجل في مملكة القهر الوهابيّة. لو تبخّرت ثرواتك، لما وجدت نديماً حولك ولا متملّقاً ولا ساقياً. عندها فقط، لكشّر اللبنانيّون من حولك عن عنصريّتهم الكريهة ضد أهل الخليج (والتي يجهدون لإخفائها أمامك طمعاً بدولارك). عندها فقط، يضيق بك جلدك وتحاول الفرار إلى الخارج، إلى مكان لا يتبيّن وجهك فيه أحد. عندها فقط تبتعد عن أرض الجزيرة التي سطوتَم عليها بالسيف والجهاد الزائف، وأبقيتم احتلالكم وسيطرتكم بفعل الدعم الغربي الاستعماري. لو أعطيتَ الأمان لشعبك وللشعب العربي برمّته، لسمعت ما لا يسرّك. لو أتيح لهم، لأسمعوكم يا آل سعود ما لم يقله الحطيئة. لسمعتَ أيّها الأمير أنّك مكروه مكروه في كل العالم العربي. حتى الذين يتلقّون منك الأموال، وحتى الذين يتسكّعون على أعتاب مضاربك يضمرون لك البغضاء. كيف لا نكرهك يا أميراً في آل سعود؟ بأي حق أصبحت وكيلاً عن الشعب العربي: تتحدّث باسمه وتضع المبادرات الذليلة مع العدوّ باسمه، وتجعل من نفسك إلهاً عليه؟ بأي حق؟ وبأي حق تصبح الكعبة ملكاً لك، تعرضها كما يعرض بعض الأمراء مُقتنياته من السيارات النفيسة؟
أنت، يا أميراً من آل سعود، لا تستحق أن تتبوأ أي منصب في الدولة. لو تحدّثنا عن الجيل الأوّل من الأمراء لقلنا إنّ واحداً منكم لم يتقن اللغة الرسميّة في المملكة ولم يكتسب أياً من العلوم والآداب. بعضكم كان منهمكاً في مشاغل: الملك فهد، قضى شباباً وكهولة على موائد القمار وفي ملاهي الجنس في أوروبا. الملك فيصل كان أسيراً لهوسه بالخطر الشيوعي الذي بالصدفة تزامن مع الهوس الأميركي (السيّد والسائد). الملك فيصل كان يبيعنا تمنيات بالصلاة في القدس، فيما كان يتلقّى السلاح الإسرائيلي للاستعمال ضد الجيش المصري في اليمن. هذا جزء من تاريخكم غير المكتوب، يا آل سعود. الملك عبد الله تغزّل بمعاني الرجولة على طريقة فتى عربي في قبيلة قبل قرون خلت، وما استطاع يوماً قراءة جملة صحيحة في العربيّة. هناك أبنية شُيّدت في السعوديّة لإيواء مطلّقاته. مَن مِن أمراء آل سعود يستطيع أن يكتب جملة مفيدة أو يعبّر عن فكرة دون تدخّل الحاشية؟ ومَن مِن أمراء آل سعود يستطيع أن يقرأ جملة عربيّة واحدة دون تلعثم وأخطاء؟ وتصرّون على تمثيل العرب وقيادتهم والتحدّث باسمهم؟ وتصرّون على ادّعاء تجسيد العروبة، وأنتم الذين حاربوا كل تجليات في الفكر والممارسة العروبيّة عبر العقود، لكنّكم أصبحتم عروبيّين فجأة عندما بدأتم بمخطط إقناع العرب بأنّ إيران لا إسرائيل هي العدوّ.
