Saudi male breastfeeding saga continues 14, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Islam, Saudi Arabia.Tags: Breastfeeding, Crazy fatwa, Egyptian breastfeeding fatwa, Islam fatwa, Saudi breastfeeding, Saudi breastfeeding fatwa, Silly fatwa
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No, the title is not one long typo. It is instead an end product of institutionalized literalism at the expense of analysis, reason and education that one finds in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Several months ago, a Saudi cleric, Sheikh Al Obeikan, was discussing a fatwa from an Egyptian ‘scholar’ studying at the Arab world’s best and most revered University, the Al Azhar, which decreed that men who regularly come into contact with women who are not close/blood relations ought to drink some of their breast milk to make the situation less ‘haram‘/wrong.
Al Obeikah, who is an adviser to the royal court and a consultant (!) to the Ministry of Justice, agreed with the Egyptian fatwa. However, in the interest of good taste and decency he did say that men did not need to suckle directly at the breast of the woman and that it was perfectly legitimate for the woman to give the man a cup of her breast milk to drink: quite the 21st century man.
All men that lived in the same house as a woman or those that regularly ‘come into contact with a woman’ must drink her juice, he decreed. But not male drivers who are, for some reason or other (no doubt a wholly racist one), exempt from mandatory breast milk imbibition: another form of discrimination for them to cope with.
However, aghast at the barbarism and modern thinking of the reckless Al Obeikan, Abi Isaq Al Huwaini decreed that such men must literally suckle at the breast directly. This prompted a thirsty pervert of a bus driver in Saudi Arabia to demand a suck, so to speak, off a regular female passenger.
Hat tip: MT
The two videos of Iran’s missing nuclear scientist 11, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations, Iran.Tags: Iran nuclear scientist defects, Iran nulcear scientist video, Nuclear scientist abducted, Shahram Amiri videos, Sharham Amiri
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Contesting videos have emerged of the Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared when on the Haj to Mecca. Initially it was believed that the CIA had abducted Shahram Amiri yet it soon transpired that it was actually a long-planned defection to America. Iran has, however, always maintained that the scientist was taken unwillingly.
Recently a video purported to be of Amiri found its way onto the internet where he said that he had been captured against his will, tortured and that he was being held in Arizona, U.S.
The authenticity of this video has not been established. One must wonder, however, how an Iranian Nuclear scientist kidnapped and transported several thousand miles, tortured for information and held against his will managed to obtain unfettered access to a PC with a webcam and an internet link. This seems to be wholly implausible to me. Moreover, surely Amiri, even if he came to America willingly, would never be allowed unfettered access to the internet?
Not long after this video was released another one, again purporting to be by Shahram Amiri, was posted on the internet.
This shows the former Iranian nuclear scientist declaring that he is in America studying and is not a spy.
My tentative conclusion is that the first video is a disinformation attempt by Iran to mask their embarrassment.
Salacious burka advert 10, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Random.Tags: Burka advert, Controversial Muslim advert, Liaison dangereuse, Liaison dangereuse advert, Sexiness is for everyone
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The following video is, as they say, well salacious. For those of you of a weak or religious constitution, save yourself the heartache and don’t watch it.
Qatar mediate peace deal with Djibouti and Eritrea 10, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Horn of Africa, Qatar.Tags: Eritrea Djibouti border dispute, Qatar, Qatar mediate border dispute, Qatar mediation Eritrea, Qatari mediation
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Qatar, the Middle East’s mediator in chief of recent years, has mediated a peace between Djibouti and Eritrea. Their conflict was a long-running border issue which prompted clashes in 1996, 1999 and 2008. Under Qatar’s leadership, the Emir, Hamad Al Thani, will head up a committee to appoint an international firm to delineate the border. Both sides have agreed to abide by the results.
Eritrean troops have withdrawn from the areas that they had previously controlled in Djibouti. They have been replaced by 20 (twenty) Qatari soldiers. (Hmmm)
This is the latest success for Qatari mediation. In Lebanon and Darfur in recent years Qatar achieved agreements where countless actors had failed. They are, however, not always successful. In Yemen in 2007 a Qatari arranged cease fire only for it to break down some months later.
I’m personally very interested in these meditations. Specifically, I want to know how Qatar does it. I don’t really think that the Emir and the Foreign Minister are involved in the ‘nitty gritty’ but then again, their Foreign Ministry is so small that there are precious few others to do the work. I think that there are some specific Qatari-Eritrean relations at play. The history between Qatar (if not the Gulf) and the Horn of Africa is complex, but – essentially – there has been a significant amount of emigration from the former to the latter in the past half a century or so. Alas, (as you can tell) I don’t know too much about it. Inshallah, I’ll find out. If anyone as some specific ideas or can recommend some books etc, please let me know.
Masdar to build world’s largest solar plant 9, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in The Emirates.add a comment
Masdar city, Abu Dhabi’s carbon neutral pet project, is to build the world’s largest “single-site” solar power plant. It will cost some $600 million. That seems quite cheap to me. The contract has been split between a Spanish and a French company.
Catholics doing what they’re best at 9, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Random.Tags: Catholic church, Catholic priest, Priest picture, Vermony Cathoic picture
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If it needed to be proven that I have a healthy disdain for all religions…
Hat tip: Barry Glendenning
Qatar: woman jailed for 7 years for dropping/throwing Quran 9, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Qatar.Tags: 7 years for throwing quran, Jailed for throwing a quran, Qatar judicial system, Quran, Throwing a quran
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In an absurd judicial decision usually the preserve of Emirati and Saudi courts an Irish woman has been jailed for 7 (seven) years by a Qatari court for dropping/throwing a Quran.
