Free Republic

Saudi journalist and TV host Nadine Al-Budair recently criticized the “hypocrites” who say that the terrorists “do not represent Islam or the Muslims.” After the abominable Brussels bombings, it’s time for us to feel shame and to stop acting as if the terrorists are a rarity,” she said, in an address that aired on the Saudi Rotana Khalijiyah TV on April 3, 2016. “Why do we shed our own conscience?” Nadine Al-Budair asked. “Don’t these perpetrators emerge from our environment?”

The Hypocrisy of PayPal By Julio Severo PayPal has vowed to discontinue the expansion of its services in North Carolina after its governor passed a law to protect women and children against homosexual predators by not allowing biological men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms. In answer to the PayPal boycott, on Facebook Franklin Graham, son of the legendary evangelist Billy Graham, said, “PayPal gets the hypocrite of the year award!… PayPal operates in countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Yemen for Pete’s sake. Just last month PayPal announced they would be expanding in Cuba, a country in which...

Global military spending reached almost $1.7 trillion in 2015, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time since 2011, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms expenditure around the world. The United States remained far and away the top spender, which despite a dip from 2014, accounted for more than a third of total global spending. It was followed by China and then, perhaps surprisingly, Saudi Arabia, which supplanted Russia in third place.

Amnesty International reports that there was a dramatic 54 percent increase in executions globally in 2015, with Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia responsible for nearly 90 percent of the killings. The human rights organization said that the figure of at least 1,634 people executed last year — up from 1,061 in 2014 — does not include executions in China where data on the death penalty is considered a state secret. […] According to the report, the number of executions recorded in Saudi Arabia increased by 76 percent to 158. Executions in Iran rose 31 percent to 977. and the 326...

Abstract This article demonstrates that an Arab war against the United NationsÂ’ decision in favor of the partition of Mandatory Palestine was not inevitable. It deals with the after-effects of Nazi anti-Zionist propaganda in the Arab world and the antisemitic campaign of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin el-Husseini, who was supported by the Muslim Brotherhood.Even though the Arab world rejected the Partition Plan, there was at the same time a general reluctance to go to war, not only among the Arabs in Palestine but also among the governments of major Arab League states such as Egypt. It was...

The Financial Repression Authority has consistently shown that Regulatory changes which “Ring Fence” US investors choices is a cornerstone of the Macro-Prudential Policy of “Financial Repression”. Through stealth programs like FATCA and PFIC the US government has steadily and quietly limited Americans ability to take cash out of the country and to invest abroad, other than through profitable public exchange traded products sold by the financial industry. However, it is one thing to shut the doors to American investing abroad but it is quite another to fully open the doors to foreigners! It begs the question why, why now and...

If, since 9/11, you've begun to think that all American politicians are corrupt, that our national anger was deliberately misdirected to places where it could be expended with absolutely no result, and that our military has been exhausted in a series of pointless, unwinnable wars against third-rate Islamic nations... you're absolutely correct. Everywhere you look, from George W. Bush holding hands with various members of the Saudi "royal" family on down, the real enemy of civilization wraps its tentacles more tightly around us. Case in point: the sham GOP candidate, widely despised former Naval officer and second-most-loathed man in the...

I see the Saudi government is planning to amp up the penalty for homosexual behavior after it observed an increase in “perverts” displaying “sins and obscenities” on social media in the otherwise Sunni Kingdom. In a land where “acting gay” is already illegal, the current punishments for first-time offenders - fines, prison terms and whippings - have proved to be inadequate deterrents.  From now on they will be executed. UK Express — Saudi law makers could impose the death penalty on gay people who show their sexuality in public and on social media, according to reports. And don’t even think...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: North Carolina has become Ground Zero in the latest iteration of the culture war, and it's absolutely absurd. We have a conservative governor in Georgia, Nathan Deal, who literally caved to the threat of economic pressure brought about by American corporate interests. The same kind of thing is happening in North Carolina where special considerations for one half of 1% of the population seem to be dominating the structuring passage of laws today, and it's all about lesbians and gays and bisexuals and transgenders and who wants to use what bathroom on a particular day of the...

The Middle Eastern kingdom needs hay for its 170,000 cows. So, it's buying up farmland for the water-chugging crop in the drought-stricken American Southwest.Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company will soon be unable to farm alfalfa in its own parched country to feed its 170,000 cows. So it's turning to an unlikely place to grow the water-chugging crop — the drought-stricken American Southwest. Almarai Co. bought land in January that roughly doubled its holdings in California's Palo Verde Valley, an area that enjoys first dibs on water from the Colorado River. The company also acquired a large tract near Vicksburg, Arizona,...