يا أميراً في آل سعود. ماذا قدّمتم لنا في السعوديّة وفي العالم العربي؟ هل عشتم حياة العربي العادي، أو حتى علمتم بها؟ يا أميراً في آل سعود، هل وطئت قدماك يوماً مخيّماً فلسطينيّاً؟ هل أمسكت بيد طفل جريح من ضحايا قذائف وصواريخ، أهديتموها لحزب الكتائب اللبنانيّة أثناء الحرب الأهليّة؟ هل رأيت يوماً مفتاح بيت لعائلة فلسطينيّة هُجرت منه عنوة في 1948؟ أنت لم تزر مخيّماً واحداً لشعب فلسطين، لكنّك كنت تجول دوريّاً في مخيمات اللاجئين الأفغان بأمر من سيّدك الأميركي. هل رأيت ناراً عربيّة وحاولت أن تخمدها؟ على العكس: أنت لا ترى ناراً عربيّة إلا تزيدها اشتعالاً. هل تركت ناراً في اليمن ولم تنفخ في نارها وتحرّض بعض اليمنيّين (وتسلّحهم) ضد البعض الآخر؟ هل رأيت ناراً إسرائيليّة إلا تجاهلتها بالكامل إرضاءً لسيّدك الأميركي؟ حتى النيران التي اشتعلت في المسجد الأقصى وأنت البارز في «شعار الواعظين»، على قول أحمد شوقي، عندما يحلو لك ذلك كسباً وتكسّباً لمشروعيّة تُستجدى، لم تحرّك فيك ساكناً ولم تدفعك إلى التحرّك. بلى، تحرّكت. الملك فيصل أمر فوراً بعقد المؤتمرات والحلقات وإلقاء الخطب الحماسيّة وإصدار الفتاوى الفارغة وتجميع القوى الرجعيّة. بلى تحرّكت يومها، يا أميراً في آل سعود.
الأمير السعودي عاش حياتاً منقوصة. مَن مِن أمراء آل سعود حمل طفلته ودار بها؟ مَن منهم قدّم وردة لزوجته؟ مَن منكم شاهد شروق الشمس صاحياً؟ من منكم كتب قصيدة لم تُكتب له؟ من منكم كتب خطبة لم تُكتب له؟ مَن منكم حمل كتاباً؟ من منكم مشى في حديقة أو استقلّ باصاً عموميّاً في عاصمة أجنبيّة؟ مَن منكم سافر، ولم يترك وراءه سوء السمعة والفضائح؟ مَن منكم قطف ثمرة بنفسه أو قشّر فاكهة بنفسه؟ من منكم قدّم ولو دموعاً لضحيّة فلسطينيّة؟ من منكم لم يقع في نفاق المملكة الفاقع: العيش في خضمّ «موبقات وآثام وخطايا» من المنظار الوهّابي، فيما يبشّرون بتزمّت العقيدة التي على أساسها تحالف آل سعود مع عبد الوهاب. من منكم يا أمراء آل سعود احترم امرأة في حياته ولم يتعامل معها كسلعة؟
إن كل الصور النمطيّة عن العربي في الغرب تستعين بقصص وفضائح من أمراء آل سعود في الغرب. هؤلاء الذين لم نسمع أنّ أحداً منهم دخل مكتبة أو متحفاً أو معرضاً. أمراء آل سعود كانوا مخيّمين في السبعينات في نادي «بلاي بوي» بلندن. هؤلاء من المواظبين على مواخير الغرب والشرق وحاناتهما والملاهي. الأمراء والأميرات من آل سعود لا يدخلون في الصحافة العالميّة، إلا من باب ضرب الخادمات وتعذيبهم، بالإضافة إلى أخبار المخمورين. أمراء سعود هم من أبشع ما في العالم العربي. لو أنّ العالم العربي يتحرّر من سطوة مالهم، لعلم القاصي والداني بأخبار كبائرهم وقبائحهم. لو أنّ أمراء سعود يجولون في العالم العربي ويتحدّثون إلى العامّة بلا حاشية ولا مال، لعرفوا بمدى احتقار الناس، كلّ الناس، لهم.
يا أميراً من آل سعود، في كل القضايا التي مرّت على العالم العربي والإسلامي، لم تحرّككم قضيّة كبيرة إلا قضيّة «المجاهدين» في أفغانستان. هؤلاء المتزمّتون المتطرّفون الظلاميّون سلبوا ألبابكم وأموالكم. لم تتحرّك فيكم النخوة كما تحرّكت في تلك القضيّة الظالمة التي أنتجت طالبان والقاعدة، وأنهت حكماً ساوى بين الجنسين. لعلّ المساواة بين الجنسين هي التي استثارت غرائزكم وحميّتكم. كان ياسر عرفات في التسعينات يعطي متحسّراً تقديرات تفوق الستة عشر مليار دولار لحجم المساهمة السعوديّة في الجهاد الأفغاني. لم تقعوا على قضيّة رجعيّة إلا تبنّيتموها واعتنقتموها ونشرتموها. حاربتم اليسار والشيوعيّة والعلمانيّة والتنوير والنسويّة والحريّة، في كل مكان في العالم. حتى في إيطاليا، رميتم أموالكم على الحزب اليميني الرجعي في السبعينات، بأمر من أميركا كي تمنعوا وصول الشيوعيّين إلى الحكم. ماذا يجمع بينكم وبين الشعب العربي؟ حتى اللغة ليست جامعة: النطق بالعربيّة يعصى على الملك السعودي وعلى عدد وفير من الأمراء: هؤلاء الذين تخرّجوا من «مدرسة الأمراء».
