Free Republic

The Hajj each year brings untold suffering for the poor Muslim families in the poor Muslim states. My country, Bangladesh, home to 170 million, was once known internationally as the poorest country in the world. It is still a poor country. In recent years, hunger has been reduced from famine-like to "just" a hand to mouth condition in this densely populated tiny land. This minute change came about mainly from the ready-made garments, or textile, sector in which four million girls, aged twelve and up, work exhaustedly ten hours a day. Every single dollar that comes into Bangladesh represents an...

A "scientific" report published in Saudi Arabia has claimed that lifting the ban on women drivers would result in "no more virgins". The report also warned that such a move would also make more Saudis, both men and women, turn to homosexuality and pornography. The study also predicted a surge in prostitution and divorce. Such startling conclusions were drawn by Muslim scholars at the Majlis al-Ifta' al-A'ala, Saudi Arabia's highest religious council, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University, according to the Daily Mail. The study was made to assess the possible impact...

Textbooks used in Saudi Arabia’s schools contain virulent forms of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish bigotry that continue to fuel intolerance and violence around the globe, says a new report. The problem is far greater than the five million students in Saudi Arabia who use these texts every day, said Nina Shea, director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. “Because of the Saudis’ great oil wealth, it is able to disseminate its textbooks far and wide,” she wrote in the report, Ten Years On. “[These textbooks] are posted on the Saudi Education Ministry’s website and are shipped and distributed...

Saudi Arabia has welcomed the recent establishment of a United Nations Center for Counter-Terrorism & provided $10 million to cover the center's costs for the 1st three years. The project is a result of the International Conference on Combating Terrorism held in Riyadh in 2005 and attended by around 60 countries and international bodies, which recommended expanding global efforts and cooperation to counter terrorism.

Saudi Arabia -- sorry, "The Kingdom" -- is going ballistic over a 30-second commercial currently airing on Fox Business Network. Does Prince Talal know? With thanks to Kathy Shaidle: NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- EthicalOil.org fights Saudi "lawfare" by expanding campaign's reach EthicalOil.org, a grassroots advocacy organization that educates consumers about the choice between ethical oil from Canada's oil sands and conflict oil from some of the world's most repressive regimes, is now airing a television ad in the United States that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is actively trying to block in Canada. The 30...

ISLAMABAD — Text books in Pakistani schools foster prejudice and intolerance of Hindus and other religious minorities, while most teachers view non-Muslims as “enemies of Islam,” according to a study by a U.S. government commission released Wednesday. The findings indicate how deeply ingrained hardline Islam is in Pakistan and help explain why militancy is often supported, tolerated or excused in the country.

Khaled's offer comes days after the prominent Saudi cleric, Awad al-Qarni, put $100,000 on the head of every Israeli soldier. RIYADH - A Saudi royal offered a $900,000 reward to anyone who captures an Israeli soldier, on Saturday. Prince Khaled bin Talal, the brother of business tycoon and Fox News co-owner Walid bin Talal, told the Saudi-based broadcaster Al Daleel that the captive would then be released in exchange for Arabs held in Israeli prisons. Khaled's offer comes days after the prominent Saudi cleric, Awad al-Qarni, put $100,000 on the head of every Israeli soldier.

Last Friday in my article “Obama, Alwaleed, and the Ambush of Israel, America and Western Civilization” published on these pages, my readers got some flavor of the complex cultural differences between “them” and us. This time we will dive in the world of “make believe” that in our society mostly belongs to our children, but in the Muslim world, it’s an adult deformation of wishful thinking. To make the picture whole, it is a “make believe” completely compatible and convenient to the agenda of corrupted politicians and businessmen in the West. Muslim society at large is good at giving the...

Women are to be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia. K ing Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the change yesterday and also said women would be allowed to run in elections. However, the new law will not come into force until 2015. In a speech, the king said the move was in accordance with sharia law.

A non-profit group has managed to enrage an entire kingdom, put an army of lawyers to work, and make the front page of newspapers across Canada. All thanks to a television ad which states facts, and posits a choice between one product produced “ethically” and the other “unethically”. The ethical product is Canadian oil sands crude, while the unethical stuff flows from the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. As the ad points out, Saudi doesn’t allow women to drive, leave their homes without a male guardian present, and values their court testimony at half that of a man. As a...

MADRID – Spain has reopened a probe into allegations that a Saudi prince who is one of the world's richest people raped a Spanish woman on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza in 2008. A court order dating back to May and obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press says a sexual assault by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is alleged to have occurred in Aug. 2008 on a yacht moored in Ibiza. An investigating magistrate halted her probe on it last year on grounds of insufficient evidence. But the higher, provincial court in Palma on the island of Mallorca accepted an appeal...

Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor Monday called on the House Intelligence Committee to investigate why the FBI did not disclose to Congress information it learned about a Saudi couple living in southwest Florida with ties to the 9/11 hijackers. The Saudis came to the FBI’s attention after neighbors reported they’d suddenly fled their home near Sarasota two weeks before the 2001 terrorist attacks. “One of the great criticisms of the pre-9/11 intelligence operations,” Castor wrote in her letter to the committee’s two senior members, “was the lack of cooperation and information sharing among agencies.” Castor’s district includes Sarasota. “I encourage you...

When al Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11, the response was swift. Saudi Arabia, home of the Wahhabi ideology that inspired 15 of the 19 hijackers, reacted somewhat more slowly. Obama saudi arabia At the time, American critics rightfully lashed out at the House of Saud for its track record of funding anti-Western hatred through state funded mosques and education institutions around the world. Washington subsequently pressured the Saudis to help drain al Qaeda of its funds, and though the process has yielded some successes, we’re not yet out of the woods. The Saudis produce, thanks to proceeds...

Saudi Arabia has warned of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East if Iran comes close to approaching nuclear weapons. Prince Turki Al Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, warned senior NATO military officials that the existence of such a device "would compel Saudi Arabia to pursue policies which could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences." While Faisal did not explicitly say what these policies would be a senior official in Riyadh close to the prince said the message is clear. "We cannot live in a situation where Iran has nuclear weapons and we...

I've been a Clinton Kremlinologist for years, and although there are many armor-plated guardians of Clinton's inner circle, Huma Abedin has been the toughest to crack. No exaggeration: with Clinton heading to State, Abedin is going to be a major force in American diplomacy for the next several years. -snip- She is also a Muslim who speaks fluent Arabic --her mother runs a university in Saudi Arabia -- and brings that perspective on a complex part of the world to HRC's sphere. it's not uncommon to see Huma on Bill Clinton's important trips to the region, because he too values...

This confrontation is particularly acute in Dagestan. Here, Salafis, who believe in a return to the teachings of early leaders of the Muslim faith, face off against Sufis, who are supported by the official Spiritual Board of Muslims. There is intolerance on both sides. In Makhachkala, the Dagestani capital, a Salafi woman dressed in a hijab and floor-length tunic showed me a recording on her cell phone of Sheikh Said-Afandi, one of the republic's most revered Sufi leaders. "Disgusting," she said, as she watched scores of the sheikh's murids (followers) lining up to kiss his hands. "No man should make...

As a longtime News Corp.-watcher, Prince-Talal-watcher, Talal-News-Corp-watcher, I'm not saying, I'm just saying: Wednesday, March 30, 2011: James Murdoch, youngest son of Rupert Murdoch, "cemented his position as his father's eventual heir to run the entertainment conglomerate when he was elevated this week to the No. 3 position in the company's executive ranks." To help things set better, he's moving from London to New York. April 4, 2011: Bill O'Reilly says Pastor Terry Jones "has blood on his hands" after Jones burns a copy of the Koran in Florida and Muslims in Afghanistan murder people. April 4, 2011: To discuss...

A declassified memo discovered by lawyer Jesse Trentadue, whose brother died in the Oklahoma City bombing, has revealed that, in the 90s, the FBI had considered a top ABC News journalist a potential informant in the wake of the bombing The unnamed journalist is described as having been cooperative in helping the FBI determine the confidential source of a tip sent in to the network. According to the document, the journalist, who maintained consistent contact with the FBI between 1995 and 1996, told the FBI that the source was someone working within the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Service who had revealed...

The Arab revolt underway in Egypt may be unique. Previous popular uprisings were underwritten by anti-colonial sentiments. Contemporary revolts, (including unrest in Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen, and Jordan) target nationalist or secular governments. The wealthiest Arab states, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, have been financing the ideological struggle against Arab secularism through surrogates like the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood (al Ikwan) for decades. Now the most populous state in the Arab League, Egypt, may fall to the Brotherhood like a ripe pomegranate. A brief history of previous Arab revolts offers some perspective. The corrupt Ottoman caliphate in Istanbul was the target for...

While the biggest threat to the Middle East region is the possibility that the population of Saudi Arabia may try to imitate what has been happening in the area, thereby bringing total chaos to the established regional geopolitical and more importantly, energy, structure, the first protests in the Saudi Arabia city of Jeddah are already in the books. The clip below shows the peaceful demonstrations that have taken place recently, which as Fedupmontrealer explains are “taking place in front of the Municipality in protest of the severe lack of infrastructure, and corruption, that led the city to be inundated this...