Trying to lift the veil on Qatar

BBC ^ | 4 April 2009 12:11 UK 11:11 GMT, Saturday, 4 April 2009 12:11 UK | BBC Staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This week Qatar hosted the annual Arab Summit in its capital Doha. It was dubbed the reconciliation summit after months of serious rifts in the Arab World. The tiny country had put the noses of some of the big players out of joint by trying to adopt the role of regional mediator, traditionally played by heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Our Middle East correspondent Katya Adler reported on the summit and set out to find out more about Qatar, one of the region's richest nations.

[Islaminaction]

Yea OK, the Islamic world is not changing for the better and they will always fight amongst themselves.

[Vaquero]

while my Qatar gently weeps.

[bert]

......They get us to do all their hard work for them,” a Palestinian called Mazan Barakat told me.....

It is noteworthy that the Saudis do not allow Palestinians in the Kingdom to live and work

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Guess they are not submissive enough.

[bert]

No, the Palis are lower than the low and scum is just not allowed

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

The Islamists' Nemesis

And

GEERT WILDERS at Chapman University, Orange, Ca. Saturday

And

Twenty-Year Plan: Islam Targets America

[Islaminaction]

There is little point to fighting them over there and then letting them set up shop over here. Our govt does not get it at all.

[2banana]

"Never," Mazan told me. "In two decades here I have never met the wives or children of my Qatari colleagues. Foreigners don't, can't rent properties in Qatari compounds. However long I live here, I can't get Qatari citizenship."

Compare/contrast to illegals in "oppressed" America

[Islaminaction]

While they go too far, we are the suckers of the world. We allow everyone to walk all over us.

[G8 Diplomat]

A unified Islamic world? There’s a fairy tale for you. They’ve been fighting each other since Islam began. There are so many divisions; Sunni, Shi’a, Sufi, and all the sects within them; Arab, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, etc. If they didn’t have the Jews to hate to provide common interest, they would collapse under their own infighting. Even at the summit they were fighting. Qadafi and King Abdullah (Saudi, not Jordan) exchanged insults with one another.

[wideminded]

It is noteworthy that the Saudis do not allow Palestinians in the Kingdom to live and work

I hadn't heard about this so I tried to look into it. According to Wikipedia there are 240000 Palestinian "refugees" living in Saudi Arabia as of 2005. I found some other estimates online that as many as 500000 Palestinians live in Saudi Arabia.

But they can't become citizens. Apparently most Arab countries feel that granting citizenship to Palestinians would offer too much recognition to Israel. Palestinians were excepted from a new Saudi law that does provide a path to citizenship for other long-term residents.

[forkinsocket]

There are at the very least 100,000 Palestinians living & working in Saudi Arabia. They have the same restrictions on them as the rest of the Arab non-citizens living there & were only singled out in the aftermath of the Gulf War. It is nothing like the discrimination against Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan, & Egypt. Many of them were allowed to attend the free Saudi universities, which is not allowed. Few other non-citizens will ever be given this privilege. The Saudis who don’t like them do so usually because Palestinians are smarter than the average Saudi & are known for clever scams. The Saudis who like them do so usually out of the sense that Palestinians are “real men” who fight the Jews as opposed to the spoiled, lazy Saudis.

Please don’t give automatic credence to every Palestinian whine.