أجيال تتعاقب من آل سعود ونكباتنا تتثاقل. البعض من الجيل الثاني تعلّم ـــــ يُقال. الأمير تركي الفيصل أمضى سنوات في جامعة جورجتاون، ولم يحصل على شهادة (لكن عمله في الاستخبارات السعوديّة عبر السنوات، بالإضافة إلى ماله، أدّى بالجامعة ـــــ الضعيفة أمام المال النفطي والعربي، يُسأل عن ذلك الطالب غير النجيب، سعد الحريري، الذي قُبل بقدرة قادرة، لدراسة إدارة الأعمال في الجامعة ــ لمنحه شهادة) إلا بعد أكثر من عقد من الزمن، وبعد خروجه من الجامعة خائباً وبدون شهادة جدارة. لكن بعض الأمراء، مثل بندر أو خالد بن سلطان أو أمراء وشيوخ آخرين في دول مجلس التعاون، يحصلون على شهادات من كليّات عسكريّة في الغرب. اكتشف هذه الخدعة المكشوفة الملك حسين الأردني. علم الأمراء أنّ «ساندهرست» في بريطانيا تعدّ برنامجاً خاصّاً و«مكثّفاً» وسريعاً وسطحيّاً وباهظ الكلفة لأمراء العرب، ومن دون علوم أو حساب أو وجع رأس، ولا امتحانات. الفائز فيها من يتبرّع بسخاء بأموال النفط. (تظهر ضحالة تلك الشهادات في أداء خالد بن سلطان العسكري ـــــ أذلّ الحوثيّون الجيش السعودي برمّته). شهر أو شهران ويعود الأمير حاملاً شهادة غير حقيقيّة. لكن الغرب ضالع في تآمر فرض حكم الأمراء والشيوخ والملوك والسلاطين فوق صدورنا.
الجيل الثاني والثالث من آل سعود أسوأ من الجيل الأوّل على علاته. الجيل الأوّل عاصر بعضاً من شظف العيش. الجيلان الثاني والثالث عاشا ونشآ في عالم غير عادي من الملذّات (المُحرّمة على الشعب) والرفاهية والفخامة والثراء الفاحش والظلم. هؤلاء ماذا يعرفون عن حياة الناس؟ الجيل الأول اقتنى العبيد والجواري (وبعضهم أنجب منهم، مثل الأمير سلطان بن عبد العزيز). والجيلان الثاني والثالث اقتنيا عبيداً وجواري، بعد تحرّر العبيد في المملكة، وإن تحت مسمّيات مختلفة. يقوم حكم آل سعود على سلّم من التراتبية العنصريّة والطبقيّة: الرجل الأبيض يحتلّ دائماً موقع الصدارة في سلّمهم الوظيفي. العرب والمسلمون هم في أسفل السلّم. الجيلان الثاني والثالث عاشا في الغرب، وقّلدا نمط الاستغراق في الملذّات الذي كرّسه سعود وفهد وعبد الله وسائر الأمراء. الجيلان الثاني والثالث يعانيان غروراً وصلفاً وعنجهيّة نبتت في عصر السيطرة السعوديّة على العالم العربي.
الجيلان الثاني والثالث من آل سعود لم يواجها ثورة جمال عبد الناصر في العلاقات العربيّة. لم يشهد أمراء الجيلين كيف كان الخطاب العربي يخضع للفصل القاطع بين المعسكر الرجعي والتقدّمي (طبعاً، فشل المعسكر التقدّمي وانتهى بإقامة أنظمة قمعيّة حرمت شعوبها الحريّة ولم تسترجع فلسطين، لا بل خسرت المزيد من الأراضي العربيّة). الجيل الأوّل عاش مرارة تلقّي الضربات من النظام الناصري ومن أصوات القوميّة العربيّة واليسار الهادرين في العالم العربي. استطاع الخطاب الناصري التأثير حتى على بعض أمراء آل سعود. لجأ الأمير طلال والأمير بدر إلى مصر، ودانا حكم آل سعود ودعما النظام الناصري. لم تغفر العائلة لهما تلك المعصية، وحُرما الوزارة مدى الحياة. الأمير طلال يريد لنا أن ننسى تلك الحقبة، وقد أعاد كتابة تاريخه في «شهادة على العصر» على «الجزيرة».
