...Or Does It Explode?

Friday Foto: Kerman Bookstore

Sweet Jesus!: The Saudis Set Their Terms

Want a church in Saudi Arabia? Just one thing you gotta do:

No churches should be permitted in Saudi Arabia, unless Pope Benedict XVI recognised the prophet Mohammed, according to a Middle East expert.

While Saudi mediators are working with the Vatican on negotiations to allow places of religious worship, some experts believe it will not occur without this recognition.

Anwar Ashiqi, president of the Saudi centre for Middle East strategic studies, endorsed this view in an interview on the site of Arab satellite TV network, al-Arabiya on Thursday.

"I have taken part in several meetings related to Islamic-Christian dialogue and there have been negotiations on this issue," he said.

"It would be possible to launch official negotiations to construct a church in Saudi Arabia only after the Pope and all the Christian churches recognise the prophet Mohammed."

"If they don't recognise him as a prophet, how can we have a church in the Saudi kingdom?"

...A member of Saudi Arabia's Consultative Council, Abdelaziz al-Thinani, rejected the prelate's claims saying that there were no Christians among the Saudis who were all Muslims.

"Those few Christians do not reside in the country permanently, they come and go," he said.

He denied there were four million Christians in the kingdom and said the issue of human rights should not be used to call for the construction of a Christian church.

And he said it all with a straight face.

Happy Chaharshanbeh Soori!

It's almost New Year's time - Norouz, that is - and the kids are out on the streets in Iran celebrating an ancient regional holiday in a manner that can't be pleasing to the mullahs.

That's one brave young woman - dropping her mandatory hijab to join the circle dance.

Here's another daredevil.

Saudi Pols Begin to Realize that "Anti-Religious Defamation" UN Resolutions Can Instead Get Them in Trouble

After all, they are the kingdom that accepts no substitutes:

The Saudi Arabian Parliament Monday rejected a recommendation to adopt an international agreement that forbids insulting of religions, prophets and clerics, the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported.

 

Seventy-seven members of parliament rejected the recommendation, claiming that if they adopted the agreement, they would have had to recognize the legitimacy of idolatrous religions, such as Buddhism.

 

The recommendation was put forward by MP Muhammad Al-Quweiha's. In his recommendation, Al- Quweiha's wrote that the Saudi Foreign Ministry should cooperate with the Arab and Islamic bloc in the United Nations to adopt the agreement.

 

"The concept of religions varies from one country to the other and from one culture to the other. Buddhism and Bahaism are considered religions in some countries, but must Muslims respect these sects and not condemn them," said MP Khalil Al-Khalil, who rejected the recommendation.

Yes, must the Saudis? That seems to be asking too much.

Halabja Anniversary - A Few Days Late

Two decades since the gassing en masse of civilians as part of the Anfal campaign, a date commemorated this weekend, prompted the following thought from an anonymous reader of Kurdish Media:

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Saddam's gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, which killed over 5,000 innocent people and left thousands injured, some of whom are today still suffering from a the deadly strike. The attack on Halabja is only the most famous of many carefully planned attacks on Kurdish people which were part of the Anfal campaign, an attempt by Saddam Hussein to eliminate the already oppressed Kurdish people of Iraq. An unknown number, many tens of thousands, were murdered, some of whom simply disappeared without a trace.

The world was silent. Most remained unaware while some knew but chose to keep quiet. It was only 20 years ago, yet today too many people wonder why the Kurdish nation is suspicious of its neighbors in these uncertain times. Meanwhile, the city of Halabja remains underdeveloped, forgotten by the outside world and too often used as a symbol by opportunists who have no interest in aiding its people.

Please take a moment to remember and pray for the victims Halabja and the Anfal campaign. It was not so long ago.

Maybe Qatar Shouldn't Be Lobbying to Host the Olympics After All...

...See what it's done for China.

Gulf States Pledge Action on Human Trafficking... Really?

Big words from Gulf States and even Mr. Qaradawi:

A conference in Qatar on human trafficking has urged Arab states to step up the fight against the scourge, seen as widespread in the pro-Western oil-rich Gulf region...

Five of the six GCC member states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- are on a blacklist of countries trafficking in people. GCC countries, which also include the United Arab Emirates, are close allies of the United States.

International human rights groups have also highlighted the problem of human trafficking in the Gulf area, which hosts more than 13 million expatriates, many of them unskilled and low-paid Asian workers vulnerable to abuse.

Three other Arab countries -- Algeria, Sudan and Syria -- are on the list of worst offenders.

Qatar-based Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi told the conference human trafficking was banned under Islam. He slammed companies that bring in "migrant workers, give them a bare minimum of wages and pen them up like sheep" in crammed rooms as living quarters.

It's hard to see these wonderful declarations actually getting put into practice. Societies like Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE are based on population majority of migrant workers, many of them low-paid (if at all) domestic help. Oil revenues may be up, but not enough to stop the temptation of abusing legions of employees who have no legal recourse or civil rights...

Friday Foto: Tlemcen Cascades

Small Breakthrough: Catholic Church to Open in Qatar

Interesting news out of Qatar:

The consecration of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, planned for Saturday, appears to be a sign of Qatar's efforts to open up to the West as it seeks a bid for the Olympic Games in 2016.

Qatar's ruler has also approved five churches for other Christian denominations, all under construction next to the Catholic one.

Attracted by a booming oil economy, expatriate workers make up at least 70 percent of Qatar's population of about 1 million.

Some 150,000 Christians of all denominations live here, over 90 percent of them Catholic expatriate workers from the Philippines and other Asian nations, Christian community representatives said.

Qatar follows the rigorous Wahhabi teachings of Sunni Islam, and like neighboring Saudi Arabia had not previously authorized Christians to practice their faith openly.

But a priest had operated in Qatar since the 1960s without official approval, said Archbishop Paul Hinder, the Apostolic Vicar of Arabia and the top Roman Catholic cleric in the region.

"Catholics in Doha finally have their home where they can gather in freedom and security," Hinder said by telephone from his base in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, personally donated the land to build the $15 million church with 2,700 seats in the outskirts of the capital, Doha, church officials said.

Out of respect for local sensitivities, the church will not feature any religious symbols — neither a cross or a bell tower — that would identify the building as a place of Christian worship...

There are seven Catholic churches in the United Arab Emirates, four in Oman and three in Kuwait. Yemen has three belonging to indigenous Christians and four unofficial Catholic parishes around the country that meet for prayers in rented houses.

Wajeha Al-Huwaider For Women's Day 2008