Last September she entered the Mosque at Doha International Airport, picked up a Quran and either dropped it or threw it, depending on who you believe. Whilst there is, of course, no way that she will actually serve seven years in prison, it still makes an utter mockery of the Qatari judicial system that someone can be jailed for such a ‘crime’. Truly I can’t express the utter derision (and anger) that I feel at reading this story. Indeed, it’s perhaps best to stop writing here lest I get accused of some pathetically absurd crime or other.
RAK: a rentier coup in a rentier state 8, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in The Emirates.Tags: Emirates coup, RAK coup, Ras al Khaimah coup, Rentier coup, Rentier state
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Gone are the days when a son embraced his father only to – et tu Brute? style – jab him with a knife and assume the throne. In 1995 the Qatari Emir just waited until his father was on his holidays (not very long judging by the amount of time he was out the country) and assumed the throne. Not very eventful, not very interesting, not much blood; perhaps Middle Eastern coups were beginning to lose some of the panache of the past.
From this sublime example we go to the more ridiculous modern-day coup currently occurring in Ras Al Khaimah. In the past when Brits have been involved in such coups, they had invariably been ex-SAS types. Hired and exceptionally well-trained guns to take out the Presidential guard and put their paymaster on the throne (if they didn’t get caught at the airport, that is). Yet today it seems that the British connection is a slightly portly lawyer from Farnham in (perfectly legal) cahoots with a high-end PR form from Washington D.C. How times have changed, yet how utterly unsurprising; they can’t even be bothered to get their hands dirty offing the rival: the rentier coup for the rentier state.
Seven years ago Shiekh Khalid bin Saqr Al Qasimi was ousted from power in Ras Al Khaimah, the northern most Emirati state, with little more than a shove and limited use of a water cannon. Khalid went into exile in Oman and London and plotted corporate revenge.
For his $15000 per week, his PR agency – California Strategies – put together a whole media 2.0 package to Facebook him back into power. A swanky website and twitter feed was the beginning. Now, after photos and support from one or perhaps both Clintons and assorted concerted lobbying, Khalid is on the verge of returning to power, with the Emirate’s President seemingly about to do a spot of deposing and reimposing.
The back story to this stems from RAK’s geographical location. At the very northernmost tip of the Emirates it is closest to Iran and the Straits of Hormuz and devoid, just about, of oil and gas. This is the basis for wild claims put forth by the PR agency that RAK is little more than – you guessed it – a haven for Al Qaeda and for Iran to do its best sanctions busting. I confess that I am no expert on this particular topic, but I think that we can safely take everything spouted forth by the PR agency with, as they say, a pinch of salt. It’s not like, after all, Iranian relations are a strange thing for the Emirates: Dubai is at times little more than a glitzy Iranian spur-city. There are persistent rumours, spread by the PR agency, I’d have thought, that RAK was involved somehow in a plot to blow up the Burj Dubai Khalifah and attack the America’s cup team. Whilst I thought that the former was the work of people from Ajman, I could be wrong.
Amidst the spin, non-existant Emirati investagative reporting and wholesale media crackdown on these stories, I genuinely do not know the extent of the truth in these charges. Do let me know if you do. I’d have thought that there is, as I said, naturally a fair bit of Iran trade in RAK. As for the terrorist bit…who knows?
The unusually thorough report from the Guardian also includes the great nucta that some of the PR staff were on a $250,000 ‘get me back on the throne’ bonus.
Emirates orders $11.5 billion worth of Airbus A380s 8, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in The Emirates.Tags: A380 orders, A380 picture, Air France, Airbus A380, Boeing 777, Emirates A380, Emirates A380 orders, Emirates airlines, Lufthansa, Quantas
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Emirates, the largest Middle Eastern airline has announced that it has ordered 32 more A380 superjumbos from European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The deal is expected to be worth up to $11.5 billion. As the WSJ notes, this will take the Emirates orders up to 90 of the behemoth aircraft.
In May this year Emirates, in stark and no doubt bitter contrast to struggling European and American airlines, posted profits of nearly a billion dollars, a fivefold increase on the previous year’s.
The scale of the continuing orders, of Emirates’ profits and of their manifest desire for growth is remarkable and must cause Qatar Airways and Etihad (not to mention European carriers) sleepless nights.
Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Air France operate the A380.
The WSJ further points out that Emirates has a total of 146 aircraft on order worth some $48 billion and
By 2011, it will operate a fleet of 150 aircraft, including seven additional A380s and one Boeing 777.
Perhaps they’ll name that Boeing 777 ‘token’.
For more on Middle Eastern aviation have a look at this and this.
Gulf News’ unadulterated anti-semitism 7, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Media in the ME, Middle East.Tags: Anti semitism, Anti semitism picture, Arab press, Gulf News anti semitism
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The Gulf News out does itself in this example of egregiously anti-Semitic sentiment. As if to try to out perform the host of atrocious newspapers across the Middle East, the Gulf News, a hopelessly bland, emasculated and talentless newspaper, really pulls out all the stops with this classic. Yet another triumph for Arab newspapers.
I think and have said that on this occasion – as many before – Israel was mostly, if not vastly, in the wrong. Yet this kind of pathetic demonization of one side is just really so unhelpful. I truly hate this kind of populist (or purportedly populist) pandering of newspapers to the very lowest common denominator in society. The absolute definition of the gutter press.