الجيلان الثاني والثالث من أمراء آل سعود يظنّان أنّهما وصلا إلى الرقيّ لأنّ البعض فيهما يستطيع أن يطلب خمره في البارات الغربيّة بلغة أجنبيّة. البعض منهم يظن أنّه يستحق الملك. البعض منهم، مثل بندر وتركي، ضاق ذرعاً بصبر الأبناء والسنين. لا يريد أن ينتظر دوره عندما يموت كل أبناء المؤسّس كي يصل إلى الملك. يريد الملك الآن. والجيل الثاني يرى أنّه أدرى بمصالح المملكة، لأنه قفز فوق بعض الموانع التاريخيّة والدينيّة. هؤلاء الذين باتوا يجتمعون مع زعماء إسرائيل ذهاباً وإياباً. يريد الجيل الثاني أن يثبت حسن نياته نحو أميركا، لعلّها تنصّب واحدهم بصورة عاجلة ملكاً. يريد أمراء الجيل الثاني (على طريقة أبناء زايد) إثبات ولائهم لأميركا وإسرائيل عبر تخطّي سياسات الآباء والأجداد، على انصياعها للمُستعمِر. يريد هؤلاء التقرّب من إسرائيل وعرض الحميميّة معها في العلن.
يا أميراً من آل سعود: لن يتحرّر العالم العربي بوجودكم. لن يهنأ للشعب العربي بال بوجودكم. لا نريد إصلاحكم أو هدايتكم أو رشدكم. أنتم تستعصون على الإصلاح وعلى الإرشاد وعلى الهدي. بالعكس، الإصلاح والتقدّم والتنوير مستحيلة معكم. أنتم ـــــ اكتشفنا في ردّة الفعل على سقوط حسني مبارك ـــــ حلفاء إسرائيل في مقاومة الحريّة والديموقراطيّة في كل العالم العربي. يا أمراء آل سعود: ماذا أنجزتم؟ متى كان قراركم مستقلاً؟ هل حافظتم على وعد السيادة؟ هل بمستطاعكم رفض المشيئة الأميركيّة الإسرائيليّة في أمر؟ لو طلبوا منكم نقل الكعبة إلى تل أبيب، لفعلتم صاغرين.
يا أميراً من آل سعود، ضاق عالمنا العربي بكم. كان الملك فهد يقضي أشهراً في قصره بإسبانيا، لماذا لا تذهبون في نفي طوعي إلى قصوركم في أرجاء المعمورة؟ شروركم وفتنكم لا تتوقّف. دعونا نحلم ونرقص ونحبّ ونفرح ونبكِ ونناضل ونقاوم ونرفض من دونكم ومن دون الأنظمة التي فرضتموها علينا (لا يتحدّث إعلام آل سعود عن الدعم المالي السعودي لنظام السلالة الأسديّة). دعونا نلج في قرن جديد: الضغط السعودي يحول دون تقدّمنا وتطوّرنا. لا يمنعنا آل سعود من التقدّم فقط، بل يرتبطون بحلف مع إسرائيل كي يحافظوا على نظام الطغيان الإقليمي.
يسير الأمير السعودي في قافلة طويلة من السيارات والطائرات المذهّبة. يتنقّل بين قصر وآخر. تبقى قضايا الشعوب في خلفيّة الصورة. يسمع بالانتفاضات العربيّة، فينثر الأموال على شعوب الممالك كي تستكين. بين كلّ عربي وكلّ أمير سعودي تراث من النقمة والبغضاء. ليس الأمر شخصيّاً، لكنّه شخصيّ بالمعنى العام. كلّ حريص على القضايا الثلاث: فلسطين والعدالة الاجتماعيّة والتحرّر الوطني، لا بدّ أن يعادي آل سعود. يشتري الأمير السعودي الوقت بالدولارات. حسم أمره: الانتفاضات العربيّة يجب أن تُقمع، إلا في أمكنة يمكن فيها إبدال أنظمة غير موالية بأخرى مُوالية. لكن البوعزيزي اشتعل. أما آبار النفط فلم تشتعل بعد. ليس بعد.
* أستاذ العلوم السياسيّة في جامعة كاليفورنيا (موقعه على الإنترنت:
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