SAUDI law makers could impose the death penalty on gay people who show their sexuality in public and on social media, according to reports. The government in the Sunni Kingdom is reportedly demanding tougher punishments on those found guilty and claimed social media has caused a boom in homosexuality. According to Okaz newspaper, the last six months has seen 35 cases of homosexuality and 50 cases of cross-dressers as well as cases of "sexual perversion” in Saudi Arabia. The judiciary reportedly also claimed there has been a large rise in "perverts" displaying "sins and obscenities" on social media in the...

DOHA, Qatar (Christian Examiner) – A female Arab journalist who lives in Qatar has penned a bold article that asks Muslims in the Middle East how they would respond if Christian suicide bombers struck their public markets, collapsed their tall buildings or tried to force Muslims to convert to Christianity. Liberal Saudi journalist Nadine Al-Budair writes in Kuwait's Al-Rai newspaper that Arab countries have refused to address the problem of terrorism and have yet to create a climate that matches the liberal, humanitarian climate of the West. She asked Muslims to consider what their world would be like if Christians...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump told the New York Times he would consider stopping U.S. oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless the Saudi government provide troops to fight Islamic State. Trump’s comment on Friday was included in a lengthy foreign policy interview published by the newspaper on Saturday and came in response to a question about whether, if elected president, he would halt oil purchases from U.S. allies unless they provided on-the-ground forces against Islamic State. “The answer is, probably yes,” Trump said, according to a transcript. Trump has said the United States should be reimbursed by the countries it...

A coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia is fighting alongside al-Qaeda militants against Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to a report. A BBC documentary crew has filmed jihadists and pro-government militiamen fighting rebels near the southern city of Taiz, supported by UAE soldiers (bold emphasis mine)

Plans by Russia to pullout forces from Syria delivered a strong message to Bashar Assad, who recently took a major hardline position. Moscow announced an end of its military intervention in Syria as a success story from its own point of view, not Assad's. This, and other important factors, have accelerated peace efforts in Geneva, posing Assad as the "persona non grata", even for Russia. Not In It For The Long Run Undeniable is the fact that Russia, along with Iran's proxies, helped relieve Assad of definite overthrow at the hands of Syrian opposition forces closing in fast. Russian...

Obama became annoyed... President Obama’s favorite journalist Jeffrey Goldberg made headlines in Israel when The Atlantic published his latest article about the President. In his lengthy piece titled “The Obama Doctrine,” Goldberg gave an overview of Obama’s foreign policy and discussed the President’s disillusionment with the attempts to change the Middle East for the better. Yes, Obama really thought that his policies in this problematic region would bring a positive change when he entered the White House at the beginning of 2008. “This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East,”...

Five bodies hang from a pole suspended between two cranes, a public display which serves as a reminder to those who might contemplate a life of crime. They belonged to a gang of five robbers, all of whom were publicly beheaded before their corpses were hoisted high in the air, where they remained for days. The gruesome sight is one scene in a shocking documentary to be aired this week which sheds light on life in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s bloodiest and most secretive countries. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3502079/Saudi-Arabia-s-kingdom-savagery-DOES-Britain-cosy-butchers.html#ixzz43V8fu0Xn Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

HOUSTON: Saudi Arabia's national oil company wants to buy more US refining and chemical plants to expand its footprint in the world's largest energy market once the break-up of its joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell Plc is complete, sources said. Ending an often rocky nearly 20-year relationship, Shell and Saudi Aramco announced on Wednesday plans to break up Motiva Enterprises LLC after almost two decades, dividing its assets and leaving Aramco with one plant, the nation's largest crude oil refinery, in Port Arthur, Texas. Officials from Saudi Refining, the downstream arm of Aramco, told employees following the announcement that...

Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco appear to be getting a divorce, breaking up their joint venture in U.S.-based refining assets. The two companies joined together to create Motiva Enterprises LLC in 1998, a 50-50 joint venture that operated three refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. But Shell and Saudi Aramco have seen their interests head in different directions. "It is now time for the partners to pursue their independent downstream goals," said Abdulrahman Al-Wuhaib, a senior vice president of Saudi Aramco’s downstream unit. Reuters reported that the relationship started to fray after Motiva announced a $10 billion expansion of...